Why does Logistics in India cost 2-3 times the international benchmark?
Imagine paying your stock/ real-estate broker 25% of all your profits on any particular transaction while operating with assets that are lying idle/ unused for over 3 months every year and runs empty (deadmiles) for another 1 month. This is the plight of India's unorganized, chaotic Freight Industry, and just the kind of problems that
Dipper is solving. Dipper has raised an undisclosed amount of funding from an angel investor.
Challenges we are solving:
1. 80%+ of India’s commercial vehicles are owned by small fleet owners (<5 vehicles) scattered around the country leading to a very fragmented market with middlemen charging absurd amounts for connecting Supply and Demand while maintaining low visibility
2. On an average India’s 30 lakh+ trucks spend 25% of their time idle waiting for load- that is more than 90 days/yr that a vehicle remains idle by the roadside or in parking hubs.
Dipper ensures a single location for freight exchange across unlimited locations. Hence Shyam, a vehicle owner, and Manoj, a transporter, don’t need to struggle with different brokers in different cities for different routes to move freight!
What can be even more empowering is the domino effect this kind of connectivity can bring about. Truckers will now know in advance, the market situation at destinations and aren’t shackled to driving on the same route, up and down. Up and down.
Dipper connects a larger pool of users, thereby expanding the market knowledge and size. This coupled with the increased transparency and ability to move information at lightning speed, enables a better connected and organized marketplace.
Dipper started operations in January 2016, focussing on the NH2 route and is moving over 1500+ tons of material every month, through its supply side of 2000+ verified, GPS-enabled vehicles, which is growing 40% month on month. All transactions have a 100% Placement and On-time delivery record, an increase of 20-30% from industry norms, which has been enabled by Dipper's fleet management dashboard and GPS-based geofence messages which provides timely information alerts to all the key stakeholders- Shipper, Consignee, Truck Owner and Driver.
With revenues crossing Rs. 50 lakh, Dipper is poised to expand beyond its initial route and move PAN India for the long haul! Dipper's clientele includes large Transporters such as MultiModes, DARCL, RCI, Western Carriers, Calcutta Express as well as truckers with only a few vehicles to their name.
How we thought of the idea:While working for Caterpillar’s International Supply Chain team Suryansh noticed that they would have exact lead times for material coming from Europe (Germany, Italy), USA etc till they reached Indian shores while after that there would always have a range of lead time. And domestic shipments were even more unpredictable. The lack of visibility and transparency in the archaic market drew Suryansh to it, and along a discussion with his friend Ayush, with experience in coding Amazon.com's internal logistics arm, they discovered the lengthy supply chain with high middlemen, fragmentation and leakages in this industry. The duo feel that introducing technology and a six sigma approach can reduce inefficiencies and non-value added activities.
Key Resources:Being Angel backed with several veterans of the industry as mentors Dipper has been able to quickly grasp subtle notions of this counter-intuitive market and hope to organise it with the help of technology. With strategic partners in the Industry including organised players such as Indian Oil Corporation Limited and unorganised players including dhabhas, mechanics, and other shops catering the vehicle's needs, Dipper recognises the need to adapt and merge with current systems where possible without compromising on product quality and to push scalability. Their 8 member team of IITians, NITianses and veterans of the logistics industry, are united by a common passion- To create a sustainable, efficient ecosystem that makes the $130Bn+ freight transport market intuitive and accessible.
Focus: “Our focus is on expansion beyond our home ground (Delhi NCR and NH2 route) to several other key routes PAN India.” says their CEO, Suryansh. “The major challenge is the inherent leakages in the system.We will be pushing technology adoption and have seen a good potential for this already with our current fleet partners.”
Ayush, CTO, adds “We feel that trust is a very important factor in the conventional freight movement and we recreate the same by only working with verified partners who are onboarded after a thorogh quality check”.
You can sign up for Dipper at usedipper.com and the exclusive invite only app, will be shared with you after verifaction, enabling you with the tools to Drive your own freight!
About DipperDipper is a leading freight logistics marketplace serving the long-haul (inter-city) full truckload (FTL) market. Dipper provides a technology platform, enabled with IoT devices, to its partner ecosystem of large fleet owners, small-to-mid-sized trucking carriers and transporters.
By democratizing cutting-edge technology across the industry, and by partnering with like-minded values-based shippers, Dipper is producing measurable win-win efficiency and sustainable growth, while leveling the playing field for single/small fleet owners in the face of grossly outmoded legacy giants.
