Japan to Support Cooperation for Long-Distance Cargo Transport

Tokyo, Feb. 18 (Jiji Press)--Japan's transport ministry will provide incentives for logistics service providers to cooperate in the long-distance transportation of cargo, as it aims to advance work style reform for truck drivers.

The idea is to allow drivers to pass their cargo to other companies' trucks at warehouses along transportation routes, making it easier for them to return home within the day.

Subsidies and tax benefits will be provided to companies that make plans for such joint operations and obtain government certification for the plans.

The ministry will submit a bill to revise the distribution business streamlining law to the extraordinary session of the Diet, the country's parliament, from Wednesday.

According to the bill, warehouses and truck terminals located along long-distance transportation routes would be designated as transportation relay facilities, which would be required to have resting places for drivers and temporary storage for unloaded cargo.

[Copyright The Jiji Press, Ltd.]