The backbone to any business, everywhere
About innovation in logistics and supply chains.
Logistics as an industry has historically been slow to change and offline in nature. Over the last 15 years, improvements have been drastic. You can check out how InstaCart confronts scale and how companies are trying to beat Amazon at its own game. It’s evident that the decidedly “boring” logistics sector is seeing breakthrough innovations to solve all kinds of problems. Recent developments such as how technology in logistics can reduce pollution and why India’s Ministries believe port infrastructure and logistics will “be the biggest project in the history of the country” are clear indicators of the eruption of modernization and dynamism in logistics.
I once worked on a consulting project with the goal being “reduce logistics costs” which had risen to 17% of topline for the large company. My solution helped bring that down to 11% provided certain systems were put in place to manage their supply chain. This is a typical case study for any company in the world — reduce cost, maximize return, enhance value. Guess what, the extremely exciting new venture Chain.io does just that and its Beta Launch announcement is a must read for any supply chain enthusiast.
Buying online for next day deliveries, sending gifts, shipping documents and samples, ordering food online, relocating and more are just the tip of the iceberg that is the backbone of all businesses — logistics. And that’s the problem my startup is looking to solve. When we launched in 2015, we had only a mobile app that was used to schedule pickups, select a preferred service provider (say, FedEx or DHL or UPS) and track your shipment until delivery — at a significantly lower price than what you’d pay if you were to directly use the same service providers. Economies of scale and first mile (the pickup made by Speedbox Squad members) aggregation contributed to the lower price points.
Today, we have public APIs, web-based logins, and a variety of other integrations, as we have scaled to 14 cities across India and Malaysia. Many startups are looking at this space. This means the historically slow pace of change that is attributed to Logistics businesses is changing — here’s a list of 30 startups that are disrupting the logistics sector. As I keep a keen eye on unique projects (like this one in Bhutan to open source logistics), Speedbox shall continue to evolve and grow as we aim for a global presence in the logistics space.
About the Speedbox Platform
As CEO, there is a vested interest to bring awareness to Speedbox, but maybe this is exactly the kind of platform and service you are looking for….?
- Place requests for shipments through Mobile Apps (Android and iOS)
- Integrate your website and/or store with the Speedbox API for seamless shipping
- Use a web-based Speedbox Dashboard to place orders in bulk (excel uploads) or one at a time
- Choose from curated service providers and control your logistics costs
- Track seamlessly across all platforms and devices
- Monitor your shipping data and analytics to help reduce costs.
- Currently servicing India and Malaysia — and actively partnering up in more countries and geographies.
Write to me if you see scope for synergies or want to know more about what Speedbox is doing next!
Need to send a shipment?
Download the Speedbox App and book your shipments with a few clicks. Yes, it’s that easy! Download the Speedbox App now — www. bit.ly/speedbox
Have questions? Write to us at hello@speedboxapp.com
