G7 to bolster logistics firms with open smart-ecosystem

G7, a Chinese internet of things or IoT and big data company specializing in fleet management, plans to ramp up its offerings.

Julian Ma, president of G7, said the company aims to establish an open ecosystem that connects vehicles, logistics infrastructure and financial institutions.

Zhai Xuehun, G7's founder and CEO, said the company is at the forefront of tackling the latest challenges in fleet safety, energy efficiency and operations management.

Ma, a former vice-president at Chinese internet behemoth Tencent Holding Ltd, said, "This year, we will further apply AI and big data technologies to help our clients cut costs and improve management efficiency. We'll also explore innovative models of vehicle-as-a-service, marking our first steps toward research and development of autonomous driving and new energy technologies."

G7 will continue to provide IoT and artificial intelligence-powered fleet management and value-added services to logistics companies.

Earlier this month, G7 announced a joint venture with logistics firm GLP and Nio Capital to develop smart trucks. Nio Capital is backed by Chinese electric car maker Nio.

Controlled by G7, the joint venture will focus on developing the next generation of smart heavy-duty trucks powered by autonomous driving, new energy technologies and logistics big data.

Zhai said, "Emerging technologies and logistics big data are creating revolutionary opportunities to solve these long-term challenges. We need to work closely with the automotive industry to achieve seamless integration of AI, trucks and logistics scenarios with a goal to develop a dream truck for logistics companies."

Ma said China's demographic dividend is disappearing, so domestic transportation will confront new challenges such as lack of drivers.

"Driverless trucks will help lift the pressure off drivers as well as boost intensive development of the logistics industry. Similar to the sharing economy model of leading ride-hailing companies like Uber and Didi Chuxing, shared self-driving trucks will be the future of logistics business."

Ma said G7 aims to roll out autonomous cars in the future as only a higher level of self-driving technologies will help reduce drivers' burden and advance safety.

According to a 2016 report by G7 and global consulting firm Bain & Company, China's road freight has amounted 6.1 trillion ton-kilometers, with more than 5 million heavy trucks and over 14 million light and medium trucks. The market size exceeded 5 trillion yuan, making it the world's biggest road transportation market.

Over the past few years, the company has actively invested in IoT, big data, AI and smart equipment to make logistics assets such as trucks and trailers intelligent.

Currently, the company serves more than 50,000 customers and connects more than 600,000 vehicles in real time, claiming it is the largest open IoT platform in the country's logistics industry.

Clients include Chinese e-commerce giant JD and courier firms SF Express, ZTO Express, STO Express, EMS and DHL.

The Beijing-headquartered G7 recently announced receipt of strategic funding of $70 million from Singapore's Global Logistics Properties and Bank of China Group Investment Ltd, a wholly owned investment subsidiary of Bank of China. The company's previous investors include Tencent, Temasek Holdings, GLP and China Development Bank Capital Corporation Ltd.