Reporter | Qinyi Editor| Jiang Yuyue
"New energy vehicles play a more supporting role in the logistics industry, forming the characteristics of multi-dimensional and horizontal connections." At the 2017 Shanghai G7 Partner Conference, a female speaker spoke about her new thinking on the smart logistics industry.
The post-70s female entrepreneur who pays attention to new energy capacity services shared a new business opportunity: new energy vehicles and smart logistics have a natural connection point and will become an emerging force in urban distribution.
This is the initial stage of artificial intelligence technology and the commercial landing of new energy vehicles, and she has already preemptively registered the track.
In 2015, a digital operation platform focusing on new energy logistics vehicles " Terrestrial" was established to provide environmentally friendly and efficient capacity services for major express logistics and urban distribution. The founder is the aforementioned female entrepreneur Zhang Haiying, who earlier had been in the new energy battery industry for nearly a decade.
After nearly 7 years of development, the aboveground railway has gradually "woven" a commercial ecological network connecting upstream third-party partners and downstream users, and reactivated the value chain connected by new energy tools at the end of urban logistics.
"A logistics vehicle is essentially a productivity tool, and usage and ownership can be diversified. Through digital and sophisticated operations, efficiency is further improved. This is what the aboveground iron is doing and its value. Kang Pinglu, senior vice president of TERT, told 21CBR.
01
Logistics vehicles are newly renewed
When she founded Terrestrial Railway, Zhang Haiying, who has been working hard in the field of new energy for many years, happened to stand at the key node of the barbaric growth of many industries.
At that time, the rise of online shopping directly led to the vigorous development of the logistics industry. At the same time, the new energy logistics vehicle market receives market demand and policy dividends that are constantly released.
For example, between 2018 and 2020, the state issued a multi-sectoral document requiring the logistics industry to actively introduce new energy vehicles to solve the "last mile" problem of the logistics industry. Some institutions predict that in the next few years, the proportion of new energy logistics vehicles in the field of urban distribution will exceed 80%.
Some areas have also introduced detailed policy provisions, such as unlimited new energy logistics vehicles, and free parking at some parking spots. As a result, urban logistics and distribution are gradually new energy.
Talking about the original intention of entering the new energy logistics track, Zhang Haiying believes that "the new energy commercial vehicle itself is suitable for high-frequency and short-distance transportation scenarios, and urban distribution logistics is a good application." This did not change the penetration rate of new energy vehicles faced by TERG at the beginning of its business.
The founder of the aboveground iron is Zhang Haiying
"Evangelism" is a long process. Zhang Haiying recalled that in the first two years of crossing the river by feeling the stones, the cooperation that broke the deadlock at the beginning came from a leading express delivery industry.
"When cooperating, we replaced the fuel vehicle with a new energy logistics vehicle at the customer's terminal distribution point, and provided supporting services such as vehicle management, charging, insurance, maintenance, rescue, replacement vehicle, etc. Under the premise that the overall cost of use of the customer is not higher than that of the fuel vehicle, the vehicle use efficiency is increased by about 30-50%, and the overall use cost of the new energy logistics vehicle is reduced by about 20-25%." Zhang Haiying said.
After harvesting the reputation of users, the market promotion of terrestrial iron has also come to fruition.
After 2017, the scale of customers and business operations of TSTI has been expanding, the access of new energy logistics vehicles has gradually increased from the initial dozens to hundreds and thousands, and the cooperation objects have also expanded from the SF Shenzhen area to the nationwide cooperation of more than ten express delivery giants such as JD.com, Debon, Leapfrog and Baishi.
So far, the above-ground railway platform has operated more than 40,000 vehicles, covering more than 100 cities, serving more than 100,000 driver users, serving more than 2,500 corporate customers, and the network effect of new energy vehicles in urban distribution applications has emerged.
02
Capacity leasing and sharing
In the face of the urban demand for new energy logistics vehicles, TSTI has created a business model of capacity leasing, and the core wins with operational efficiency.
Focusing on the improvement of transportation capacity, TGS not only provides one-stop new energy logistics vehicle leasing (long-term rental, short-term rental and time-sharing leasing) for major express logistics and urban distribution enterprises, but also operates related supporting services, such as maintenance of new energy vehicles, vehicle refurbishment and echelon utilization. This is one of the main lines of business of the aboveground railway.
In addition, around the user experience, the terrestrial provides value-added services such as charging and safety assurance, and also provides management tools for vehicles and drivers. This forms the second main line of business of the above-ground railway.
In Kangpinglu's view, the positioning of the terrestrial railway is to do the whole life cycle value service of the vehicle, and the profit model is not to pursue higher profits or gross profits at a single point, but to provide cost-effective services in every link.
"From a morphological point of view, this is different from the Didi model, because the goal of service and the value created are not the same." Kang Pinglu told 21CBR that the starting point of the terrestrial railway is to provide drivers and logistics companies with more advantageous means of transportation, including a complete set of supporting services and management tools, which is not a logistics company or a travel company, but a connector.
This opens up a sufficiently large market space for TERMS in the field of urban distribution logistics.
For example, the freight lala that makes the transportation order can deploy the freight vehicle on the ground iron after the user places the order, and use its charging service point or system deployment tool to complete the moving action.
"Such cooperation can effectively supplement capacity." Further, transport drivers can rent vehicles and don't need to worry about subsequent vehicle maintenance. Kang Pinglu said.
Based on the attributes of the tool, the service network of the above-ground railway is rapidly rolled out. So far, it has more than 25,000 new energy logistics vehicles in different categories such as micro-surface, light passenger, light truck, refrigerated truck, etc., opened 5 fully directly operated regions, and its business scope covers more than 50 first- and second-tier cities such as Shenzhen, Beijing, Shanghai, Guangzhou, Chengdu, etc., and has more than 3,000 charging supporting outlets at self-built and cooperative stations.
How to manage such a huge system?
Kang Pinglu believes that the core lies in the company's open and inclusive cooperation model, and service providers are more willing to access the terrestrial railway and match the market demand in a timely manner.
"They will perform services according to the standards of ground-on-ground iron, take orders and dispatch orders with ground-on-ground iron systems, complete business online operations, and improve operational efficiency." Kang Pinglu said.
03
Open up the "last ten kilometers"
Enterprises in the express delivery, e-commerce, retail and other industries are high-frequency users of urban distribution logistics, and urban distribution service providers shoulder the "last mile" of the above-mentioned enterprise service chain.
Among the partners of Terrestrial, urban distribution logistics customers account for more than 50%, and related enterprises are also the main source of TERM revenue. Financial institutions and key spare parts customers around value-added services provide growth space for subsequent revenue generation.
In fact, the intensive operation mode of terrestrial railways has also promoted the industrial upgrading of different business entities. In the process of logistics giants gradually accelerating the promotion and application of new energy logistics vehicles, a huge above-ground railway new energy city distribution network has been formed.
According to public data, at present, the logistics customers of the terrestrial railway include SF, JD.com, Debon, Lalala, etc., and the new energy vehicles accessed by various enterprises to the platform are as few as 4,000 and as many as nearly 20,000, and the green city with ecology is gradually becoming.
Diversified application scenarios are its future development direction.
In the past two years, the ground railway and the car company jointly customized transport vehicles into normal operation. At present, the mass-produced models have different categories such as micro-noodles, light passengers, light trucks, refrigerated trucks, etc., covering the all-round distribution needs of customers in the express e-commerce, manufacturing, FMCG, home appliances, medicine, clothing, fresh cold chain and other industries.
At the same time as making their own blood, the ground iron gradually landed in more emerging markets, introducing high-quality industrial investors and long-term funds.
For example, in June 2021, TERT and SMRT established a joint venture in Singapore to promote the popularization and application of electric logistics vehicles in Singapore.
"In this way, the export of China's green intensive operation model, according to the local market for localization adaptation and optimization, the bottleneck of new energy city development is also expected to break through with the innovation of the operating model, and truly stand on the cusp." Kang Pinglu said.
From the perspective of growth rate and market size, urban distribution logistics is in a stage of rapid growth.
"At present, the scale of logistics vehicles in China's new energy cities is about 15 million, and the penetration rate is about 4%. As technology and digital infrastructure mature, penetration will reach 30%-40% in the coming years. Kang Pinglu said.
As China's largest digital operation service platform for new energy logistics vehicles, TERG has been favored by capital all the way. Recently, Terrestrial announced the completion of a $200 million Series D financing, which is its tenth financing.
Source of the title image: Courtesy of the interviewee