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Bangladesh is going ahead for cross border logistic service system with overseas investment to make the exports competitive for the overseas buyers. The development of online trucking system will improve Doing Business Index as well as confidence of overseas investors.TRANSCRIPT
Local online Trucking platforms https://businesspostbd.com/post/29838
M S Siddiqui
29 Sep 2021 00:52:07 | Update: 29 Sep 2021 00:52:07
Bangladeshi logistics performance is not satisfactory in the global context. The
ease of doing business and cost of doing business ranking is unfavourable due
to poor logistics particularly internal transportation system. Road transport is
the most popular form of commercial transport in Bangladesh, carrying 70
per cent of passengers and cargo. There are about 4 lakh registered trucks
(small pickups to large trucks) in Bangladesh presently, of which 1 lakh runs
on the road every day. Despite considerable expansion, truck businesses in
Bangladesh face multiple challenges.
Truck services are operated manually since the initiation of the trucking industry.
Most of the truck service companies do not have proper booking centre. This
makes it very inconvenient for customers to book trucks and for the truck owners
to find a ready stream of customers. There are some intermediaries to link between
truckers and customers. The agreement is most of the time on verbal and heavily
relied on word of mouth.
However, some companies have taken initiative to make things easy and
convenient by digitising all the manual processes integrated in the industry with
digital platform. Some of those platforms are ‘Truck kothay’, ‘Shohoz truck’ and
‘Truck lagbe’. These companies have introduced platforms and those act like the
bridge connecting the customers and shippers, offering the former a quick and easy
way to book trucks at the tap of a button.
The situation has dramatically improved with introduction of Truck hiring online
platforms. It has similar features of stock market, where customer can give the
input of the requirement of truck and the time. Truck owner bids on that offer from
customer. Among all those bids, customer chooses the best rate from the app and
completes the hiring process. These platforms are offering to find trucks at a
competitive price for transportation, so that businesses can save their time and
money. They’re offering real-time visibility on the progress of the shipment until
delivery with their advanced truck monitoring system. It has been reported that the
truck fare has been reduced by 17 per cent from long time non-negotiable fixed
rate settled by the brokerage houses.
These platforms are building a network of trucking facilities all over Bangladesh
with lowest possible fare and creating hassle free truck hiring experience. These
have become a dependable marketplace for both truck owner and customer
particularly for the exporters and agricultural products.
They are also serving another segment of market of household customers who
orders for truck to get pack-and-shift facilities. Some of the customers require the
service to get one-time benefit to move new household items like furniture or
locker. Reasonable pricing is a reason the platform is growing popular day by day.
It has some other options to improve the services. This digital system has brought
an extra layer of transparency to the truck industry by promising to show
customers the exact amount of fare that they have to pay at the end of the service,
diminishing any unfair dispute over fare etc. To ensure that the trucks show up on
time, there is a rating system for every truck. If any truck owner accepts any offer
but doesn’t show up on time, their rating will be affected and the probability of
getting trip from the platform will be reduced. Besides, if any causality occurs, it is
matter of a few minutes for the customer to find another alternate truck.
The other benefits of introducing technology in any industry are that the entire
system becomes more transparent. Currently the transactions are negotiated
through intermediaries and entire system remains in dark from the stakeholders –
the truck owner, the drivers and service recipients. As a result, many owners and
drivers suffer losses and compromise in profit. The digital truck platform brings
transparency of transactions by keeping the price open to all stakeholders.
For consumers, hiring trucks was a challenge before. Now consumers have a
digital platform and can hire a truck by pushing a few buttons on their phone. It
saves time, effort, and money. Consumers can hire a truck without the hassle and
that too at a far better price. It is convenient and on-demand.
In the trucking industry, trust is a huge issue. Be it an owner or driver, shipper or a
middleman. These platforms offer best possible price, dedicated account manager,
trust and security, guaranteed customer service, wide coverage and so on. The
transparency of bidding and fixing the fare are done in a transparent manner.
The platform offers to verify and train drivers to ensure the safety and security of
the interest of its customers. These platforms are trying to improve the service
through educating the stakeholders. They are actively working with the drivers’
community to train and educate them. At the same time, it aims to work on the
consumer side to improve the perception of people who work in the truck industry.
Eventually, they aim to play a leading role in positioning truck driving as a
respectable profession that a lot of young people will be attracted to in the future
helping create employment and economic benefits for all.
Additionally, Bangladesh also needs safety and security of export loaded
containers in the internal route to seaport. Bangladesh does not have technology to
improve the service to desired level at a competitive price. The sector requires
foreign direct investment to bring capital and technology. Unfortunately, FDI is
restricted in this sector although joint venture companies are allowed.
These online companies have revolutionised the sector by attracting overseas
investments. Hong Kong-based early-stage venture capital firms – Mount Parker
Ventures and Aria Group – provided Truck Lagbe with the key portion of
$1.75million in seed investments. Mount Parker is the investor of Asia's first app-
based goods delivery platform GoGoVan, which already extended its services to
over 300 cities and registered 80 lakh drivers under its network. Aria Group's
portfolio includes on-demand-same-day-delivery-service-platform LaLaMove,
which expanded into two dozen markets across Asia and America, including the
United States of America.
The International Finance Corporation (IFC), private sector investment wing of the
World Bank Group, has offered an equity investment of US$2.5 million in
Bangladeshi digital trucking platform Truck Lagbe Inc., as per news published in
Daily newspaper “Business Post”. Truck Lagbe is in the process of raising Series
A financing of $5 million. Series A funding comes after initial seed investments to
help a start-up expand its business further.
The online trucking companies are in the process of upgrading trucking services
with competitive internal transportation, international standard secured transport
service, bringing the technology and attracting overseas investments. The
continuous improvement and digitalization of the service will improve Bangladesh
ranking in sub-index of cross border trading of ease of doing business. The image
of the country among the local and overseas investors will improve further.
Bangladesh is going ahead for cross border logistic service system with overseas
investment to make the exports competitive for the overseas buyers. The
development of online trucking system will improve Doing Business Index as well
as confidence of overseas investors.
The writer is a legal economist
E-mail: [email protected]