Abstract:

At present， the mismatch between supply and demand of cold chain transport is quite prominent in China. On the demand side， it is difficult for cargo owners to find cars， slow to find cars. Multi-stage transportation and non-standardized temperature control frequently cause a lot of food loss and waste. On the supply side， the distribution of agricultural products is not balanced， and the drivers are often caught in the shortage of goods and the high cost of empty driving. In the face of industry pain points， SF Express cold transport， etc.， actively explore and practice the platform operation mode by integrating dispersed social cold transport resources and provide customers with whole-process cold transport integration services. However， in actual operation， the cold transport enterprises of different sizes on the platform are limited by their own fresh-keeping capacity， and often can only complete half-way of the cold transportation. This specific freight market environment presents a new challenge for logistics platforms to choose logistics outsourcing modes.Different from　normal logistics outsourcing， the development of cold chain logistics in China is not long， the number of logistics enterprises that can undertake cold chain transport business is small and the core business is concentrated in trunk road transport， the fresh transport capacity is different. More prominently， the “first kilometer” transportation is mostly completed by local small and medium-sized logistics enterprises， the thermal insulation performance of the carriage is poor， and the temperature control technology is relatively backward. In such a realistic environment， it is contrary to objective facts for platform vendors to independently determine the freshness-keeping level and require carriers to achieve it. Therefore， a new strategic decision-making mechanism is proposed in which platform operators can influence the freshness-keeping decision-making of carriers through outsourcing price.

Key words: logistics outsourcing mode, fresh cold chain, logistics platform, freshness-keeping level