In the first five months, the China-Europe Railway Express (Xi'an) operated the highest number of trains nationwide-Smart supervision paves the "highway" for trade in goods

 

 

Our correspondent, Luo Ting

In midsummer, at Xi'an International Port Station, gantry cranes operate incessantly, transferring containers filled with home appliances and machinery onto the racks of the China-Europe Express. Then, the train whistled and set off towards the Eurasian heartland. From January to May this year, the China-Europe Railway Express (Xi'an) launched 2,670 trains, reflecting a 41.5% year-on-year increase, and transported a total of 3.059 million metric tons of goods, marking a 52.3% year-on-year growth. These key metrics ranked first nationwide.

The remarkable figures owe much to the empowerment facilitated by smart customs initiatives. The Xi'an Station Customs, under Xi'an Customs, has advanced the development of a smart logistics supervision system for Xi'an Port. This system leverages digital technology to overcome data barriers and optimize clearance procedures, enabling the "steel camel caravan" to achieve enhanced efficiency.

"Cloud-based Logistics" Enables Multi-stakeholder Coordinated Supervision

"In the past, transporting goods required multiple trips to customs and railway stations," said Bian Mei, the customs manager at Xi'an Youbianjie International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd. "Now, we can monitor container statuses anytime, and paperless operations save both time and effort."

The transformations described by Bian Mei result from the smart logistics supervision system developed by Xi'an Railway Station Customs to address pressing issues faced by businesses and the public. This system integrates logistics oversight data from customs authorities, railway networks, station facilities, and platform companies, creating a shared "data pool" for port logistics supervision. By leveraging AI modeling technology, the system automates processes such as data cleaning, categorization, and integration, enhancing logistics oversight data transfer efficiency by 300% and achieving a 100% core business data entry rate. In parallel, a comprehensive "full-process logic verification" model was established to achieve a closed-loop management system for supervision data spanning from data transmission, logical computation, to terminal execution. By integrating with the customs PC terminal and the enterprise application terminal, a dual-layer verification mode was implemented. Consequently, over 10 customs regulatory transactions were facilitated for end-to-end processing, enhancing overall cargo turnover efficiency by 58%.

The advantages extend beyond this. "A specialized PC terminal tailored for the railway department was developed by the system, completely digitizing the intricate paper-based document circulation process, thereby saving manpower, increasing operational efficiency, and expediting the departure speed of trains," said Ma Feng, Director of the Operations Department at Xi'an Branch of China Railway United International Container Co., Ltd.

"Keyboard-Based Supervision" Establishes a Fast Track for Intelligent Inspection and Clearance

Upon entering the customs monitoring and command center at Xi'an Railway Station, the logistics supervision interface displayed on the large screen updates in real-time. By selecting the export goods query, one can clearly view the customs declaration numbers, container numbers, and declaration information corresponding to each shipment.

This represents a vivid demonstration of the integration of data streams, document flows, and tangible goods management by the Customs at Xi'an Railway Station using the smart logistics supervision system. Additionally, the comprehensive IoT framework for customs logistics supervision has implemented a "visual intelligence monitoring network," integrating over 300 high-definition cameras that monitor every node within the logistics supervision process. These cameras collaborate with the AI-driven dynamic recognition system to ensure a 100% identification rate of container trajectories. By accessing the container yard interface at the railway central station and inputting a container number, the system can precisely locate its position, display associated cargo information and status in real-time, significantly reducing the time needed for companies to locate their containers and for customs to perform inspections, decreasing inspection preparation time by 50%. Currently, the smart logistics supervision system processes daily customs declarations at more than three times the capacity of manual handling methods, effectively mitigating risks associated with supervision. This system facilitates regulatory visualization, precision, and intelligence through "comprehensive insight via a single platform, streamlined command functionality, and consolidated effectiveness displayed on one screen".

According to the officers from the Customs Supervision Department at Xi'an Railway Station, the intelligent logistics supervision system is designed with six major modules and thirty-seven sub-functions using scenario-based functionality configurations. This system comprehensively addresses supervision across diverse sectors, including bulk cargo, full vehicles, grains, meats, and cross-border e-commerce. Data from each stage is automatically compared in real time. Containers with no irregularities are released with 100% automation. The entire customs clearance process is seamlessly integrated, ensuring traceable records and adhering to transparecy requirements. Furthermore, by merging cargo declaration data with railway schedule data, the system optimally devises inspection strategies, reducing over 30% of customs clearance time prior to train departure.

The Initiative "Clearance at Fingertips" Aids Businesses in Lowering Costs and Enhancing Efficiency

A container truck fully loaded with goods entered the customs supervision operation zone. Upon the truck's front passing the intelligent checkpoint, the camera and sensor devices positioned atop the checkpoint seamlessly activated. They promptly and accurately identified and collected the container number along with the cargo arrival information. At this moment, on the "invisible" data highway, this information is rapidly heading towards the customs supervision system.

A few kilometers away, Bian Mei, the Customs Manager at Xi'an Youbianjie International Freight Forwarding Co., Ltd., routinely opened the "Smart Clearance" App on her mobile phone. Previously, waiting for inspection instructions was the most stressful process—always needing to be prepared to visit customs offices, contact railways, and coordinate facilities. Now, as soon as the mobile phone screen lights up, it indicates: "Arrival information confirmed, waiting for customs instructions…"

Almost simultaneously, the logistics intelligent supervision system responds: "No inspection instruction, automatic clearance granted." Bian Mei immediately felt relieved. She then reviewed the updated status on the app: "Cargo cleared, waiting to load onto the train." The entire process was remarkably efficient. The information transmission and confirmation steps that once required manual effort are now seamlessly handled in the "cloud".

However, the process isn't always so "smooth". Bian Mei demonstrated another scenario—the app displayed a notification for a "check instruction". At this point, instead of going out, she quickly selected options for inspection time, location, and other details in the "check instruction" module of the app using a tap of her fingers, and then submitted her request. A few minutes later, the app notified "Approval granted".

Almost simultaneously, this instruction along with the container information was pushed to the railway department's PC interface. Based on the information, railway staff promptly arranged activities such as lifting containers, short-distance transfers, and placing them in designated inspection areas. Customs officers utilized the system to monitor the real-time location and status of containers, enabling them to accurately organize inspection resources.

"Look, throughout the entire process, I didn't move an inch—it was all completed on my phone," explained Bian Mei, pointing to the app, where the interface distinctly displayed the real-time customs clearance status and logistics updates of the goods. "From scheduling the inspection, checking the approval progress, tracking the containers as they are lifted, transferred, and placed for inspection, to the final clearance command, everything is straightforward and clearly visible. In the past, we needed to dispatch dedicated personnel to manage customs, railways, and platform companies, spending the majority of the day completing these rounds. Now, efficiency has increased by over five or six times, significantly reducing labor costs."

This represents the "Clearance at Fingertips" model implemented by Xi'an Railway Station Customs. By leveraging the "Smart Clearance" mobile app, customs supervision instructions are precisely delivered to enterprises. Enterprises utilize the app to manage nearly all customs clearance operations, such as scheduling inspections, submitting transit box drop requests, applying for manual approvals, requesting gate lifting, and issuing supplementary releases. Underlying this innovation is the efficient integration and intelligent allocation of regulatory data in the "cloud".

The transformation has yielded remarkable results. The average approval process duration has been substantially reduced from four hours to approximately five minutes. Enterprise customs declaration costs have been cut by over 70%. It truly enables data to operate at high speeds in the 'cloud', allowing enterprises to bid farewell to cumbersome processes and effortlessly manage the entire customs clearance scenario via a compact display. Enable worry-free clearance with just a tap, this seamless experience is increasingly becoming a novel advantage for numerous foreign trade companies", said the principal authority at the Xi'an Railway Station Customs office.

 

 

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 Disclaimer：The above content is translated from Chinese version of China Inspection and Quarantine Times. The China Inspection and Quarantine Times version shall prevail.