Chapter 156 Air Freight

Lu Mingliang paused, then continued, "Currently, we already have four thousand Upwind stations. You have to know that some domestic express delivery companies only have a little over two thousand outlets nationwide. We have already surpassed them in quantity."

"If Upwind Logistics keeps losing money like this and can only rely on subsidies from other industries, that's not a long-term solution. We must further reduce losses and increase profits in order to develop better."

"So, I think we should start preparing for regular cross-city express delivery services, and snatch this part of the profit from other express delivery companies!"

For a long time, Upwind Logistics had actually been doing the dirty and tiring work that other express delivery companies were most unwilling to do.

The problem of the "last mile" has always plagued the express delivery industry. Because it is very convenient to transport from the transfer point to the express delivery outlet, a truckload of goods can be directly pulled over. But to send the express delivery piece by piece to the doorstep from the outlet, the labor cost is high.

Similarly, when it comes to delivering express deliveries, other express delivery companies do the easiest and most profitable part, while Upwind Logistics does the most troublesome and least profitable part.

Upwind Logistics solves the problem of the last mile for other express delivery companies, charging only 2 to 4 mao per piece on average. Although most of the items received are small items, it is still a huge loss, and the input is not proportional to the return.

Some platforms have offered a solution: express delivery lockers, so that customers can pick them up themselves.

But the problem is that the express delivery locker charges the express delivery company, saves the express delivery company a lot of costs, but transfers the errand of the last mile to the consumer.

Consumers have to walk and carry things, and the express delivery lockers are all provided by the community. In the end, it saves the express delivery company trouble, allows those who make express delivery lockers to make money, and they don't get any benefits. The door-to-door service that they should have enjoyed is also discounted.

Some customers like to pick up their packages from the express delivery locker because of their work schedule, but this can only be one of the options. It cannot force those who do not want to go out to pick up their packages themselves. This is an overly shrewd behavior and actually infringes on the legitimate rights and interests of consumers.

Upwind stations allow express delivery couriers to deliver to the door, and also allow customers to pick up their packages at the station. Customers can also earn some points for picking up their packages themselves, which is a solution that protects the rights and interests of consumers.

Of course, Lu Mingliang is very dissatisfied with the current situation where others eat meat and Upwind Logistics can only drink soup.

He will not force other companies to drink soup, but why can't I do the meat-eating thing?

Isn't it just collecting the express deliveries, sorting them at the distribution center, loading them onto trucks and transporting them to the target city, sorting them again, and then sending the express deliveries down?

Why can't Upwind Logistics earn the bulk of this money?

The reason why he didn't do it before was that there were too few stores and the coverage was not enough, so he had to lay out the stores first.

Now that there are more than 4,000 stores, is it appropriate for a strong man to only drink soup and not eat meat, and end up starving himself?

Obviously very inappropriate.

So this time he came, on the one hand, to report to President Pei on the recent situation of Upwind Logistics, and on the other hand, to test President Pei's attitude towards this matter, hoping to expand the business of Upwind Logistics as soon as possible.

Not to mention turning a profit quickly, at least get the cross-city express delivery business up and running to reduce some losses.

Otherwise, if he keeps losing money like this, it will appear that he, the person in charge, is just occupying a position without doing any work, and he will not be able to hold his head up even when he attends gatherings of people in charge.

Pei Qian's expression instantly became very serious.

Damn it!

Obviously, Lu Mingliang has been working diligently at Upwind Logistics for more than a year, and he will definitely not be satisfied with just opening stores repeatedly.

It is only because it is Lu Mingliang that he has been able to endure it for so long. If he were replaced by another person in charge, he would probably have come to protest and demand to expand the business half a year in advance.

Pei Qian thought about it, and it was not easy to directly refuse this matter.

Lu Mingliang is a relatively down-to-earth person. He is prudent in his work, very serious about completing tasks, and has strong execution ability. He took the initiative to make this suggestion, which is enough to show that he has thought deeply and repeatedly considered it, and could not hold back before coming over.

There are already more than four thousand stores, and the most difficult "last mile" problem has been solved. Doing cross-city express delivery is just a matter of convenience. Why not do it?

Apart from the unspeakable reason of deliberately losing money, Pei Qian really couldn't think of any other reason to refuse Lu Mingliang's proposal.

But...

Just agree to Lu Mingliang's proposal in full?

That definitely won't work!

If logistics is done well, it can make a lot of money. Upwind Logistics is losing money well. If it turns a profit again, Pei Qian will have to vomit blood on the spot.

Therefore, it is necessary to make certain adjustments to the business of Upwind Logistics, appease Lu Mingliang, and ensure that this business adjustment will continue to make Upwind Logistics lose money.

Pei Qian quickly thought of a good solution.

"Well, you're right, Upwind Logistics should indeed make some business adjustments."

"But one thing to note is that although Upwind Logistics has reached four thousand stores, they are all distributed in four regions. Centered on the four core cities of Jingzhou, Didu, Modu, and Yangcheng, they radiate to the surrounding areas. But in the vast areas other than these four regions, such as general provincial capitals and second-tier cities, there are no stores at all, let alone those small counties."

"If we want to develop cross-city express delivery services, we can't deliver to this city or that city. What competitiveness do we have compared with other express delivery companies?"

"Some other express delivery companies, although they only have two thousand stores, are located in cities all over the country, and even some small counties are covered. This is the essential difference."

"Their store coverage is particularly large. Although there are many express deliveries, they are slow to deliver, and they often lose items, they can guarantee coverage in most cities across the country. We can't."

Lu Mingliang couldn't calm down: "Then President Pei, do you mean that we can only do regular express delivery business when our stores are all over the country? When will that be..."

Pei Qian smiled slightly: "What I mean is, we can do it, but we have to form differentiated competition with other express delivery companies."

"If we just rent a warehouse, buy some equipment to set up a sorting center, and then rent some large trucks to transport goods, what is the difference between Upwind Logistics and other express delivery companies?"

"My idea is to take advantage of the current advantages of Upwind Logistics and be faster than all other express delivery companies!"

"And to be faster than other express deliveries, we can no longer use the traditional transportation method based on land transportation. We do air freight!"

"Negotiate cooperation with airlines and lease airplanes to transport goods. Taking the four cities of Jingzhou, Didu, Modu, and Yangcheng as the center, there is at least one flight for round-trip cargo transportation every day. This way, there are twelve flights every day, transporting express delivery cargo to the corresponding cities."

"Then, these goods are sorted and sent to the surrounding cities by traditional land transportation. This is faster than other express delivery companies! Of course, this is only limited to the areas covered by our business."

"Outside of these four regions, we will not provide any delivery or pick-up services for the time being."

Lu Mingliang couldn't help being stunned.

It turned out that President Pei did not disagree with his views, but thought further ahead!

At present, the transportation method of express delivery companies in this world is still mainly land transportation. If you send express delivery from Yangcheng to Didu, it will take three days, and if it is delayed, it may even take four days or longer.

President Pei's idea is to take the four cities with high Upwind station coverage—Jingzhou, Didu, Modu, and Yangcheng—as the center and divide their surrounding cities into a land transportation area.

Between these four cities, using pure air freight can shorten the express deliveries that originally took three days to deliver by land transportation to within one day.

And within the area, for example, from Jingzhou to other cities in Handong Province, it can be transported by conventional land transportation. Although the speed may not be significantly better than other express deliveries, don't forget that Upwind stations are opened by Tengda itself.

For the same goods, Upwind stations must give priority to sending their own express deliveries before sending those of other express delivery companies.

In this way, anyone who uses Upwind Logistics to send and receive express deliveries in the areas covered by Upwind stations will definitely get a better experience than ordinary express delivery companies.

Those four thousand Upwind stations were not built for nothing, and they must be effective at this time.

What Pei Qian really cares about is actually very simple: air freight has a high threshold and can spend more money!

Is the fuel cost of a plane flying once the same as a few large trucks running a long distance?

Moreover, air freight charges will definitely be much higher than ordinary express delivery, and not many people will use it in the early stages. Moreover, air freight cargo is strictly restricted, and many things cannot be loaded onto airplanes.

At that time, regardless of whether an airplane is full or not, it must take off on schedule. Flying empty, isn't that just pure spending?

What's more, cooperating with airlines, leasing airplanes, and even building our own airports and directly buying airplanes in the future will all be huge expenses, and the potential for burning money and upgrading in the future is great.

Of course, if air freight can be done well, then land transportation will definitely be easy to do.

With the further development of Upwind Logistics, Upwind stations will definitely spread to more cities, and long-distance transportation will definitely not only be done by air freight. Slowly, land transportation will also be used, including railway transportation and long-distance freight.

But those are things that need to be worried about in the future.

In the short term, Upwind Logistics will only do the current "inter-regional air freight and intra-regional land freight" method, which will definitely lose money.

As for which goods can be delivered and which cannot, which places can be sent to and which cannot, these will be checked by the couriers at the bottom level.

As long as the courier checks whether the goods meet the standards and whether there is an Upwind station at the destination before the customer sends the item, it is fine.

If there is, then use Upwind Logistics to send it. If not, then still use other express deliveries to send it.

After the business is expanded, the Upwind Logistics section on the Tengda Life App must also be updated to support players in real-time tracking of the location of their express deliveries.

However, these are all things that Lu Mingliang will have to worry about in the future.

Pei Qian said: "That's roughly the situation. Of course, to cooperate with airlines, lease airplanes, and lease factory buildings in the suburbs to build sorting centers, it is also necessary to further update the entire express delivery logistics system to make the transfer between different steps smoother..."

"A lot of preliminary preparation work is required."

"How about this, I'll give you three months to do the preliminary preparation and negotiate business. After three months, I'll allocate a special fund to gradually implement the new business."

In fact, the main reason is the problem of funds.

Tengda has just recovered from the previous money-burning war. Although it is recovering quickly, Pei Qian has already thought of many ways to spend the money again.

And this business upgrade of Upwind Logistics is an unplanned expense, and Pei Qian did not arrange a special fund before. Renting airplanes and building a batch of sorting centers in various cities is not a small amount of money to handle. It is a bit difficult to squeeze it out.

Moreover, there are only two months left before the settlement, so it is obviously too late.

When the next cycle starts, the film's revenue will probably be arriving soon, and various departments will have saved a large sum of money again, which can be burned into Upwind Logistics.

Lu Mingliang was very happy. It can be said that this visit to President Pei was very fruitful.

He immediately nodded: "Okay, President Pei, I'll go arrange it right away. I'll definitely handle this matter beautifully!"