Aiming to realize a logistics solution leveraging advanced technology

Trancom Co., Ltd.
Hino Motors, Ltd.

Today, Trancom Co., Ltd. (Hereafter "Trancom." HQ: Nagoya City, Aichi. President: Yutaka Tsunekawa), and Hino Motors, Ltd. (Hereafter "Hino." HQ: Hino City, Tokyo. President & CEO: Yoshio Shimo) entered a capital and business alliance aimed at solving social issues pertaining to logistics at an early stage. Hino will acquire a portion of Trancom's issued shares approximately 50 million yen. This will serve as a mutual investment with the Hino Group in line with the investment in Hino subsidiary, NEXT Logistics Japan Co., Ltd. (Hereafter "NLJ." HQ: Shinjuku-ku, Tokyo. President: Yukio Umemura) by Trancom announced on December 4^{th ※1}.

As companies involved in logistics, Trancom and Hino have pushed ahead with joint studies to contribute to discovering solutions faster and on a broader scale amidst their respective initiatives to establishing solutions for the various intensifying social issues, such as driver shortages. Through this latest capital and business alliance, the technical capabilities and know-how of each company will be combined in an effort to develop and provide next-generation logistics solutions leveraging advanced technologies, and jointly accelerate initiatives.

Hino's President Shimo has made the following comment regarding this capital and business alliance, "As a truck and bus manufacturer, Hino Motors takes up challenges exceeding the boundaries of conventional automakers in new activity areas to achieve our mission of realizing a 'sustainable, enriched, and comfortable world in which people and goods get where they need to go freely, safely, and efficiently.' By combining Trancom's knowledge and expertise backed by a solid track record in freight-required and trucks-required operations with Hino's advanced technologies regarding CASE through this latest alliance, we will create new innovations in logistics. In order to realize next-generation logistics solutions helping to solve social issues in the logistics field faster, at a higher level, and on a broader scale, we will exert efforts with sincerity and address challenges front on."

Trancom's President Tsunekawa commented, "As a specialist in logistics, Trancom has for many years offered a variety of services from the perspective of raising the efficiency of our customers' logistics operations as logistics is a business essential to people's daily lives. In particular, we have resolved various problems in the transportation domain with medium- and long-distance transport services through the matching of 'freight' and 'empty trucks' in our freight-required and trucks-required operations. Moreover, with the environment surrounding the logistics field becoming more and more severe, we promote actions aimed at 'realizing sustainable and high-efficiency transportation." With this recent capital and business alliance, by combining Hinos' advanced technologies of platooning and automated driving with Trancom's cultivated knowledge and information relating to actual logistics, we jointly aim to build a platform in which the necessary amounts can be transported and supplied at the necessary times without retention of goods."

As the first step of the alliance, both companies are promoting the operation of the new scheme for long haul transportation scheme^※2 launched by Hino's subsidiary, NLJ, on December 9^th of this year. Drawing upon Trancom's strength of know-how pertaining to freight-wanted and trucks-wanted operations to calculate optimal mix-loading patterns and load matching for vacant spaces, we will maximize loading efficiency. Together with the other companies involved in NLJ, we will advance this long haul transportation scheme through actual operation with the aim of building a new logistics system in the future available to all cargo owners and transport companies.

Furthermore, with logistics on the whole in our sights, we will utilize AI (Artificial Intelligence) and connected technologies to leverage the various data on vehicles, freight, and drivers to maximize the synergism of this alliance to develop and offer new logistics solutions.

※1 "Asahi, Ezaki Glico, CHIYODA-UNYU, Trancom, U-netrans, and NEXT Logistics Japan To commercialize and launch a new scheme for trunk-route transportation."

※2 New long haul transportation scheme
A system to realize an efficient long haul transportation through cross-industry collaboration between logistics-related companies.
Logistics bases will be built in the east and west of Japan to aggregate the cargo of multiple cargo owners, then mix with greater loading efficiency in special-purpose vehicles utilizing load matching. This scheme aims to streamline logistics and achieve safe, secure, and sustainable transportation.