How to promote railway cold chain logistics?

Forwarded from Whale Logistics Network 2022-12-28
A few days ago, Fujian launched the first China Europe Express export cold chain special train. The special cold chain train departs from Haicang Park in Xiamen Free Trade Zone and is expected to arrive in Moscow, Russia, in 15 days after leaving the country through Manzhouli Port. In recent years, railway cold chain logistics has become a hot topic. With the continuous development of multimodal transport, the railway, as an important national infrastructure and major artery of the national economy, a major livelihood project and the backbone of the comprehensive transportation system, is jointly building a multimodal transport system of cold chain logistics in the field of cold chain logistics, together with transportation modes such as road, water transport and aviation.
Shorten the gap in emerging areas
For consumers and cold chain logistics users, the relationship between railway transportation and cold chain logistics may not be familiar. In the past, people thought that the railway cold chain logistics was just a few simple refrigerated carriages attached to ordinary trains. Because the temperature control was very simple, its function was basically to transport frozen goods, such as slaughtered cattle, sheep, pigs and other livestock and poultry cold food. However, agricultural products that need to breathe, such as fish, or large quantities of fresh agricultural products, such as vegetables, melons and fruits, cannot be transported by rail. Because the freezing function below - 18 ℃ is too single, and because there is no remote temperature control, the cold chain is often broken during transportation.
With the rapid development of highway and other cold chain logistics in recent years, the weaknesses and disadvantages of railway cold chain logistics have become increasingly prominent.
Before the reform and opening up, China's railway cold chain has always occupied more than 80% of the refrigerated transport market. However, with the deepening of the reform and opening up, China's demand for cold chain logistics services has gradually changed. From the development of trunk transport to the need for "door-to-door" cold chain distribution services, coupled with the continuous development of road and air transport services, the market share of railway cold chain logistics has continued to decline in the overall market share. According to the data of the Cold Chain Committee of the China Union of Things, in 2021, China's railway cold chain transport volume will total about 2 million tons, but the overall scale will only account for about 1% of the total cold chain logistics volume, and the road cold chain transport volume will account for about 90%; At the same time, China's railway operating mileage has exceeded 150000 km, including more than 40000 km of high-speed railway, accounting for two-thirds of the world's total high-speed railway mileage.
It is worth mentioning that, through continuous development, the gap between railway cold chain logistics and road and other emerging cold chain transport fields has gradually narrowed.
Policies create favorable conditions
In July 2018, a number of departments launched the "transit from public transport to railway" reform, promoting the railway to release stock resources and provide incremental supply. Policies related to railway cold chain have been introduced all over the country to win support from land, finance, taxation, etc. for the development of railway cold chain. These reform measures and policies have created favorable conditions and good environment for the development of railway cold chain transportation.
After entering the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan", the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" Modern Circulation System Construction Plan, the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" Modern Comprehensive Transportation System Development Plan, the "Fourteenth Five Year Plan" Cold Chain Logistics Development Plan and other important documents, They clearly put forward the requirements of "accelerating the development of various forms of railway express", "exploring the operation of customized railway direct freight trains", "promoting the innovation of railway container cold chain service mode", "vigorously developing railway cold chain trains and other trunk transport modes".
In April this year, the Ministry of Transport, the State Railway Administration, the Civil Aviation Administration of China, the State Post Office, and the China National Railway Group issued the Implementation Opinions on Accelerating the High Quality Development of Cold Chain Logistics Transportation, proposing to promote the entry of railway private lines into logistics parks and ports, accelerate the upgrading of railway mechanical refrigerated vehicles, and encourage railway enterprises to run cold chain trains, We will promote the seamless connection between the cold chain train and the cold chain marine direct express line, and actively develop the new mode of sea rail intermodal transport of "marine+cold chain train".
Equipment breaks the restricted situation
From the perspective of the development of railway cold chain transport equipment, according to incomplete statistics in 2021, more than 7700 railway refrigerated cars have been put into mass operation in China, including more than 5000 refrigerated cars and more than 2300 packaged refrigerated cars. In order to meet the transportation requirements of perishable food in the new era of "small batch, multiple varieties and fast speed", China has developed a single section mechanically cooled car and a special baggage car for fast transportation of perishable food, providing new refrigerated transportation equipment for China's railways.
In addition, the railway cold chain has also broken the situation that it was limited to refrigeration in the past, and has begun to show great prestige in the low temperature and constant temperature transportation of fresh agricultural products.
In terms of the transportation of fresh flowers, Yunnan is a big flower production province. In the past, on the passenger train back from Kunming, we often saw passengers holding flowers or dry flowers made of flowers, but most of them were dry flowers. Why? Because flowers want to keep fresh, they must be soaked in preservatives after picking flowers and transported in a cool and humid environment. This is why it is difficult for us to buy fresh Yunnan flowers in the market.
Under this background and market demand, a few years ago, the cooperation between China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd. and Huajia Company opened a new way of flower railway transportation. Its "secret weapon" is the cold storage and thermal insulation container. It is a new equipment launched by China Railway Kunming Bureau Group Co., Ltd. specifically for the cold chain transportation of flowers. It has the advantages of constant temperature control, passive cooling release, energy conservation and environmental protection. It can effectively preserve the freshness of peanuts and reduce the rate of cargo damage. Since then, Yunnan flowers no longer need to go through expensive air transportation. As long as people sit at home, they can buy cheap, fresh and authentic Yunnan flowers.
China Railway Special Cargo and CRRC have developed a refrigerated container transport vehicle group consisting of BX1K special flat cars for containers and B23 mechanical insulation vehicles, which is applied to the new mode of water rail combined transport of cold chain logistics. Its core advantage is that the vehicle is equipped with power refrigeration equipment, which not only greatly improves the flexibility of marshalling and timeliness of delivery; At the same time, the minimum temperature of - 25 ℃ can also be used for continuous refrigeration over a long haul distance, and the appropriate temperature can be adjusted in a container according to the insulation requirements of different goods.
Technology upgrading transportation service
When it comes to "new weapons" after equipment upgrading, we have to talk about the technical upgrading of the railway cold chain.
In recent years, the railway cold chain transport equipment has undergone new changes in new energy refrigeration technology, new material technology, informatization and intelligent technology, including lithium battery new energy technology, full DC drive variable frequency refrigeration units to promote energy conservation and emission reduction, and the application of new polyurethane elastic materials to improve the thermal insulation performance of the equipment.
In addition, intelligent and information technology can realize remote monitoring and control, automatic tracking and positioning, real-time grasp of important information such as temperature and humidity, timely handle abnormal conditions, and reduce the cost of cold chain transportation. For example, China Railway Tielong has added intelligent and Internet of Things services to the refrigerated container, and the whole process of refrigerated container goods is transparent and traceable through the Internet, GPRS and sensors. As the only market body for cross-border transport of railway refrigerated containers in China, China Railway Tieyang has carried out in-depth research and development on railway refrigerated containers with Hanou Logistics Co., Ltd., so that the control of transportation along the way and the ability to solve emergencies meet the requirements of long-distance cold chain regulations.
In addition to the characteristics of safety, economy, reliability and efficiency, the 250km freight multiple units of CRRC also have prominent advantages of container loading and unloading. Fully opened carriage, one side of the carriage can be opened in a large format, forklift can directly load and unload goods, and new standard container technology is used for container loading and unloading, turnover, transportation and fixation. Container loading and unloading reduces reverse loading time and labor costs, and cold chain products such as fresh fruits and vegetables are important applications.
In addition, the role of railway cold chain logistics base can not be underestimated.
According to the requirements of the 13th Five Year Development Plan for Railway Cold Chain Logistics Network Layout, the railway cold chain logistics base can be divided into two types: regional cold chain logistics base and regional cold chain logistics base according to its role in the road network and different service regions.
The regional cold chain cargo base is required to be set up in the national comprehensive transportation hub or the area with strong market demand. The basic conditions are that the arrival and departure volume is more than 1 million tons, the land area is 200 to 500 mu, and the cold storage capacity is more than 200000 tons. It has the functions of business center, multi-functional refrigeration and constant temperature storage center, international food trading center, information settlement center, agricultural and sideline products processing center, inspection and quarantine center, finance and other value-added services. The regional railway cold chain logistics base is mainly responsible for the distribution of regional cold chain goods. It is located near important prefecture level cities, large manufacturing enterprises or agricultural wholesale markets. The annual arrival and delivery volume is 200000 to 1 million tons, the land scale is 50-200 mu, and the cold storage capacity is 30000 to 200000 tons. It has the functions of wholesale, trading, distribution, warehousing, repair, processing, centralized distribution, emergency warehousing, electronic trading, quality monitoring, supporting services, etc.