Most of our data is written by somebody in a hurry: an outlet clerk at closing time, a driver at a loading bay, a dispatcher during a snowstorm. I respect that by asking what each figure can bear before a model or a customer relies on it. Where a measure is estimated, I say so. Where it concerns a person, I ask whether we need it at all.
Ming Duanmu
Freight carried in 2025
8.6m t
Less-than-truckload consignments through 58 transfer hubs
Network revenue
RMB7.4bn
Calendar 2025; founder-majority private company
Data colleagues
128
Engineering, optimisation, data protection and emissions reporting
Leadership, seen by others.
I wanted the load model in every hub before the peak, and Ming said no. He was right about the volume data, and he spent enough nights with my dispatchers to know when their override still mattered.
Our outlets did not welcome a two-day wait for driver checks. Ming came to the council himself, paid for the verification desk and set a date for the copies on our phones to go. He kept to his side, and we kept to ours.
Pingyue DaiOutlet owner and chair of the franchise council, Qianmoyun Freight
Ming never asks me to bless a decision he has already made. He brings the purpose of each data field before the contract is drafted, which is the rarest and most useful thing an operating colleague can do.
Yiqiao FanHead of legal and data protection, Qianmoyun Freight
Selected leadership work
Measuring freight at fourteen hubs before a model removed departures
Early in 2023 my analytics team completed a load-consolidation model for 38 trunk lines leaving Zhengzhou and two other hubs.
I let a freight network's models decide only as much as its measured data can support, and I keep the drivers and consignees behind that data in view.
I am chief data officer of Qianmoyun Freight, a privately held less-than-truckload network headquartered in Zhengzhou. We move part-loads for manufacturers, distributors and online sellers through 58 transfer hubs and 1,960 outlets, most of them franchised. In 2025 we carried 8.6 million tonnes and reported RMB7.4 billion revenue. I lead 128 colleagues across data engineering, analytics and optimisation, data protection and governance, and shipper emissions reporting. The founder holds a majority, and two private-equity investors hold minority stakes.
I came to freight through a bus timetable. My first employer was a municipal bus operator, where I learnt that a schedule built on old passenger counts fails in public, at a stop, in the rain. Contract logistics then taught me routing for appliance makers, and in 2010 I joined Qianmoyun to plan its linehaul network. I have spent the years since asking how a recorded number was produced before anyone acts on it.
The three decisions on this site each cost us something. I delayed a load-consolidation model until fourteen hubs could measure freight volume, giving up a peak season of savings. I moved drivers' identity documents off outlet phones, which slowed onboarding and annoyed our franchise partners. I declined to send consignees' names and telephone numbers to a foreign shipper's control tower outside China, and we received a smaller share of the contract. None of these choices would look impressive on a dashboard.
Measured volume replaced declared volume
Dimensioning scanners at fourteen hubs showed declared volume understated light, bulky freight by an average of 11 per cent. The retrained model removed 5.4 per cent of departures on 38 trunk lines, not the 9 per cent first projected.
Identity copies left 397 outlets
A central verification desk now holds drivers' documents with separate consent. 397 of 412 outlets attested deletion of local copies within six months, and 212 unsupported names came off an informal barring list.
An event feed instead of personal details
A foreign shipper's control tower receives milestones, timestamps and exception codes, while consignee fields stay in China. We accepted about RMB150 million of a RMB260 million tender rather than the whole award.
Current focus
I am extending our emissions statements for shippers so that every lane figure shows how much rests on measured fuel and how much on estimates for subcontracted vehicles, which in 2025 was still 39 per cent.
Conversations I welcome
I would consider one non-executive role on the board of a logistics, transport or consumer-service company with a large operational data estate, within twenty days a year and subject to my employer's consent and a review of commercial relationships.
The leadership record
Trusted with consequential decisions.
Formation
Master of applied statistics (part-time)Beichuanlu Institute of Communications · 2009
Bachelor of engineering in traffic engineeringBeichuanlu Institute of Communications · 1997
I would consider one non-executive role on the board of a logistics, transport or consumer-service company with a large operational data estate, within twenty days a year and subject to my employer's consent and a review of commercial relationships.
