Parcel delivery arena gets hotter as Uber makes its grand entry
Uber seemed to experienced another trick up its sleeve when it announced previous month that it had been shutting down its highly popular food delivery arm, Uber Eats, found in Bangladesh from June 2.
As it happens the San Francisco-based tech giant was pivoting to deal delivery, something whose demand saw an enormous leap just as the pandemic enforced switch to online purchasing.
The business yesterday announced the rollout of its new service Uber Connect, which would allow residents in Dhaka to send and receive parcels from one another and in addition order items from shops within city limits.
Uber's entry into this arena shows up at a time when e-commerce systems and courier services service providers are actually grappling with swelling orders and are failing to deliver products to customer's doorstep due to ill-preparedness, obstacles on commuting items and satisfactory service personals.
"We are thrilled to be launching Uber Connect, which can only help users send and receive essential what to their family and friends or order things from shops in this crisis, without needing to come out of their homes," explained Ratul Ghosh, head of Uber for Bangladesh and East India.
The new service also means the a large number of drivers who have kept without income for a lot more than two-and-a-half weeks now for the government's reluctance to permit ride-hailing service providers back on the roads can find a new way to obtain living.
"Uber Connect is a prime example of how we are adapting our platform to meet up the desires of our communities, which still need to practice public distancing found in these challenging times. That is also an expansion of our ongoing attempts to provide driver-partners with brand-new earning prospects," Ghosh added.
All packages ought to be transportable on a good two-wheeler vehicle, get under 5 kilograms in weight, securely sealed and not include prohibited products such as for example alcohol, recreational drugs, or perhaps dangerous and against the law items.
The brand new delivery service can only just be used for transporting goods rather than ferrying passengers.
Similar to on-demand trips, customers should be able to continue monitoring the trip's improvement before pick-up, en route and at the drop-away point, Uber said in a statement.
Customers can also show the delivery status with the recipient of the deal.
Uber though would encounter serious competition from its top rival found in Bangladesh Pathao, which introduced parcel delivery service found in 2017.
Pathao may be the market head of the on-demand bundle delivery category in Bangladesh and has its footprint found in the port metropolis Chattogram too.
"Our orders possess increased significantly because the lockdown commenced," said Sayeda Nabila Mahabub, director for advertising and pr at Pathao.
Another rival Shohoz, which gives on-demand and offline truck support alongside ridesharing and foodstuff delivery services, is also gearing up to introduce such services.
"We are observing the prospects and considering launching it since we curently have both long-haul and last-mile logistics," Maliha M Quadir, managing director of Shohoz, advised The Daily Star yesterday.
For the last couple of years, logistics companies have already been experiencing enormous growth because of people's appetite for shopping and consuming food and beverage from the capability of one's home.
Before the pandemic, logistics companies used to create about 1 lakh home deliveries daily, which 30,000 were food deliveries, according to industry insiders.
Including e-commerce and f-commerce, the number of deliveries created by logistics companies could now become more than 1.5 lakh, said Biplob Ghosh Rahul, ceo of eCourier, a leading logistic provider.
The quantity of daily deliveries that eCourier produces each day in Dhaka is about 8,000, up from 5,000 prior to the pandemic.
Even prior to the pandemic, the e-commerce and f-commerce businesses were thriving, hence did the logistics business, he said.
"What China was found in 2009-10, we are actually in that position regarding home delivery offerings. The delivery products and services would continue steadily to increase."
But the pandemic seems to have turbocharged online shopping.
"While the delivery of clothing dropped, the orders for daily essentials, masks, gloves and personal protective devices have increased," Rahul explained, adding that eCourier makes about 3,000 deliveries beyond Dhaka a day as well.
Logistics companies with special concentrate on making deliveries outside of Dhaka though received a serious blow from late March to June due to the restriction on the movement of products for long-haul destinations after the government set up a countrywide shutdown to avoid the pass on of the deadly virus.
The amount of deliveries of Paperfly, an e-commerce-based logistic company, fell to 10 % during the time.
"In those days, we even could not move our things to almost all of the districts," stated Rahath Ahmed, chief marketing officer of the company.
Before the pandemic, it used to make about 10,000 deliveries a day.
The business scenario began to switch for the better after the government eased restrictions at the start of June. Now, Paperfly makes about 7,000 deliveries each day.
Paperfly has place foot in nearly every union in Bangladesh and made 28 lakh deliveries since its inception in February 2016.
The company had faced mainly two types of problems during the lockdown: first, there was difficulty in delivering products to customers because of too little transport. Second, there is a shortage of workforce as much of its deliverymen remaining jobs fearing infection.
"Oftentimes, our delivery folks had to walk many kilometres to fall off the merchandise," Ahmed said.
Clients often misbehave if the delivery isn't made within 2-3 days, whereas e-commerce platforms from where they avail the merchandise tell them that the delivery would take on seven days.
"They want to be considered a little sympathetic of the crisis we happen to be facing," he added.
Despite challenges, logistics systems in Bangladesh have a bright future ahead, in respect to industry insiders.
And Daraz, a subsidiary Chinese e-commerce giant Alibaba, appears to be acquiring preparation for that.
The company recently announced plans to invest Tk 500 crore in Bangladesh by 2021 to create logistics infrastructure and hubs that could help expand its footprint to all 64 districts.
Besides, many brick-and-mortar stores and fast-moving consumer goods brands will be partnering with e-commerce platforms to create their products common to consumers.
For example, global skincare brand Nivea has partnered with multiple e-commerce platforms to keep its source chains moving to get nearer to its consumers even if they are confined with their homes.
