Logistics costs a whopping 13-15% as part of India's GDP, a figure that is much lower in other countries. One of the key reasons for that is the use of the traditional multi-axle trucks rather than more efficient vehicles such as tractor-trailers. In order to improve logistics efficiency and operating ecosystem, Delhivery is planning several initiatives.
"When you look at logistics around the world, India is an anomalous market in the sense that for the market of this size we still don't have large scale logistics companies say a FedEx, DHL, UPS amongst others. This is the space that Delhivery aims to achieve leadership in," says the firm's CEO and co-founder Sahil Barua.
On these lines, the company will continue to aggressively invest in building trucking infrastructure, says Barua. "Delhivery is building some of the country's largest trucking terminals at key locations in Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata and Chennai and we are also expanding and upgrading our trucking fleet and bringing on more partner fleets," he said.
Delhivery recently partnered with Volvo to add tractor trailers into its express network. "This is the first major deployment of tractor trailers in express trucking which is a significant step for Delhivery towards getting ready for the future and towards expanding our network and building our leadership position in this market further," adds Barua.
Arun Bagavathi, Head, Network, Delhivery says, "Trucking in India for express operations is limited to rigid vehicles whereas tractor-trailers and articulated vehicles are used in almost every other market in express operations. This shift to larger vehicles is important because the ultimate end goal is to make shipping cheaper for the customers and larger vehicles lend to better unit economics." Their larger capacity ensures there are a lesser number of vehicles on the road and they are also more energy-efficient than rigid vehicles.
Delhivery currently delivers a million and a half orders a day in over 17,500 pin codes in the country in India across 2,300 towns and cities. They do that through its network of nearly 7,000 drivers and over 5,000 trucks. The company claims to have a turnover of Rs 2800 crore for FY2020 and plans to reach Rs 6000 - Rs 7000 crore in the next two years.
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