'Fuxing' to provide high-speed delivery of goods on Singles Day

A new Fuxing bullet train running between Tianjin and Beijing, prepares to leave the capital.[Photo by Wang Zhuangfei/China Daily]

Customers between Beijing and Shanghai will soon see faster delivery of goods as "Fuxing" bullet train, which runs at 350 kilometers per hour, will be put into use during the upcoming Singles Day online shopping spree to facilitate the deliveries.

Singles Day, which falls on Nov 11 every year as the world's largest online shopping festival, is a major challenge for the delivery services. Last year some 170 bullet trains were used for express deliveries from Nov 11 to 20, serving 505 cities.

The fast service, jointly provided by China Railway Express and Shunfeng Express, the country's leading delivery company, is to keep the promise to deliver goods to customers between Beijing and Shanghai in 10 hours. The first train for express delivery started its test operation from Beijing South Railway Station at 2 pm on Thursday.

Different from the bullet trains used for express delivery, "Fuxing" has special spaces being set up to carry delivery boxes in two carriages of the 16-carriage trains. The two carriages can carry a total of 40 delivery boxes, with each box having a weight capacity of 25 kilograms.

According to Du Yandong, the person in charge of the service from Shunfeng Express, the fast service relies on not only the reduced travel times of 4.5 hours between the two cities, but also the new logistic service - "storage to storage", which was released by railway department on Monday as an innovative way to help facilitate the express delivery.

Besides, the railway service also has a price advantage compared to the air express, Du added.

Due to limited storage space, "Fuxing" currently only provides emergency delivery services such business letters, contracts, emergency goods and personal valuable goods, and has strict standard for the size and weight of the goods, according to Huang Jian, the person in charge of the service from China Railway Express.

Two trains will deliver the goods after "Fuxing" officially goes into service on Nov 11, and more fast services will be provided later.