by Yuchuan Wang and Martin Li

JD Logistics (JDL) listed on Hong Kong Stock Exchange (HKEx) on May 28 at 9:30 am Beijing time with the ticker 2618.HK. The company held a celebration at JD.com headquarters in Beijing, virtually linked to the exchange in Hong Kong.

Representatives including JDL’s customers, clients, and frontline employees participated in the gong-ringing ceremony on stage. Willie Tan, the executive officer of Skechers Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Korea, and a six-axis robot (a logistics robot arm) sounded the gong together.

Rui Yu, CEO of JDL expressed his gratitude towards clients, employees and their families, he said, “You are the most valuable fortune of JDL and our development cannot be separated from your great efforts.”

Wenhui Zhang, who runs a small electronics company in Beijing, is a loyal customer that started using JD in 2004. Now he also uses JDL’ services to meet needs of his company.

“JD’s logistics service is really good and fast. I can receive my parcel the next day,” said Zhang.

“JD’s couriers are very thoughtful. They will call me before each delivery to check if there is anybody at home. They are also very polite to my family members,” added Zhang.

Zhang said he is satisfied with the logistics service he’s received in the past over 10 years.

“I’m willing to pay for better service,” he said.

Fan Zhang is the secretary of Shuangjing village in Chenggu county, Shaanxi province. The village has over 60,000 tangerine growers. Affected by COVID-19, the procurement price for Shuangjing’s tangerines dropped sharply from nearly RMB 1 yuan a year ago to RMB 0.3 yuan in 2020.

JDL dispatched trucks to farms in Chenggu and helped sell over 200,000 kg tangerine leveraging parent company JD.com’s e-commerce resources.

“JD’s procurement price is 2 to 3 times higher than our previous channels,” said Fan Zhang. “They helped us sell nationwide and provided services from order collection, transporting, last-mile delivery and even after sales.”

Born in 1998, Xinyue Dong is a survivor from the 2008 Wenchuan Earthquake. Now he is a merchant committed to selling Wenchuan’s local specialties to China’s customers.

Dong began using JDL’ services in 2017. JDL is the only company he believes that can deliver his fresh fruits to nationwide customers without damaging them.

Each year, JDL will help Dong deliver over 15,000 kg of products. “Orders can be delivered as fast as the next day,” said Dong. “I wish JDL a brighter future and hope to collaborate in areas from logistics to business development.”

Willie Tan is the executive officer of Skechers Greater China, Southeast Asia and South Korea.

Skechers started its cooperation with JDL in 2019. JDL helped the U.S. lifestyle leader optimize its warehousing network planning and the inter-regional merchandise distribution for Skechers’ e-commerce business in China.

As a result of JD’s planning and execution solutions, Skechers’ weighted average fulfillment costs were reduced by 11%, and its weighted average delivery time in China was reduced by approximately five hours.

Tony Domingo is the senior vice president of supply chain and procurement of Nestlé Greater China.

In September 2020, JDL and Nestlé co-launched a large-scale smart storage and distribution center in Tianjin, spanning an area of nearly 30,000 square meters and handling over 1,000 tons of cargo a day.

Leveraging JDL’s superior operational capability and technological advancements in supply chain management, the distribution center can identify specific products and loads that are destined for Nestlé customers, recognize their geographic locations, and use advanced intelligence to visualize and control the migrations or infiltrations of loads between different provinces.

The collaboration with JDL greatly increases the center’s efficiency, helping speed up code scanning and printing processes by 160%.

Jian Liu, a Beijing native, has been working at JDL for fourteen years. He started as a driver in JDL’s northern China region and now leads a team of around 40 people.

Liu has not only improved his work skills by taking on different challenges at JDL, but also managed to complete a college degree. In 2014, supported by the company’s employee education program, he received a degree in business management from Renmin University after two years of study.

He also bought his own home and car, and even built a house in Fangshan in Beijing where he was born.

“Joining JD was the most correct decision I’ve made. I will keep growing with the company and making my contribution,” said Liu.

Yangjun Tang who hails from Sichuan, joined JDL in 2016 to work at the service station in Dongtou district, Wenzhou, Zhejiang province, which is home to over 100 small and big islands and five of them have permanent residents.

In her first three years, Tang didn’t take a single vacation. Under her leadership, the station has grown to now have nine employees, who serve permanent residents living on the five islands. Three of the five islands are only accessible by boat. Island residents mainly rely on delivery service to receive their daily necessities.

“When our station opened, very few people knew of JD. Sometimes they even referred to JD as DJ. However, people now speak highly of JD’s service,” said Tang.

The station handles around 1,000 parcels each day. The number more than doubles during peak sales seasons such as JD’s 618 Grand Promotion.

Earlier this year, Tang took on a new responsibility to develop customers, which was a challenge for her. However, Tang, a resilient woman, chose to learn from other service stations and experienced colleagues, and communicate with sales team.

“I’m the type of person who must do something well if I decide to do it at all,” said Tang.

“Many people say women can’t work in logistics because it’s physically challenging. I don’t agree. Women are reliable, sophisticated, down-to-earth and good at communicating with customers. I hope more women can join my industry,” said Tang.

Rui Zou, who was born in 1994, joined JD by working at JD’s Asia No.1 fulfillment center in Shanghai in 2016 after graduation from Anhui Polytechnic University.

Zou was involved in the construction, device adjustment and operation management of the unmanned warehouse in the center. He now is in charge of the unmanned warehouse, which has daily handling capacity of 1.3 million orders.

Zou has partnered with colleagues to explore innovations to improve operating efficiency of devices in the warehouse.

This past March, Zou bought his own home in Shanghai with the help of the company’s supportive financial measures.

Yonghuo Zou, joined Kuayue-Express in 2014 and started by unloading cargo. JD acquired controlling interest in Kuayue in August last year.

He has received many company awards for his dedication to work and for his outstanding performance.

Zou said that, since the cooperation between JD and Kuayue, the work process has become more standardized. “Whenever we need to check any date, we can quickly find it,” he said.

Zou’s wife also joined Kuayue in 2020 and works as a driver.

(yuchuan.wang@jd.com; bjlihao3@jd.com)