Placing orders online and receiving express delivery at your doorstep has long been integrated into the daily lives of ordinary people. But how can billions of parcels be efficiently circulated and delivered accurately? At the Service Trade Fair, reporters discovered that artificial intelligence is changing the operating logic of traditional logistics.
Today's "News in Service Trade" looks at how new technologies can break through distribution congestion and achieve new speeds in industrial development.
CCTV reporter Jin Xiaoxi: This is the transportation and business services special exhibition of the 2026 Service Trade Fair. At this year's pavilion, I discovered that logistics is getting smarter. Warehousing robots can climb shelves to pick up goods by themselves, while robot dogs carry packages through the venue. The unmanned delivery vehicle has no cab or steering wheel, and its "colleagues" are running on urban and rural roads across the country.
The reporter followed the unmanned express vehicle on a mountain road for more than an hour. The vehicle autonomously identified road conditions, avoided obstacles, and traveled smoothly all the way, finally arriving at Laolong Village, Pingtian Town, Nanxiong City.
There are more than 200 villages in Nanxiong. There are many mountains and far distances, so it is difficult for couriers to deliver express delivery to every village. In the past, villagers in Laolong Village had to go to town to get express delivery. But now, driverless cars drive directly into the village, making everyone's life much more convenient.
So far, the two unmanned vehicles put into operation in Nanxiong countryside have made more than 60 trips in more than two months, with a total mileage of nearly 2,000 kilometers. It not only shortens the time for consumer goods to enter the village, but also solves the pain point of slow transportation of agricultural products in mountainous areas. Locally produced plums and peaches can be packaged and shipped out of the village on the same day. In the next step, unmanned delivery will also be rolled out to surrounding villages.
Unmanned delivery solves the problem of sinking at the logistics end. In large logistics hubs, AI also provides a solution to the operating pressure caused by the centralized processing of massive parcels. Late at night, the China Post Guangzhou Postal District Center is still brightly lit, processing more than 7 million pieces of mail every day. Because there are too many packages, package congestion is a long-standing problem that plagues the operation of the hub. Every time, it must be shut down for processing, which directly reduces the sorting efficiency.
Today, an intelligent management and control system is equipped with digital "traffic lights" for the entire assembly line.
Wang Lei, head of the Operation and Maintenance Center of China Post Guangzhou Postal Area Center: We use big data and AI intelligent model algorithms to monitor the pressure index and flow of each line in real time, and automatically control the flow if the pressure is too high. The number of equipment congestions per shift has been reduced from more than a dozen times to zero now.
In addition to invisible algorithmic scheduling in the background, embodied intelligent robots have also begun to take the lead in sorting. What they took over was the preliminary sorting of parcels, which used to be highly repetitive and tedious.
CCTV reporter Jin Xiaoxi: I just worked on the sorting line for a total of 3 minutes and processed 52 packages, which is slightly less than the average number of 60 for robots. As a newbie, I found that there are still many ways to do this job.
The doorway is hidden in detailed practical operations: packages can easily roll over if they are placed slightly wrong, and it is even more difficult to identify and handle special-shaped items. Compared with human labor, robots can work continuously and independently complete night shifts from 8 pm to 5 am.
Qin Sicheng, head of the shipping and dispatching team at the Jianggao Land Transport Export Center of China Post Guangzhou Postal Area Center: Our personnel can do more complex work, including organization, on-site scheduling, and supervision.
At present, my country's express delivery business volume has ranked first in the world for 12 consecutive years, contributing more than 60% to global express delivery growth. In the first half of this year, the national express delivery volume exceeded 100 billion pieces, nine days earlier than last year. Not long ago, the country also issued the "Implementation Plan for Logistics Network Construction" and included "artificial intelligence + logistics" into the national plan. The new technologies and new achievements on the exhibition stand of the Trade in Service Fair are increasingly becoming "everyday life" of people. A smart logistics network with speed and warmth is constantly extending.
Producer丨Wang Yan Yue Qun
Producer丨Liu Ying
Reporters丨Jin Xiaoxi Zheng Shu
Photography丨Tang Zhijian
Co-production丨Baiyun District Media Fusion Nanxiong City Media Fusion
Editor | Marseille Zhang Hao
