The Minimum Weight Requirement for Small Sea Freight Parcels: The Direction of Change under the Trend of Green Logistics
Amid the global trend of advocating green logistics, the minimum weight requirement rule for small sea freight parcels also faces new transformation demands. How to achieve green and sustainable development while ensuring transportation benefits has become the focus of industry attention.
The traditional minimum weight requirement rule for small sea freight parcels mainly focuses on economic benefits, with little consideration for environmental impacts. As the concept of green logistics gains increasing popularity, this situation urgently needs to be changed. On the one hand, shipping companies are exploring ways to optimize the minimum weight requirement rule to reduce ship 空载率 (empty – load rate) and energy consumption. For example, they adopt more accurate big data analysis models to predict the flow and weight distribution of small parcel goods on different routes and at different times, and reasonably adjust the minimum weight standards. For routes with relatively low cargo flow, the minimum weight requirements are appropriately lowered to attract more small parcel cargo transportation, increasing the utilization rate of ship cargo space and thus reducing the energy consumption per unit of goods.
On the other hand, green packaging has become closely linked to the minimum weight requirement rule. In the past, to meet the minimum weight requirement, some shippers often used a large amount of packaging materials to increase the weight of parcels, which not only led to a waste of resources but also generated a large amount of packaging waste. Nowadays, driven by green logistics, shippers and shipping companies are jointly seeking solutions. Shippers use degradable and lightweight packaging materials to minimize packaging weight while ensuring the safety of goods. Shipping companies, when formulating the minimum weight requirement rules, offer certain preferential policies for small parcels with green packaging, such as reducing freight fees or providing priority transportation services.
In addition, ports and logistics enterprises are also actively involved in this transformation. Ports optimize loading and unloading processes to improve the handling efficiency of small parcel goods, reduce the stay time of ships in port, and lower carbon emissions. Logistics enterprises utilize blockchain technology to achieve transparency and traceability in the transportation process of small parcels, facilitating the evaluation and improvement of the implementation effects of green logistics measures. Driven by the trend of green logistics, the minimum weight requirement rule for small sea freight parcels is evolving towards a more environmentally friendly, efficient, and sustainable direction, which will bring new development opportunities and challenges to the entire sea freight logistics industry.