From concept to reality, a profound change in the logistics industry is quietly taking place.
In recent months, major logistics giants have increased their layout in the field of low-altitude economy. Among them, SF Express launched the world's first unmanned aerial vehicle express logistics product based on the urban low-altitude logistics network built over the years, China Post carried out unmanned aerial vehicle express transportation and distribution in Wuxi, and Zhongtong ordered 30 unmanned aerial vehicles from Fengfei Airlines to further strengthen its unmanned delivery capabilities......
From the strong support of policies, pilot operations in many places to commercial operations, drone technology has gradually penetrated into all aspects of the express delivery industry, whether it is the picking of agricultural products at the source, or factory shipments, to the sorting of transfer stations, the internal management of large warehouses, or long-distance feeder transportation and terminal distribution, a complete unmanned operation chain has been formed. This series of actions indicates that the logistics express market will usher in subversive changes and industrial upgrading.
The low-altitude economy ushered in a policy outlet
Since the beginning of this year, the "low-altitude economy" has been frequently mentioned.
According to statistics, in 2023 alone, core departments such as the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, and the Civil Aviation Administration have issued more than 60 policy documents related to the low-altitude economy, showing that the state attaches great importance to and strongly supports this field.
Entering 2024, policy support will be further increased. The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and other four departments jointly issued the "General Aviation Equipment Innovation and Application Implementation Plan (2024-2030)", which clearly states that by 2030, general aviation equipment will be fully integrated into all fields of people's production and life, becoming a powerful driving force for low-altitude economic growth and forming a trillion-level market scale. Subsequently, the Civil Aviation Administration of China held a special press conference to clearly set the low-altitude economy as the focus of the next stage of work.
At the local level, a low-altitude economic boom has swept the country. Statistics show that from the end of 2023 to the beginning of 2024, more than 20 provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the central government) have made clear statements on the low-altitude economy in their government work reports, highlighting the consensus of various localities on seizing the opportunities for low-altitude economic development. Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Wuhan, Ji'an, Wuhu, Suzhou, Chengdu and other places have introduced relevant plans or supporting policies to actively promote the development of low-altitude economy.
Source: Chinese government website, China Civil Aviation Network, Guohai Securities Research Institute
Among them, Sichuan Province plans to rely on Chengdu, Zigong and other places to expand the UAV industry cluster and lay out the electric vertical take-off and landing aircraft industry; Anhui Province focuses on Hefei and Wuhu, aiming to build a low-altitude economic and industrial highland and broaden the application boundaries of products and services; Guangdong Province focuses on innovating urban air transportation, emergency rescue, logistics and transportation and other application scenarios, building a low-altitude unmanned perception industrial system, and improving the low-altitude flight service support system.
Beijing recently released a three-year action plan for the drone industry, which will take the lead in exploring and practicing innovative services, application scenario expansion, and industrial chain optimization, and revealed that it is accelerating the promotion of scenic logistics scenarios to open up to drones.
According to the latest "Research Report on China's Low-altitude Economic Development" released by CCID Consulting, according to estimates, the scale of China's low-altitude economy will reach 505.95 billion yuan in 2023, with a growth rate of 33.8%, and the scale is expected to exceed one trillion yuan by 2026, increasing to 1,064.46 billion yuan. With the increase of low-altitude flight activities, the effect of infrastructure investment will gradually appear, indicating that the mainland's low-altitude economy will continue to grow rapidly.
Open a new track of express logistics competition
In the past two years, the leading players in the express delivery industry have begun to shift from price competition to service competition and industrialization extension, and express delivery services have ushered in an era of stratification and major upgrades. Especially in the aging parts market, as a relatively high premium and high gross profit field, many express delivery companies have begun to pay attention to and join this track. For logistics enterprises, the development of "low-altitude economy + logistics" can not only broaden service scenarios, improve service quality, and build a solid timeliness barrier, but also effectively enhance brand awareness, broaden service boundaries, and deeply tap market potential.
First, scenario broadening and commercialization breakthroughs are driving market growth. The low-altitude economy is a trillion-dollar market and continues to expand. As one of the most widely used fields of UAVs, with the increasingly rich application scenarios of UAV technology, the commercialization process is accelerating, from the source of agricultural product picking, factory shipments, to transfer station sorting, large warehouse internal management, and then to long-distance feeder transportation and terminal distribution, forming a complete unmanned operation chain, logistics distribution with the help of low-altitude resources, not only can broaden the service scenarios of the express delivery industry, but also open up a new market space.
Second, strengthen timeliness barriers and brand awareness. From the perspective of its business logic, the development of drone delivery can open up the gap with competitors on the same track in terms of logistics experience. In the future, express delivery companies should continue to innovate on the basis of existing products and services, such as developing customized drone delivery solutions for specific industries and specific cargo types to meet the individual needs of different customer groups.
Drone logistics, the representative of this low-altitude economy, has shown remarkable results on a global scale after more than ten years of exploration and practice. In 2013, Amazon took the lead in proposing the Prime Air drone delivery plan, and UPS simultaneously tested the collaborative operation of drones and unmanned warehouses; in 2014, Google completed the first drone express delivery in Australia; in 2015, the United States Postal Service cooperated with the University of Cincinnati to develop an intelligent delivery system with electric mail vehicles and drones; in 2017, Amazon accelerated the patent layout of logistics drones, such as applying for self-destructing drones, Patents such as air warehouses, UPS has innovatively tried a hybrid delivery model of trucks and drones.
In China, logistics giants such as SF Express, JD Logistics, and China Post, as well as takeaway delivery platforms such as Meituan and Ele.me, as well as drone R&D companies such as Xunant, EHang, and DJI, are all actively deploying in the field of low-altitude logistics.
- SF: The largest player in the commercialization of small logistics drones
Since 2018, when SF Express took the lead in obtaining the first UAV aviation operation (pilot) license in China, the company has successfully built a three-stage air transportation network covering "trunk line-branch line-end" in just a few years, showing a significant leading position in the field of drone logistics. Among them, the "Fengniao" brand is mainly responsible for the development of large-scale regional drones, while "Fengyi" focuses on terminal delivery drones.
The development process of Fengyi small logistics UAV is clearly divided into three stages: "fly up", "fly more" and "fly well", and is currently in the second stage, that is, focusing on improving flight frequency and business scale. As of 2023, the total flight mileage of Fengyi small logistics drones in China has exceeded 4 million kilometers, and the number of transportation flights has exceeded 800,000, making it the largest player in the field of small logistics drones.
At present, Fengyi small logistics drones focus on solving urgent, difficult, dangerous and expensive scenarios, such as achieving half-day delivery across the Qiongzhou Strait, opening the first batch of logistics drone blood transportation routes in Shaoxing City during the Asian Games to provide medical security services for the Asian Games, providing transportation services for broken stock repair equipment for the State Grid, and opening the latest seafood distribution routes on Nanao Islands to achieve a series of services from the origin to consumers.
Recently, SF Express has released the world's first drone express logistics products: intra-city instant delivery and cross-city express delivery, and has opened "Shenzhen-Zhuhai", "Haikou-Zhanjiang", "Shenzhen-Zhongshan" and "Shenzhen-Dongguan" cross-city routes, marking a new stage in the commercial application of drones in the field of express logistics.
In summary, the world's first drone express logistics product launched by SF Express subverts the traditional intra-city and cross-city express delivery mode by integrating ground and air transportation capacity, and realizes the integrated service process of "instant response, special pick-up, drone transportation, and special delivery". In particular, the 2-hour delivery promised by "intra-city instant delivery" and the 4-hour cross-city express service provided by "cross-city express delivery" not only significantly improve logistics efficiency and reduce transportation costs, but also set an industry benchmark for the wide application of drones in the express logistics industry in the future.
- Meituan: Operates 25 drone routes on a regular basis
From the establishment of the business in 2017, to the implementation of the scene in 2021, and now to the normalized operation of 25 drone routes, Meituan is gradually building an urban low-altitude logistics network.
In 2023, Meituan has significantly accelerated its layout in this field and made a series of important progress: in February, Meituan announced that its drone team's urban low-altitude logistics solution had been approved by the Civil Aviation Administration of China and obtained the "Approval Letter for Trial Operation of Specific Types of UAVs" and the "General Aviation Enterprise Business License" issued by the department; in July, it released the fourth-generation new model focusing on urban low-altitude logistics and distribution scenarios; and in September, the UAV intelligent manufacturing center in Shenzhen was officially put into operation. Meituan's drone project runs through the entire industrial chain from R&D and design, manufacturing, operation management to operation and maintenance services, and has initially started commercial operation.
According to Meituan data, since the completion of the first order delivery task in early 2021, by the end of 2023, Meituan's drone delivery service has covered various scenarios such as offices, scenic spots, municipal parks, medical care, and campuses, and has completed more than 220,000 user orders.
- Jingdong Logistics: Two product lines, three directions
JD.com set up Department X in 2016 to specialize in drone business, and the project was implemented in Shaanxi Province in August of the following year. At present, JD drone logistics focuses on the three major scenarios of express delivery "last mile", urban C2C instant delivery and supermarket B2C distribution. The product line is mainly based on the two series of "Jingfei" autorotor (main branch) and "Jingyan" multi-rotor (focusing on the end), of which "Jingfei" is undergoing airworthiness certification and route test flight, and "Jingyan" has achieved mass production and carried out pilot operation and order delivery in Northwest China and Nanjing.
In addition to SF Express, Meituan, and JD Logistics, Zhongtong, Shentong and other companies are also actively deploying drone delivery.
On March 22, Zhongtong signed an eVTOL purchase agreement with Fengfei Airlines, with an order volume of 30 aircraft. Jin Renqun, vice president of Zhongtong, said at the signing ceremony that in the past, fixed-wing aircraft for express logistics needed airports and runways, while drones had problems such as small load and short driving distance, and the new model made up for these shortcomings. "I hope that the new model will be put into the pilot as soon as possible, used first, cultivate the market, and the scale will produce benefits in the future. ”
In terms of specific application scenarios, Fengfei Cargo eVTOL effectively responds to the logistics problems in mountainous areas, remote areas and city/county areas, and uses its fast and heavy-duty air transportation capacity to achieve point-to-point efficient distribution. Compared with traditional transportation methods, air flight can greatly shorten the transportation time, especially suitable for time-sensitive express shipments, to ensure same-day or half-day delivery within one trip.
Regarding the layout of the low-altitude economy, Shentong has also made a positive response recently. Shentong said that in recent years, the company has continuously expanded R&D investment and accelerated the improvement of the digital intelligence level of enterprises. In the future, we will also actively explore emerging opportunities based on the development of trunk transportation and terminal environment, the application of new technologies and our own operation and development strategy.
In addition, drone design and development companies such as Xun Ant, EHang, DJI, etc. are actively laying out the logistics drone market. In 2019, Xunant obtained the first urban scenario drone logistics operation license issued by the Civil Aviation Administration of China, and has now accumulated more than 800,000 kilometers and more than 100,000 sorties of operation data. EHang joined hands with DHL to carry out a pilot project of unmanned express logistics in 2019. DJI released its first logistics drone product, the DJI FlyCart 30, in August last year.
However, whether the era of drone logistics is really coming depends not only on the maturity of technology and the expansion of application scenarios, but also on the improvement of policies and regulations, the improvement of public acceptance, the effective control of operating costs, and the deep integration with the traditional logistics system. At the same time, drones should not be regarded as isolated distribution tools, but should be deeply integrated and docked with smart warehousing systems and unmanned delivery vehicles, promote the intelligent transformation of logistics infrastructure, and build a new service system suitable for drone logistics.
Author | Little Zhou Botong
Source | Logistics Salon
This article is the author's personal opinion and does not represent the position of Logistics Salon