Shippr lets you move anything, anywhere in Bangalore
Logistics is a $120 billion industry in India that has been run in traditional inefficient ways. Slowly and in small pockets, but the industry is now seeing a healthy infusion of technology and lots of improvements are coming up. Shippr is a new player in Bangalore the Silicon Valley that is proving to be the testing ground for startups to test their ideas and the move ahead. Shippr wants to help people move anything, anywhere. A user needs to put in a pick up location and destination to get quotes. The service also works via phone at the moment and the minimum price is INR 500 for a delivery.
The origins
Rohit Fernandes is an engineer with a Masters in Supply Chain Management and Logistics. He previously worked for a Uk based Food Supply Chain company managing an inventory budget of about £20 million per annum. He comes from a family of 'logisticians'. "I have seen the problems fleet owners, drivers and customers face on a daily basis and the general attitude is 'Yeh nahi Badlega' (this will not change). But the Indian logistics industry is massive, and is valued at $120 billion, all it lacks is structure and organization. And we at Shippr.in have taken it upon ourselves to change it from 'Yeh nahi Badlega' to 'Badal gaya'," says Rohit.
He got together with Phaneendra Hegde, a computer science graduate and a startup enthusiast to launch Shippr. The third Person in the core team Rahul Arun, an engineer with a background in operations.
Rohit tells us that 70 % of the transporters in India have less than 5 vehicles and they have no access to the large demand around them. And for a consumer, it's hard to know which transporter is reliable. Shippr aims to create an enterprise which provides an efficient, sustainable and reliable solution to the customer.
Traction and future plans
Shippr is very young and was launched this September. In this small time frame, it has got more than 600 queries out of which 60 have converted to successful transactions. This is their first product mini-Shippr which takes care of small logistics requirements. "People now use the site before making any buying decisions on second hand goods. We are soon expanding into the corporate segment and launching our next product which will support parcel and part load deliveries for SME's across India," says Rohit.
The bigger players are now going beyond online tracking and providing more but we're still a long way away from a completely smooth experience. Heavily backed startups like Delhivery and younger ones like Loginext are making a dent in their own way and the rise of eCommerce has especially given an impetus to the use of technology in logistics. Shippr has just started on this journey and it'll be interesting to see how they streamline operations in Bangalore and then scale.
Website: Shippr