Suggestions on further reducing logistics costs
Ministry of Transport, National Development and Reform Commission
Logistics is an important link of unimpeded national economic circulation. In recent years, efforts have been made to reduce costs and improve efficiency in logistics, and the cost of logistics has been steadily declining. However, the problems of high costs and low efficiency in some areas are still prominent. In particular, due to the impact of the novel coronavirus pandemic, the cost of logistics has risen in stages, making it difficult to meet the requirements of building a modern economic system and promoting high-quality development. In order to implement the decision and arrangement of the CPC Central Committee and The State Council on coordinating epidemic prevention and control with economic and social development, further reduce logistics costs, improve logistics efficiency, and speed up the restoration of production and life order, the following suggestions are made.
一、We will deepen reform of key links and reduce the cost of the logistics system
（一）Improve licensing and licensing procedures. We will accelerate the electronization of transportation certificates and licenses, and promote online endorsement. We will optimize the interprovincial parallel licensing service for bulky transportation, and further improve the approval efficiency. (Responsible for the Ministry of Transport)
（二）Scientifically promote the control of vehicles over limit and overload. We will continue to normalize and institutionalize joint law enforcement, refine the law enforcement process, and strictly implement the unified national law enforcement standards. Illegal refitting of freight vehicles will be dealt with in an orderly manner by vehicle type and stage by stage, and all non-compliant vehicles will be phased out gradually. It has organized a special campaign to control atmospheric liquid dangerous cargo tank trucks. (The Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Administration for Market Regulation shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（三）We will maintain normal order in the road freight market. We will establish a regular working mechanism to crack down on traffic bandits and road bullies on expressways and national and provincial highways, unblock channels for reporting complaints, and focus on standardizing market order in areas such as vehicle access, parking services, and road rescue. (The Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Transport, the National Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the people's governments at the provincial level shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（四）Optimize the management of urban delivery vehicles. We will continue to promote green urban freight distribution demonstration projects. The three-level distribution network supported by comprehensive logistics centers, public distribution centers and terminal distribution outlets should be improved, and facilities related to parking, loading and unloading of urban distribution vehicles should be set up reasonably. We will encourage the development of intensive distribution such as joint, unified, centralized and time-sharing distribution. We will improve the traffic management of urban distribution vehicles, clarify the scope of the concept of urban distribution vehicles, relax the traffic restrictions on standard lightweight micro-distribution vehicles, and provide more traffic convenience for new-energy urban distribution vehicles. (The Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce and the Ministry of Public Security shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities) To study and incorporate the construction of parking, picking up and unloading sites for urban distribution vehicles into the urban construction and architectural design codes. (The Ministry of Housing and Urban-Rural Development)
（五）We will facilitate customs clearance. Promote paperless documents at ports, ports and other places, reduce the circulation time of documents, and improve the efficiency of goods entering and leaving ports. Relying on the "single window" for international trade, we will carry out trials of two-way interaction between supervision and inspection instructions and port information, and increase the speed at which import and export goods are removed. We will continue to promote "advance declaration" for imports and exports, and optimize the "two-step declaration" mode. Sort out the examination and approval management items and supervision documents in the link of shipping and customs clearance, and cancel or withdraw from the port inspection for those unreasonable or unable to meet the needs of supervision according to regulations. (The Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Commerce and the General Administration of Customs shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（六）We will deepen market-oriented reform of railways. We will carry out comprehensive trials of market-oriented railway reform in areas with dense railway networks, large freight demand, and prominent contradiction between transport supply and demand, as well as some important railway freight lines (including the transport distribution system). By introducing market competition mechanisms, we will carry out reforms in investment and financing, planning and construction, operation management, performance management, and transport organization. We will continue to improve the mechanism for adjusting railway freight prices flexibly, and promptly and sensitively reflect market supply and demand. We will further relax market access and attract private capital to participate in the construction and operation of railway freight terminals, warehousing and other logistics facilities. (Responsible for the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Finance, the National Railway Administration and the China State Railway Group Corporation)
二、We will strengthen land and capital security and reduce the cost of logistics factors
（七）Ensure the demand for logistics land. Major logistics infrastructure projects, such as national logistics hubs, special railway lines and cold chain logistics facilities, determined by the state and relevant departments, provinces (autonomous regions and municipalities directly under the Central government), are given key guarantees in terms of construction land targets. We will support the development of logistics facilities on stock land such as land allocated for railways. To guide local governments to use collective profit-oriented construction land to build logistics infrastructure in accordance with relevant regulations. (Responsible for Ministry of Natural Resources, China National Railway Group Co., LTD., provincial People's governments)
（八）Improve the assessment of logistics land use. To guide local governments to reasonably set up performance evaluation indicators for logistics land use. Under the premise of conforming to the planning and not changing the use, the land price shall not be increased for improving the utilization rate and floor area ratio of self-owned industrial land or storage land and for the construction of logistics facilities such as warehousing, allocation and transfer. (The Ministry of Natural Resources and provincial people's governments shall be responsible)
（九）Expand financing channels. We will increase investment from the central budget and special bonds of local governments to support the development of major logistics infrastructure such as national logistics hubs and national backbone cold chain logistics bases. We will guide banking financial institutions to strengthen financing support for logistics enterprises, encourage standardized development of supply chain finance, and rely on core enterprises to strengthen financial services for upstream and downstream small and micro enterprises. We will give full play to the role of a comprehensive credit service platform for financing of small and medium-sized enterprises across the country, and promote the "Xinyi loan" model. Implement the credit due diligence exemption policy and differentiated assessment incentive policy, and clarify the due diligence identification criteria and exemption conditions. Encourage private capital to set up logistics industry development funds. (The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the People's Bank of China, the China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission and the China Development Bank shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（十）We will improve the mechanism for sharing risk compensation. Encourage insurance companies to provide guarantee insurance credit increase support for logistics enterprises to obtain credit financing, and increase policy-based guarantee credit guarantee support for logistics enterprises. To give full play to the advantages of commercial insurance, support insurance companies in developing comprehensive insurance products for logistics enterprises and accident and medical insurance products for employees in emerging logistics industries. (Responsible for China Banking and Insurance Regulatory Commission)
三、We will thoroughly implement measures to cut taxes and fees and reduce the cost of logistics taxes and fees
（十一）We will implement preferential policies for taxes and fees in the logistics sector. We will implement logistics tax and fee reduction policies, such as halving the urban land use tax on bulk commodity storage land. (The Ministry of Finance and the State Administration of Taxation)
（十二）Reduce road costs. In combination with the deepening of the reform of the toll road system, differentiated toll collection on expressways will be promoted in an all-round way, and traffic efficiency will be further improved by guiding the scientific diversion of vehicles from congested sections and periods of time. We will deepen the reform of electronic toll collection on expressways without stopping. We will strengthen the operation guarantee of the highway network after the abolition of toll stations at provincial boundaries to ensure that the overall toll burden of freight vehicles is not increased. We will encourage local governments where conditions permit to repurchase the right to collect tolls on operational general toll roads and provide free access to vehicles. We will strictly implement the "green channel" policy for transporting fresh agricultural products, and effectively reduce the cost of transporting chilled pork and other fresh agricultural products. (The Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission and the people's governments at the provincial level shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（十三）Lower rail and air freight charges. We will streamline miscellaneous charges for railway freight transport, reduce late payment fees, and strictly abolish charges for changes in freight transport. (China State Railway Group Co., Ltd. is responsible for) vigorously promote bulk cargo "price" transportation. We will strictly implement the catalogue list of toll collection in the field of special railway lines and the system of publicity. We will sort out and standardize the toll collection items that are not included in the catalogue, as well as the additional fees of local governments and fees collected by the property owners or operating units of special railway lines. We will formulate pricing rules for the service of special railway lines, standardize the charging behavior of maintenance services for special railway lines and self-provided cars, further reduce the charging standards, and prohibit the use of raising or disguised raising other charges to offset the effect of fee reduction. (The State Administration for Market Regulation, the National Railway Administration and China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities) to promote the high-quality development of China-Europe railway services, optimize the organization of railway services, strengthen resource integration, promote "transit and distribution", regulate unhealthy competitive behaviors, and further reduce the operating costs of railway services. (The National Development and Reform Commission, China State Railway Group Co., LTD., and the Ministry of Finance shall be responsible for this according to their respective responsibilities) and incorporate the airport cargo terminal arrival fee into the cargo handling fee. (Civil Aviation Administration of China and provincial people's governments are responsible)
（十四）We will standardize charges at maritime ports. We will lower port, inspection and quarantine charges. We will conduct a special review and rectification of fees at maritime ports, further streamline and merge fee items, improve the catalogue and list of fees at maritime ports and implement dynamic management to ensure that there are no fee items outside the list. We will study incorporating security charges for port facilities into contracted fees for port operations and lowering some government-set port charges. Port enterprises and shipping companies will be regulated in accordance with the law. Regular charges for container imports and exports will be lowered. (The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Finance, the Ministry of Transport, the General Administration of Customs and the State Administration for Market Regulation shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（十五）We will strengthen supervision over charging behavior in the logistics sector. For items with government-set or government-guided prices, we will promptly lower the high rates; To study and establish rules and guidelines for collecting fees for items subject to market-adjusted prices. We will strictly implement the system of publicizing fee items and standards, and intensify investigation and punishment of behaviors that do not collect fees according to the publicized price standards or increase fee items at will. We investigated and dealt with violations of laws and regulations such as compulsory fee collection, fee collection without service, and excessive fee collection. (The State Development and Reform Commission, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Transport, the General Administration of Customs and the people's governments at the provincial level shall be responsible according to the division of responsibilities)
四、Strengthen information sharing, reduce the cost of logistics information
（十六）Promote open sharing of logistics information. Under the premise of ensuring information security, transportation, public security traffic management, railway, port, aviation and other units should open public information related to logistics to the society. In accordance with the principle of security sharing, reciprocity and mutual benefit, the information systems of railway enterprises and ports, logistics and other enterprises will be connected, standards for information interface will be improved, and information such as train arrival and departure times will be more open. We will study the establishment of a national public information system for multimodal transport, promote standardized data interfaces and protocols, and realize data information sharing to a greater extent. (The Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Public Security, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Railway Administration, the Civil Aviation Administration of China and the China National Railway Group Corporation shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（十七）Reduce the cost of truck location information. For freight vehicles that have been installed with satellite positioning devices before leaving the factory, no unit may require the repeated installation of satellite positioning devices. Standardize the charging behavior of freight vehicle positioning information service providers to reduce the cost burden of freight vehicle positioning information. (The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Administration for Market Regulation and the Ministry of Transport shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
五、We will promote efficient connectivity of logistics facilities and reduce the cost of combined logistics transport
（十八）Remove "obstruction" in multimodal transport. The central and local governments will increase financial support for the construction of logistics facilities such as special railway lines and multimodal transport yards, study and formulate design specifications for the entry of special railway lines into ports, and promote the entry of special railway lines into ports, large industrial and mining enterprises and logistics hubs. We will continue to improve the waterway along the Yangtze River and build the Three Gorges Dam overturning comprehensive transport system to further enhance the shipping capacity of the Yangtze River and other inland waterways. We will speed up medium - and long-distance transportation of bulk goods through "revolution rail" and "revolution water". (The Ministry of Finance, the National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Transport, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the National Railway Administration and the China National Railway Group Co., Ltd. shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities) To promote the application of multimodal transport waybills and accelerate the development of "single-order" multimodal transport services, focusing on multimodal transport demonstration projects. (Responsible for the Ministry of Transport, the National Development and Reform Commission, the National Railway Administration and China State Railway Group Corporation)
（十九）Improve the logistics standard system. We will promote the use of freight vehicles, types of inland waterway vessels, standardized pallets and basic modules of packaging that meet national standards, and drive the standardization of upstream and downstream logistics loading equipment. (The Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Transport and the State Administration of Market Regulation shall be responsible according to the division of responsibilities) to strengthen the integration with international standards, adapt to the development needs of multimodal transport, promote the application of inland containers (Series 2), strengthen the research on safe loading standards for specific cargo categories, and reduce repeated empties and packing. (Responsible for the Ministry of Transport, National Railway Administration, Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, Ministry of Public Security and China State Railway Group Corporation)
六、We will improve the quality and efficiency of the logistics industry and reduce overall logistics costs
（二十）We will promote the development of logistics infrastructure networks. To study and formulate an implementation plan for the construction of a national logistics hub network from 2021 to 2025, integrate and optimize existing logistics infrastructure resources, build a logistics operation system of "channel + hub + network", and systematically reduce logistics costs such as whole-process transportation and warehousing. (The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Transport) Continue to implement the demonstration logistics Park project, and promote the interconnection of key logistics parks into a network. (The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Natural Resources are responsible for the construction of a number of national backbone cold chain logistics bases, targeted reinforcement of urban and rural cold chain logistics facilities weaknesses, integration of cold chain logistics and agricultural production and circulation resources, improve the scale, intensive, organized and networked level of cold chain logistics, and reduce the cost of cold chain logistics. (National Development and Reform Commission) We will strengthen the development of infrastructure for joint distribution between counties and villages, and promote the use of mobile cold storage and other new cold chain logistics facilities and equipment. (Ministry of Commerce and National Development and Reform Commission) Strengthen the construction of emergency logistics system, improve the emergency logistics infrastructure network, integrate all kinds of existing infrastructure resources such as reserve, transportation and distribution, speed up the strengthening of emergency logistics infrastructure weaknesses in specific regions and sectors, and improve the emergency logistics support capacity in emergency situations. (The National Development and Reform Commission, the Ministry of Transport and provincial-level people's governments shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（二十一）Cultivate key logistics enterprises. We will encourage market-oriented mergers and reorganizations of large logistics enterprises to improve their comprehensive service capabilities and international competitiveness. Foster international shipping enterprises with strong strength, and promote the establishment of international shipping network in line with our foreign trade scale. (The State-owned Assets Supervision and Administration Commission of the State Council and the Ministry of Transport shall be responsible according to the division of responsibilities) strictly implement the relevant regulations and standards for the operation of online freight platforms, and promote the development of new business formats of highway freight. We will encourage logistics enterprises to transform themselves into multimodal transport operators and full-chain logistics service providers. (The Ministry of Transport and the National Development and Reform Commission shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（二十二）Improve the development level of modern supply chains. We will deepen supply chain innovation and application trials, summarize and popularize successful experience and models of these trials, improve capital and inventory turnover efficiency, and promote integrated innovation of modern supply chains with agriculture, industry and commercial circulation. To study and formulate the development strategy of modern supply chain, and accelerate the development of digital, intelligent and global modern supply chain. (The National Development and Reform Commission and the Ministry of Commerce shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
（二十三）We will accelerate the development of smart logistics. We will actively promote the construction of a new-generation national traffic control network, and accelerate the digital upgrading of cargo management, transport services, and terminal facilities. (Responsible for the Ministry of Transport) Promote the application of emerging technologies and intelligent equipment, and improve the automation and intelligent level of logistics such as warehousing, transportation, distribution and distribution. (The National Development and Reform Commission is responsible)
（二十四）We will actively develop green logistics. We will promote the greening and reduction of goods packaging and logistics equipment, and encourage enterprises to develop and use recyclable green packaging and degradable green packaging materials. We will accelerate the establishment of a recycling sharing system for standardized stowage appliances such as pallets to reduce repeated investment by enterprises. (The Ministry of Commerce, the Ministry of Transport, the State Administration for Market Regulation, the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology and the State Post Bureau shall be responsible according to their respective responsibilities)
In accordance with the decisions and arrangements of the CPC Central Committee and The State Council, all regions and departments should strengthen policy coordination, earnestly fulfill their responsibilities, and conscientiously organize and implement their policies in light of the actual conditions of their respective regions and departments. The National Development and Reform Commission, together with relevant departments, should give full play to the role of the inter-ministerial joint conference on modern logistics work, strengthen work guidance, timely summarize and promote typical experience in reducing logistics costs, coordinate to solve problems in the implementation of policies, and ensure that all policies and measures are effective.
