Full Truck Alliance Group Makes Inroads into the Intra-city Freight Market with Acquisition of SS Return Truck

SHANGHAI, Dec. 4, 2020 /PRNewswire/ -- On November 24, Full Truck Alliance, an intelligent transportation platform in China, announced it secured $US1.7 billion in the latest round of funding to expand its freight business from inter-city to intra-city and branded the service as Yunmanman.

In June 2019, Tianjin Manyun Software Technology Co., Ltd., a subsidiary of the Full Truck Alliance Group, increased its investment in Guangzhou SS Return Truck Infotech Co., Ltd., brand owner of SS Return Truck (also known as "ShengSheng Huitouche"). In August 2020, 100 percent of SS Return Truck's shares were transferred to Tianjin Manyun Software Technology Co., Ltd.

SS Return Truck mainly provides customers with intra and inter-city pickup, delivery, housing relocation and other short-to-medium-haul freight hauling services. With the acquisition of this brand, its founding operation team, network resources, and intra-city business will be integrated into the Yunmanman brand, enabling Full Truck Alliance to expand into the intra-city freight business.

At present, Full Truck Alliance has piloted its intra-city freight service in two cities. Its daily orders have exploded since its launch two months ago, which exceeds four digits on a daily basis; and average order feedback time is as short as only nine seconds while the average time from posting to trucker arrival is inside only five minutes. All these operating metrics are considered in the top percentile in the industry. In addition, the one-stop logistics service for both intra-city and intercity provided by Full Truck Alliance is well recognized by customers and the frequency of shipment postings has been growing rapidly.

"The long-haul business mainly focuses on short-term planning demand of vehicles which are more price sensitive", says the BU leader of the intra-city freight business. "The intra-city business is mainly about on-demand vehicles, and key indicators for customer satisfaction are the order feedback time as well as the time needed for the trucker to arrive on site. Full Truck Alliance has a huge number of logistics users to facilitate the national logistics flow of freight sources which need vehicles for intra-city pick-up and delivery. The loading of a 17.5-meter truck with full truck load at a dedicated line company may otherwise require at least ten 4.2-meter trucks to pick up the goods and another ten 4.2-meter trucks to deliver them to the consignees when reaching their destinations. Our company, however, has the unique advantage of accumulated rich operating experience of freight matching on long-haul freight lines that could rapidly be applied into the intra-city business."

China's intra-city freight market - not as large as the long-haul freight market – is estimated at a market size exceeding RMB one trillion which is two to three times larger than the express market. At present, the intra-city freight market is not highly concentrated with a CR10 market share of less than ten percent, while the CR10 market share of the express market is close to 90 percent.

As the leading freight hailing marketplace in China, Full Truck Alliance has a large truck user pool and B2B shipper network, with unique advantage in supply and order dispatching capabilities. By expanding into the intra-city freight business, it can further meet platform users' demand for pickup and delivery, while satisfying the long-and short-haul delivery needs of B2B customers from wholesalers, industrial parks, as well as B2C customers such as smaller merchants and individuals.

Road freight transportation has long featured low market concentration, a fragmented trucker base with low matching efficiency. This is mostly due to asymmetry of information and the very thick value chain with multiple intermediaries, agents and industry players, which has in turn provided a lot of opportunities for many new start-ups.

By entering into the intra-city freight business, Full Truck Alliance will leverage its technologies to further integrate various social truck supply. Aiming at achieving a more diversified business, Full Truck Alliance will strive to optimize the allocation of long-haul and intra-city freight resources, improve the efficiency of short-haul as well as long-haul freight transport, and reduce transport costs while creating greater value for platform users. This business model will also drive the freight industry to gradually develop from separation to integration and improve the overall structure of the industry.

Full Truck Alliance, as the leading intelligent transportation platform in China - and possibly globally - efficiently connects truck drivers with shippers from both sides of the value chain, enabling them to quickly complete transport transactions through big data and AI-enabled recommendations. It can improve transport efficiency, reduce transaction costs, and lower the empty-load rate. Currently, Full Truck Alliance has more than 10 million registered drivers and over 5 million registered shippers. Full Truck Alliance has made breakthroughs in logistics information matching, digitalized and standardized transactions, with assurance on its fulfillment and has achieved profitability this year.

SOURCE Full Truck Alliance Group