Unifying the trucking sector
City Link is a defined marketplace for in-city trucking which connects users to the nearest available trucks. R. Jayakumar, Chairman, City Link, and Puneet Prakash, Founder & Director, City Link, shares what inspired them to start this initiative.
What was the inspiration behind this platform?
R. Jayakumar: The in-city trucking space is highly fragmented with vehicle ownership not averaging more than 1- 1.5 vehicles. We saw this as a big challenge on the contractual side. On the ondemand side we saw the hegemony of the trucking stands, fixed rate operations devoid of any rationale which badly needed reform akin to the new age taxis.The idea is to bring the demand and supply onto a common platform which shall lead to, for the consumer, transparency in engagement, reliability in services, rationalised pricing and higher returns for the vehicle owner. All kinds of transactions are enabled through the marketplace — B2B, B2C and C2C using our website/mobile App/call center.
Transaction engagements are of two types: contractual and ondemand. Presently our services are being provided in the three southern cities of Bengaluru, Chennai and Hyderabad and we plan to expand this to 12 cities by 2020. What kinds of problems do you want to address? Puneet Prakash: Manual dependency in transactions Asset use optimisation Fragmented supply Efficiency, reliability and control Transparency What is your company’s USP?
R. Jayakumar: Coming from a rich logistics background, we offer a unique blend of domain essentials and tech-backed convenience. The customer can reach us through multi-modes, and pay by cash/ credit/cashless means. We in turn complete the entire transaction on our platform with the customer being in real-time control, ensuring a smooth experience. Who are your target customers?
Puneet Prakash: Anybody and everybody who moves cargo using trucks within city is our customer. Hence the portfolio is diverse: large enterprises, SMEs, traders and individuals. More than 95 per cent of our revenue source today is B2B i.e. the SMEs, traders and institutions. Though comparatively smaller, the individual segment is witnessing good week-on-week growth.
We clock more than 400 transactions per day and want to take this number to 2500-3000 transactions by 2020.