The third conference of transport and logistics ministers from China, Japan and Korea was held a few days ago, during which China and Korea initialed Land & Ocean Combined Transport Automobile Freightage Agreement and its first stage Implementation Protocol; Meanwhile, Shandong was determined to be antecedent province.
 Compared with other existing transport forms, this land & ocean combined transport not only reduces cargo damage incurred by loading and unloading operation, transport duration is also greatly shortened and transport cost is lowered. This is favorable for the export enterprises in Qingdao.
Relevant principals of municipal logistics association said, “land & ocean combined transport will propel trade cooperation between Qingdao and Korea and improve logistics efficiency between Qingdao and Korea through its advantage of quickness and low price, so it is with great importance”.
Land & ocean combined automobile freightage refers to the transport mode that the vehicle, loaded with goods, enters into the boarder of counterpart, without the need of unloading and transferring, so that the original vehicle directly deliver goods to destination. Just like paving a “nautical expressway”, it realizes the nonstop motor transport for import and export of cargos.
Korea is the biggest import trade partner and the third biggest exporting country of Qingdao. Traditional shipping container transport between Qingdao and Korea is difficult to fulfill the special requirement of transport mode, means and efficiency and so on aspects for a good deal of precision equipments, electronic products and agricultural and sideline products, so logistics mode is urgently required to be innovated to fulfill diversified logistics requirement.
After implementation of land & ocean combined transport, vehicles, loaded with goods, enters into the hinterland of counterparty through China---Korea scheduled passenger-cargo liner, without the need of unloading and transferring, so that the original vehicle directly finishes multimodal transport of “land—ocean—land” and realizes “door to door” transport. Relevant principals of municipal traffic and transport committee said, “this new logistics mode not only reduces cargo damage incurred by loading and unloading, but also shortens transport duration and cuts down comprehensive logistics cost.”
 After implementation of land & ocean combined automobile freightage, the exporting enterprises from Qingdao to Korea can directly benefit from it. According to the first stage of Implementation Protocol, China and Korea, the two parties will allow the trailer, loaded with containers, driving into ship, not only each container can save 3.5 h reloading duration, but also can save USD 50 dollars of unloading and transport expense respectively for the parties. Once the whole vehicles, including tractors, are allowed to drive into ship in the future, clearance duration by customs will be greatly reduced.
Relevant principals of an Qingdao international logistics company, Liuyu said,“Land & ocean combined transport is especially applicable for precise electronic products and so on cargos to effectively avoid damage incurred by repeatedly loading and unloading”. This is good news for numerous high-tech enterprises in province.
The high and new tech enterprises of Shandong province have presently developed rapidly. Export of a great quantity of electronic products and purchase of raw materials rely on air transportation, but the quantity of cargo aircrafts is insufficient in province, production and export requirement of electronic products are failed to be fulfilled only by assistant transport of passenger plane. Road transportation should be adopted for high-tech precise electronic instruments manufactured by enterprises, which are transported to Beijing international airport, and then transferred to Europe and America, so it is with high cost and poor safety.
However, after application of land & ocean combined transport, the new logistics mode, a lot of logistics cost and customs clearance time can be saved, aviation insufficiency at Shandong port is also relieved effectively; While its effect will also benefit other high and new tech enterprises. 
In the meanwhile, export of agricultural products in Qingdao will also benefit from it. Export goods from Shandong to Korea mainly include vegetables and aquatic products, so requirement of transportation time is extremely strict. Compared with air transportation, although duration of maritime transportation is longer, it is still the optimum choice for export enterprises in Shandong. Liuyu said, “reduction of transportation time can directly cut down export logistics cost of agricultural and sideline products, which will benefit the export of agricultural products, especially for seafood.”
It proves that “seamless logistics” can be realized through land & ocean combined automobile freightage, which obviously improves economy and trade between Shandong and Korea, especially between Qingdao and Korea. Industry insiders think that the extreme convenience of traffic and logistics can not only enlarge trade scale between Shandong and Korea, improve composition of export commodity to Korea, but also can expand the third party’s market for enterprises in Shandong through Korea market.