SHANGHAI, July 24, 2017 /PRNewswire/ -- ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE: ZTO) ("ZTO" or the "Company"), a leading express delivery company in China, today announced that it successfully completed its first trial delivery using a drone in an industrial park in Zhejiang Province.
The drone, developed by a domestic drone producer and custom designed for ZTO, flew 14.0 kilometers (8.7 miles) from ZTO's sorting facility in Le Qing county, Zhejiang Province to the office building of an enterprise customer located in an economic development park in the same county. The drone used in the trial delivery has a maximum range of 30.0 kilometers (18.6 miles), is equipped with a 25-liter (6.6 gallon) container, a maximum load carrying capacity of 10.0 kg (22.0 pounds) and is preprogrammed to fly to its destination and does not require a remote control.
"Drone delivery is an innovative new application of technology that we are developing to further optimize and increase the efficiency of last-mile delivery," commented Mr. Meisong Lai, Founder and Chief Executive Officer of ZTO. "This test successfully demonstrated that we can shave 60% off our traditional delivery times using drones. Using traditional ground transportation, this delivery would have taken approximately 50 minutes when taking traffic conditions, gate checks, wait times for elevators, etc., into consideration. We were able to do this in less than 20 minutes using a drone. We believe that drones can be best used for the delivery of parcels to rural areas in the future as they can improve accessibility, ease labor shortages, and reduce logistical costs and delivery time of the entire network."
About ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc.
ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc. (NYSE: ZTO) ("ZTO" or the "Company") is a leading express delivery company in China and one of the largest express delivery companies globally, in terms of total parcel volume in 2016. ZTO provides express delivery service as well as other value-added logistics services through its extensive and reliable nationwide network coverage in China.
ZTO operates a highly scalable network partner model, which the Company believes is best suited to support the significant growth of e-commerce in China. The Company leverages its network partners to provide pickup and last-mile delivery services, while controlling the mission-critical line-haul transportation and sorting network within the express delivery service value chain.
For more information, please visit http://ir.zto.com.
Safe Harbor Statement
This announcement contains forward-looking statements. These statements are made under the "safe harbor" provisions of the U.S. Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These forward-looking statements can be identified by terminology such as "will," "expects," "anticipates," "future," "intends," "plans," "believes," "estimates," "confidence" and similar statements. ZTO may also make written or oral forward-looking statements in its reports filed or furnished to the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission, in its annual reports to shareholders, in press releases and other written materials and in oral statements made by its officers, directors or employees to third parties. Statements that are not historical facts, including statements about ZTO's beliefs and expectations, are forward-looking statements. Forward-looking statements involve inherent risks and uncertainties. A number of factors could cause actual results to differ materially from those contained in any forward-looking statement. Further information regarding these and other risks is included in our annual report on Form 20-F and other documents filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission. All information provided in this press release is as of the date of this press release, and ZTO undertakes no duty to update such information, except as required under applicable law.
For investor and media inquiries, please contact:
ZTO
Ms. Sophie Li
Investor Relations Director
E-mail: ir@zto.com
Christensen
In China
Mr. Christian Arnell
Phone: +86-10- 5900-1548
E-mail: carnell@christensenir.com
In US
Mr. Tip Fleming
Phone: +1-917-412-3333
Email: tfleming@Christensenir.com
SOURCE ZTO Express (Cayman) Inc.