(Photo by Liu Xia)

Chinese logistics firm Best Express, backed by Alibaba Group, operates the country’s first fully automatic distribution hub for standard delivery service in Wujin District of Changzhou City.

The courier service and standard delivery service, two main parts of logistics industry, are different mainly in terms of speed, availability and cost. The standard delivery service is usually for larger or heavier shipment, while items less than 10kg are usually delivered by courier service.

At the center of courier, express, and postal service is the distribution hub, where shipments are received, processed, and sorted for further distribution.

The distribution hub of Best Express features a spacious workshop, where the identification of parcels is completed by scanning at the entrance and then shipped through the conveying system automatically to the end point for collection by the delivery vehicle.

Amid the booming e-commerce, express delivery companies face the growing challenge of sorting and preparing parcel for further delivery. Then in August last year, Best Express introduced the automatic operation line that can process up to 2,000 parcels per hour, a dramatic increase in efficiency.

The distribution hub has half of parcels for e-commerce, and the growth rate has reached nearly 100 percent compared with the same period last year.

During the shopping festival on November 11 last year, the hub processed 300 tons of parcels a day, ten hours faster than manual sorting. In the upcoming shopping festival this year, the hub is expected to handle 800 tons of parcels a day.