Orders arrive quickly.
Fresh ingredients are lined up at the supermarket.
This is a common sight in everyday life. Many people take for granted that they can get what they want immediately.

Currently, the main means of transporting goods within Japan is by land transportation using trucks. There are two types of transportation: "trunk transportation," in which large vehicles are used to transport goods over long distances between major areas, and "intra-regional delivery," in which goods are picked up and delivered within an area centered on a major city. Combining these two types of transportation, we transport goods to all parts of the country.

Long working hours have a negative impact on the health of workers and the securing of human resources in all industries, including the logistics industry. The government has begun to promote work-life balance for all workers.

One major step in this direction is the "Act on the Establishment of Relevant Laws to Promote Workplace Reform" (so-called "Workplace Reform Law").
Under the Labor Standards Law, the upper limit of overtime work for automobile driving work, including truck drivers, will be limited to 960 hours per year from April 2024. In addition to the annual limit, the law also sets detailed daily and monthly limits on hours worked and rest periods.

While this has led to an improvement in the working environment for drivers, transporters are now facing a problem that could shake up the logistics industry itself.

That is, they may no longer be able to handle the same distances and volumes as before.

If there is not enough manpower, even if there is something that needs to be transported, it will not be able to be transported. If such a situation continues, consumers will be affected, as they will not be able to receive same-day or next-day delivery services, or will not be able to obtain fresh food. The "normal" way of life may no longer be possible.

This crisis has been called the 2024 logistics problem.
The entire logistics industry is currently implementing a variety of measures to avoid the risk that goods will no longer be able to be transported.

This risk is no stranger to the Nichirei Logistics Group, which has strengths in low-temperature logistics (cold chain). Babazono, who is currently in charge of the transportation department, talks about the efforts his predecessors have made since around 2006.

The first project we undertook was the use of relay points. At a relay point located halfway between Tokyo and Osaka, drivers would change trucks. By going back the way they came, the goods in the truck would be delivered to their destination, and the driver would be able to return home that same day."

Nichirei Logistics Group decided to first test the effectiveness of this method with the cooperation of the Loginet Cooperative Association, which is responsible for the actual transportation.

The first test day in 2006. Trucks departed from Osaka and arrived at the relay base to await a truck from Tokyo. However, no matter how long they wait, it never arrives.

It was five hours after the scheduled time when the driver was able to transfer.
Why on earth did it go wrong?

Behind the five-hour layover was an issue that was lurking in the operation system at the time. According to Mr. Nagata of Logistics Network's Transportation Planning Department, who was in charge of dispatching trucks mainly to the Kansai region.

For many years, the logistics industry has been dominated by the "bulk loading" method, in which drivers load goods onto trucks one by one by hand. Because of the time and labor required, it has become a common practice to delay the scheduled departure time. As a result, we were often unable to deliver goods to retailers and other final destinations on time, causing inconvenience."

Delays from the scheduled departure time would affect other trucks waiting in the area. It was commonplace for trucks to be unable to keep their scheduled departure time, as they had to wait a long time for their turn until the distribution center was ready to receive them.

In order to reduce the five-hour waiting period, we must first instill the concept of "on-time departure and on-time operation," in which trucks depart from the base at a predetermined time.

Nagata and the rest of the transportation team decided to rearrange the operation schedule on all transportation routes. Furthermore, since 2014, the entire company has begun to thoroughly implement "palletizing," which means that even small-lot products are loaded on pallets all at once instead of being transported by hand.

The team went around to each location asking them to reduce the amount of time required to load goods onto trucks and to raise awareness of the need to ensure on-time departures and on-time operations.

These efforts gradually bore fruit over a long period of time, In 2016, all cargoes were palletized for transport between Tokyo and Osaka on the Nichirei Logistics Group's trunk line transport service, "N-Netto-bin".

More than 10 years later, the Nichirei Logistics Group decided to once again undertake the verification process.
Moreover, we were the first in the logistics industry to take on the challenge of an operational method that was expected to be more effective than changing drivers.

Please see [Part 3: What is the revolutionary transportation method that will change the logistics scene] for the rest of the article.