March 21, Shenzhen City Transportation Development Co., Ltd. (“Shenzhen City Transportation”) announced that its application for low altitude infrastructure devices and RFID cross-border low altitude logistics project officially won the Hong Kong governments first batch of pilot qualification, marking the Hong Kong-Shenzhen cooperation in the field of intelligent logistics to take a key step forward. This innovative attempt to deeply integrate RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology and low altitude economy, is expected to reshape the efficiency and safety of cross-border logistics, for the integration and development of the Greater Bay Area to inject new momentum. The RFID technology in this pilot project will be supported by Surplus Core Technology.
I. Difficulties in traditional cross-border logistics between the Mainland and Hong Kong As one of the most economically active regions in the world, the demand for cross-border logistics between the Mainland and Hong Kong continues to be strong. However, the traditional logistics model still faces many challenges due to the impact of logistics cost differences and infrastructure constraints. Specifically, the following is based on the analysis of the logistics difficulties between the two places: 1. High logistics costs, many intermediate links Comparison of transport modes: Land transport: Shenzhen - Hong Kong land transport cost of about 140-200 yuan / ton, the time limit of 1-2 days, but the port congestion (such as Huanggang Port) may lead to delays. Air freight: suitable for urgent cargo (such as fresh food), but the freight cost is high (about 30 yuan/kg), and need to pay extra security fee + operation fee. Sea freight: lower cost for large volume of goods (e.g. Shenzhen - Hong Kong sea freight about 500 RMB/cubic meter), but the time limit is up to 7-10 days. Hidden cost stacking: Customs declaration fee: agent customs declaration fee is about 200-500 RMB/ticket. Warehousing costs: Hong Kong warehousing costs are 2-3 times higher than Shenzhen, especially during peak seasons (e.g. Double Eleven).
2. Information asymmetry, difficult to track the whole system fragmentation: mainland logistics companies (such as SF) and Hong Kong local distributors (such as Kerry Logistics) information systems are incompatible, resulting in the interruption of tracking information after the goods out of the country. Customers often need to inquire manually by phone or email, which is inefficient. Non-transparent customs clearance information: lack of real-time feedback on the progress of customs inspection and release time, making it difficult for customers to predict the cycle of receiving goods.
3. Infrastructure constraints, end distribution difficult port congestion: Shenzhen Bay Port, Huanggang Port and other customs clearance vehicles daily average of more than 10,000 vehicles, queuing for more than 4 hours during peak hours. Distribution in Hong Kong is facing the “last kilometer” problem: some of the streets in the old city are narrow, the street width is less than 3 meters, trucks are difficult to enter, need to manually barge.
Second, the advantages of RFID cross-border low-altitude logistics mainland and Hong Kong cross-border logistics difficulties, is essentially a balance of efficiency and cost issues. To realize the “next day” “door to door” service, the introduction of RFID technology has just become a “golden key” to crack the problem: each piece of goods affixed with a unique RFID tag to achieve “Each piece of cargo is labeled with a unique RFID tag, realizing real-time tracking from the warehouse to the air, and customs clearance data is automatically uploaded to reduce manual errors. When the drone is equipped with RFID read/write equipment, it can scan cargo information in bulk, shortening the traditional 50-hour inventory of 10,000 pieces of cargo to less than 2 hours, and reducing labor costs by 60%.
As a technology provider, Changsha Yingxin Semiconductor Technology Company Limited (referred to as “Yingxin”) to join the project as a key support. Its UHF RFID chip has been fully localized, with three core advantages: long-distance identification: support for drones in the process of dynamic scanning of goods in flight, without the need to land to complete the information interaction; strong anti-interference: complex weather or electromagnetic environment can still be a stable transmission of data, to ensure the reliability of cross-border logistics; cost-controllable: compared with imported chips, Yingxin chip program can significantly reduce the cost of hardware, help Large-scale promotion.
The pilot is also inseparable from the joint efforts of the two places, in the Shenzhen side, the Shenzhen city traffic has planned Shenzhen low altitude routes and landing points, its subsidiary Shenzhen City Traffic Low Altitude Operation Co., Ltd. is preparing for culture and tourism, commuting, medical emergency and other flight services, the future or RFID logistics drones and the formation of the “air corridor”.
In Hong Kong, the first batch of 38 low altitude economic projects were launched by the SAR Government, covering areas such as logistics and distribution, emergency rescue and so on. For example: Shunfeng Fengwing UAV plans to distribute medicines to residents of the outlying islands, and RFID tags will ensure the traceability of medicines; the first delivery route of Meituans UAVs has been completed, and it is expected to realize the rapid transportation of takeaways, documents and other emergency materials between Shenzhen and Hong Kong within the year.
The Innovation, Technology and Industry Bureau of the Hong Kong SAR Government has made it clear that it will promote the linkage of low-altitude economy with cities in the Greater Bay Area, and breakthroughs in key technologies such as drone chips and flight control systems. Completion of the Shenzhen-Hong Kong cross-border drone logistics test routes within the year, with priority given to the protection of medical cold chain, high-value electronic product transport; and in the next few years to build a “RFID + low altitude” standardization system, to promote the logistics network in the Greater Bay Area to the three-dimensional, intelligent upgrading is expected to reduce the cost of cross-border logistics within three years by 15% -20%.
With the deep city traffic and surplus core of the pilot to promote, RFID cross-border low-altitude logistics is from concept to reality. This “Bay Area wisdom” will not only reshape the pattern of logistics in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, more global cross-border logistics provides an innovative sample. In the future, when drones carrying RFID-tagged goods shuttle across the urban skyline, a more efficient and safer logistics era has begun.
Source: RFID World Network