The "Logistics Consortium baton," comprised of 11 companies including Tokio Marine Holdings, Tokio Marine Smart Mobility, Tokio Marine & Nichido Fire Insurance, Seino Holdings, Daiichi Cargo, Tonami Transport, Transcom, Niigata Transport, Hakobel, Fukuyama Transport, and Meitetsu NX Transport, held a joint press conference in Tokyo on November 20th. There, they announced that they will launch Japan's first cross-company "driver exchange relay transport" service for freight forwarding in February 2026. In addition, a talk session featuring executives from the participating companies introduced the efforts of the participating logistics operators to improve the efficiency of their transport operations.
<Scenes from the joint press conference>
The cross-company "driver-exchange relay transport" project for freight forwarding will be implemented for two months by Seino Transportation and Fukuyama Transport between Fujisawa and Atsugi cities in Kanagawa Prefecture and Sakai city in Osaka Prefecture, and by Meitetsu NX Transport and Tonami Transport between Kasai in Edogawa Ward, Tokyo and Higashi-Osaka city in Osaka Prefecture, using a driver-exchange system. Based on the "risk burden guidelines" and operational rules formulated by baton, the project will verify what kind of problems may occur in the series of processes including vehicle merging, loading and unloading, and operation, accumulate knowledge and identify challenges, and consider how to develop rules and build systems for social implementation.
At the beginning of the joint press conference, Masahiro Koike, Group CEO of Tokio Marine Holdings, gave an opening address, reporting that baton was established in November 2024 based on a sense of crisis that goods would no longer be able to be transported.
Speaking on behalf of the participating logistics companies, Tomoaki Takahashi, President of Seino Transportation, pointed out that concerns have emerged regarding the "2030 problem," which projects a 34% shortage of freight transport capacity by 2030 due to factors such as the aging of drivers. He then explained that the Seino Holdings Group is developing an "Open Public Platform (OPP)" to improve transportation efficiency by openly providing platforms such as logistics bases and routes. He then expressed the view that expanding from the previous "one-to-one" combinations to "many-to-many" initiatives is essential to ensuring sustainable logistics, and emphasized the importance of using the "baton" framework as a flagship activity for these efforts.
<President Takahashi>
In addition to President Takahashi, the talk session featured Masashi Ikutame, Senior Managing Executive Officer of Tokio Marine Holdings, Hiroyuki Kumano, President of Fukuyama Transport, Kazuo Takada, President of Tonami Transport, and Takuo Yoshikawa, President of Meitetsu NX Transport. Seiji Onozuka, Partner at Roland Berger, served as the facilitator.
<Scenes from the talk session>
During the talk session, Fukuyama Transport's President Kumano explained that they are asking shippers to cooperate by bringing forward pickup times, taking into account the application of regulations on upper limits on working hours. He also pointed out that introducing double-trailer trucks and trailers is more costly than introducing regular trucks, and that modal shift is susceptible to weather conditions.
Takada, president of Tonami Transport, reported that they have established a joint venture company with Daiichi Cargo and Kurume Transport, and have been working to maintain their network and other infrastructure.
Yoshikawa, president of Meitetsu NX Transport, stated that they have been integrating their business since January, adding Nippon Express's freight forwarding network to their own transportation network, and are currently working towards "integration."
