Japan to Support Cooperation for Long-Distance Cargo Transport

Tokyo, Feb. 18 (Jiji Press)–Japan’s transport ministry will provide incentives for logistics service providers to cooperate in the long-distance transportation of cargo, as it aims to advance work style reform for truck drivers. The idea is to allow drivers to pass their cargo to other companies’ trucks at warehouses along transportation routes, making it easier for them to return home within the day. Subsidies and tax benefits will be provided to companies that make plans for such joint operations and obtain government certification for the plans. The ministry will submit a bill to revise the distribution business streamlining law to the extraordinary session of the Diet, the country’s parliament, from Wednesday. According to the bill, warehouses and truck terminals located along long-distance transportation routes would be designated as transportation relay facilities, which would be required to have resting places for drivers and temporary storage for unloaded cargo. Major logistics companies have already started relay cargo transportation using more than one truck within their fleets. The ministry hopes to expand the range of cooperation beyond corporate boundaries and bring in small and midsize companies. The ministry will subsidize costs for setting up joint transportation plans involving two or more companies in the logistics and warehousing industries. When such plans are certified by the ministry, the applicants will be eligible for subsidies for joint transportation operations for the first business year, as well as for loans. If new bases are established for such operations, fixed asset and city planning taxes will be reduced as long as an agreement is signed with a local government on the use of the land. In 2024, the annual working hours of drivers of large trucks, who are mainly involved in long-distance cargo transportation, averaged 2,484 hours. The ministry aims to lower the figure by 2030 to the all-industry average, which was 2,052 hours in 2024. END [Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]