Helping to Reduce Social Logistics Costs, China Railway Group Implements a Pilot Program for Multimodal “One-Document” Transportation

A reporter from The Paper learned from China Railway Corporation (hereinafter referred to as CRC) that on November 22, 2024, Train X9622, carrying 3,000 tons of aluminum rods, arrived at Tianjin Port from Zhundong Station in Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region and then set sail for Dongguan Port in Guangdong on the “Yujiang Xiangrui” liner. The shipment was jointly transported by China Railway Urumqi Group Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of CRC, and Shanghai Zhonggu Logistics Co., Ltd. Meanwhile, the “one-bill” multimodal transport function was synchronously launched on the 95306 railway platform, and the two parties jointly issued the country’s first “one-bill” multimodal transport bill of lading for containers on the 95306 platform. This marks a historic breakthrough in China’s “one-bill” multimodal transport, realizing “one consignment, one bill throughout, one container throughout, and one settlement” for the entire cargo transportation process.
The head of CRC’s freight transport department explained that CRC has conscientiously implemented the decisions and deployments of the Party Central Committee and the State Council on optimizing and adjusting the transportation structure and effectively reducing the overall social logistics costs. CRC has continuously deepened the market-oriented reform of railway freight transport, organized close collaboration between China Railway Container Transport Co., Ltd. and shipping companies, and vigorously promoted the “one-bill” multimodal transport of containers. Firstly, CRC unified the cargo bills of lading. Focusing on the bottlenecks affecting logistics efficiency and costs, CRC promoted the mutual recognition of standard rules for cargo descriptions, container types, and packaging, seamlessly connected the railway and water transportation business processes, jointly created full-process logistics products for rail-water multimodal transport, and designed a unified and standardized multimodal transport bill of lading. Secondly, CRC optimized the transportation organization. CRC scientifically matched the operation schedules of trains and shipping schedules, comprehensively utilized railway transport capacity and water transportation slots, minimized the overall transportation time, and ensured efficient and rapid cargo delivery. Thirdly, CRC shared data and information. CRC fully leveraged information technology, conducted joint scientific research, promoted the sharing of railway and water transportation data and information, and developed and launched the “one-bill” multimodal transport function on the 95306 platform. This function can handle full-process logistics business for rail-water multimodal transport, and provides functions such as the submission and issuance of multimodal transport bills of lading, full-process cargo tracking, and transportation statistical analysis, realizing transparency in schedules and prices.
The head pointed out that after the introduction of the “one-bill” multimodal transport of containers, railway transport companies, as multimodal transport operators, make overall plans for the entire transportation chain and are responsible for “free shipping” throughout the process. Railway transport companies and shipping companies, as full-process multimodal transport carriers, jointly accept demands and issue multimodal transport bills of lading. Customers can directly “place orders” on the 95306 platform and submit full-process logistics demands for rail-water multimodal transport. Compared with traditional multimodal transport business, “one-bill” transport features “one consignment, one bill throughout, one container throughout, and one settlement,” reducing the need for customers to communicate and negotiate with multiple carriers on document handover, short-distance transportation, and cargo reloading, allowing customers to track the cargo’s whereabouts throughout the process. This significantly improves transportation efficiency and effectively reduces overall logistics costs. Implementing “one-bill” transport helps further promote the deep integration of railway transport and water transportation, enhance comprehensive transportation efficiency and service quality, contribute to effectively reducing social logistics costs, and inject new impetus into the construction of a modern logistics system.
The head introduced that in the next step, CRC will conscientiously implement the spirit of the Third Plenary Session of the 20th Central Committee of the Communist Party of China, continue to deepen the market-oriented reform of railway freight transport, fully leverage the backbone role of railway transport, closely collaborate with other transportation modes, gradually expand the scope of “one-bill” transport services, create more high-quality multimodal transport products, provide more efficient and convenient modern logistics services for customers, and contribute to high-quality economic and social development.