First NCD Document Trial Run on China Western Land-Sea New Corridor Cross-Border Highway Freight Service

en.Wedoany.com Reported - On August 25, with the guidance and support of the Chongqing Municipal Government Port and Logistics Office, Chongqing Customs, the Banan District Government, and Chongqing Logistics Group, the cross-border highway freight service of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor successfully completed the trial run of the first document adapted to the United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents (hereinafter referred to as the NCD document). The trial run was organized and implemented by Chongqing Gongyun ASEAN International Logistics Co., Ltd. in the road transport scenario, with cargo consisting of general machinery equipment and other items, valued at approximately RMB 600,000. The shipment departed from Chongqing Nanpeng Bonded Logistics Center, exited through the Youyiguan Port, and arrived directly in Vietnam, covering a total distance of approximately 1,400 kilometers. The completion of the trial run marks a critical leap in the function of cross-border road transport documents toward negotiable instruments of title, and represents an important achievement of Chongqing in implementing the national deployment on institutional opening-up and promoting innovative practices of international trade rules in the road transport sector.

In December 2025, the United Nations General Assembly reviewed and adopted the United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents, establishing a negotiable transport document system covering multiple modes of transport including road, rail, air, and sea, providing a new rule framework for the innovation of global trade documents.

This trial run focused on the full-chain implementation of standardized road transport NCD documents, with emphasis on verifying the feasibility of the entire process of document issuance, circulation, and delivery under the self-operated model, striving to build a standardized operational process adapted to the cross-border highway freight service of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor, addressing the shortcomings in NCD application practices on the land-based trunk routes of the New Land-Sea Corridor, and also contributing Chinese road transport practice samples for the opening for signature of the Convention in Accra, Ghana.

For a long time, due to differences among countries along the route in document mutual recognition, operational processes, and system development, cross-border road transport has frequently faced practical bottlenecks in actual operations, such as repeated information confirmation and mid-route document replacement, which have invisibly increased time costs and constrained the efficiency of road transport in international trade. In response to the existing bottlenecks in the industry, this NCD document trial run adopted targeted measures. The operating entity, Chongqing Gongyun ASEAN International Logistics Co., Ltd., achieved three major breakthroughs during the trial run: First, document consolidation, simplifying the document circulation chain. By aligning with internationally accepted trade terms, introducing dedicated cross-border road transport terminology, and integrating core information from the entire process of dispatch, transport, and delivery, the trial achieved one-stop entrustment and end-to-end document coverage, significantly reducing the workload of filling in multiple sets of documents and avoiding issues of mid-route document replacement and repeated document review, with document issuance and circulation time reduced from 4 hours to 2 hours. Second, multi-party shared responsibility, building a closed-loop business accountability system. By connecting all market entities across the entire chain, including consignors, consignees, and carriers, and clarifying the rights and responsibilities of each party, the trial strongly supported door-to-door integrated transport, streamlined supply chain procedures, and improved cross-border road transport efficiency by 10%. Third, green empowerment, achieving both openness and low-carbon development. The trial run used hydrogen-powered heavy-duty trucks for transport tasks, promoting the deep coupling of document system innovation with green transport capacity application, simultaneously realizing the dual value of trade facilitation and low-carbon development.

Taking the successful trial run of the NCD document as a new starting point, the cross-border highway freight service of the Western Land-Sea New Corridor will systematically collect and conduct in-depth analysis of full-process operational data, continuously improve the issuance process, operational standards, and risk prevention and control systems for NCD documents in cross-border road transport scenarios, and promote the transition of NCD documents from trial operation to normalized application.

From the world's first railway bill of lading letter of credit, to the adoption of the United Nations Convention on Negotiable Cargo Documents by the UN General Assembly, and then to the successful trial run of the NCD document on cross-border highway freight services, the innovation of land-based trade rules originating from Chongqing is achieving continuous leaps from "breaking the ice" to "expanding the frontier." Based on the cross-border road transport scenario, Chongqing is deeply exploring diversified applications such as road-rail intermodal connectivity and financial empowerment of NCD documents, accelerating the accumulation of replicable and scalable institutional experience, empowering high-quality corridor development through institutional innovation, and contributing Chinese local practical strength to global economic and trade logistics development.