China’s lockdowns drive up freight costs as zero-Covid rules bite trucking operations

Long-distance truck drivers are being forced to undergo arduous coronavirus testing and quarantine requirements to make deliveries

Freight costs are rising due to inefficiencies, while customers are waiting longer for deliveries and producers are struggling to ship cargo

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Trucks wait to pass through a checkpoint on a highway leading from Shanghai. Photo: Bloomberg

Published: 8:30pm, 5 Apr 2022

For farmers and traders in Donggang, a county in northeast China known for its high-quality strawberries, getting ripe fruit out of town has become increasingly difficult in recent weeks.

Even though the region has barely reported a coronavirus case, the local government – like most others across China – has imposed stringent rules on truck drivers entering the city as the country grapples with its most serious outbreak in two years.

Truckers require a negative nucleic acid test within 24 hours to get off the highway at a designated exit for Donggang. Then, instead of driving directly to strawberry greenhouses like usual, they are led to an appointed area where they are sealed in their cab with tape by local officials.

As a result, local traders like Luan Jun have been forced to hire trucks to transport their produce from greenhouses to highway checkpoints.

“The costs are much higher now, and the efficiency is lower,” Luan said.

To make matters worse, many cities in the northeast have locked down due to local outbreaks, forcing fruit stands to shut their businesses.

“Previously I could send out 5,000kg of strawberries per day, but now I can only send out half of the amount,” Luan said.