Business in Resolving Social Issues

At Yamato Transport, sales drivers engaged in front-line business operations are in direct contact with customers. We have introduced a system in which sales drivers communicate with customers and enter details of customer feedback and problems into a mobile app. The information entered is linked to corporate division systems. Inquiries from customers regarding SDGs-related Yamato Group initiatives and projects have been increasing in recent years, due to growing public interest in social issues. Through this system, the Yamato Group examines and formulates strategies to address customer problems and issues, and engages in proposal activities to solve social issues.

To contribute to the reduction of emissions in supply chains by improving our customers’ logistics processes (Scope 3), the Yamato Group implements processes aimed at reducing greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions through comprehensive guidance, from calculations to understand the current status of GHG emissions, to reviewing logistics to make reductions and the verification of results.
For details, please refer to Support for Reducing Greenhouse Gas Emissions by Improving Logistics Efficiency (Japanese only).

To be a partner that contributes to solving issues in communities, the Yamato Group concludes partnership agreements with local governments and partners in communities and undertakes initiatives that will contribute to solving social issues.

As of March 31, 2023, we have signed 194 agreements related to watching over the elderly with local governments and related organizations nationwide. Against the backdrop of social issues such as the increasing number of elderly people living alone and a lack of people who are watching over people in communities, we provide the Kuroneko Monitoring Service HelloLight Visit Plan using IoT light bulbs. You can watch over your family member living separately simply by replacing the light bulbs in the bathroom, hallway or other places in the home of the family member with HelloLight bulbs. The monitoring service is used not only by individual customers but also real estate companies that seek to enhance the value of real estate. Certain local governments use the Kuroneko Monitoring Service in their elderly monitoring services.
Approximately 10,000 households use the service as of August 31, 2023.

Yamato Transport is working with local governments and bus companies to maintain the bus route networks in mountainous areas where depopulation and aging are progressing by introducing passenger/cargo mixed transportation (simultaneously transporting passengers and cargo together), and improving lifestyle services for local residents by improving the efficiency of logistics.

Advantages of Mixed Transportation

Local customers
Since the bus route networks in depopulated areas are maintained and stable use of route buses can continue, residents can access facilities such as hospitals and supermarkets, stabilizing their lifestyle base. TA-Q-BIN services also become more convenient, since sales drivers stay in the area for longer periods of time, enabling longer collection deadlines. It is also expected to have a beneficial effect on traffic safety and the environment by reducing the number of vehicles running in the region.

Bus companies
Transporting TA-Q-BIN in the free spaces of local buses can provide new revenue streams that enable bus companies to maintain their bus networks and increase productivity.

Yamato Transport has launched passenger / cargo mixed transportation services in cooperation with Miyazaki Kotsu Co., Ltd. and local government agencies. This initiative has increased the length of time that sales drivers can stay in villages, enabling them to respond to requests such as wanting to change delivery times, and allows consideration of other services such as shopping support and watching over senior citizens at the time of delivery.

In 2017, we also introduced route buses equipped with dedicated cool boxes. We are also contributing to the expansion of sales channels for local specialties, such as by quickly delivering the local specialty Nishimera salmon overseas while maintaining freshness.

We are engaging in trials with Sapporo Drug Store Co., Ltd. wherein satellite stores are set up in Yamato Transport sales offices in Hokkaido (Okushiri, Hokkaido Horonobe, Tokoro, and Oumu) to support the lifestyles of and a shopping environment for people who live in rural areas where the market population is declining in line with the falling birthrate and aging population.
Employees of Yamato Transport act as sales representatives within the sales offices for items such as daily commodities. Additionally, as an initiative to help shoppers who face difficulties buying daily essentials, we have been operating mobile sales vehicles, utilizing pickup and delivery vehicles from the Okushiri sales office, since August 2022. We are carrying out trials for mobile sales of products carried by Sapporo Drug Store Co., Ltd. in districts where people facing difficulties with shopping live.

Maintaining a network for the transportation of pharmaceutical products is becoming a serious social issue in areas whose population is aging or decreasing. In hilly and mountainous areas, in particular, a new issue is emerging: patients do not have any way of receiving prescription drugs even if they do have access to online medical care during the COVID-19 pandemic. To solve this issue, Yamato Transport conducted demonstration experiments to examine the economic feasibility of using drones to transport the medical devices needed by local medical facilities and prescription drugs to the homes of patients in Wake-cho, Okayama and Naka-cho, Tokushima.