LYNK - Uberizing the Logistics Sector
In the backdrop of growth in economy, rise of small and medium enterprises and increased industrial/commercial output, the logistics industry has assumed a much stronger role than it did earlier, with great reliance on timeliness, efficiency and costs. Any shortcoming in transportation of goods can result in a loss for the business owner. Also, many a times the losses are faced by the logistic provider as their trucks come back empty to the warehouses. There is no way to reliably know exactly when and where these trucks are so that they could be booked by the nearest customer. Additionally, transportation service have also witnessed a surge in demand due to increasing inter-city or intra-city migration among nuclear families or working individuals. However, the demand is yet to be satisfactorily met.
Origin of LYNK!
While studying engineering at Northwestern University in the US, Abinav Raja (co-founder) and Shekhar Bhende(co-founder) shared a common passion to build technology-based businesses in India that could scale to create meaningful value for thousands. In 2014, while they were still in Chicago, Uber was witnessing its first phase of growth and had touched their own lives in a major way – completely changing mobility for them and millions of other people forever! It then got them thinking that with the unorganized/fragmented environment in India, similar data-driven tech platforms could most definitely create substantial value for stakeholders. Shekhar Bhende, who hails from Pune, on a domestic trip, got to know the hassles involved in cargo shipment, after striking a casual conversation with a few truck drivers in the business and noticing numerous mini-truck stands with idle drivers. Since logistics industry is largely unorganized, awareness and availability of smart technologies is minimal. Given the exposure to technology and the ability to sense a business opportunity, along with Abinav Raja, the two kick-started the e-commerce logistics aggregating platform – LYNK!
Lynk is a technology-driven solution that offers time and resource efficiencies to the highly unorganised logistics sector. Lynk is an intra-city mini-truck aggregator allowing shippers to book mini trucks for local goods transport through a mobile app or through call center. Lynk is currently in Chennai and Hyderabad with plans to eventually be in every major Indian city.
LYNK – A technology platform
Lynk developed an app as a platform where business owners can connect to the driver partners of Lynk and transport their goods with a promise of consistent service. There is absolutely no necessity of trying to hunt for reliable transportation providers, haggling with him for the transport cost and being in constant worry about the state and location of the goods being transported. All the shipper has to do now is just log on to the Lynk App or call its official number, choose the best suited vehicle according to the load and that’s all. Once the selected driver has accepted the trip, the customer gets a tracking ID with which one can track movement of the truck in real time. This way the customer is assured that his or her consignment is safe. Also the app provides different ways to do the payment for the trip - using the Lynk Wallet for a cashless transaction or pay the driver at the end of the trip. Not only does Lynk offers smooth and reliable transportation of goods, they also offer a fair price to its customers based on their advanced pricing algorithm. These prices are usually 20-40% cheaper than what one has to pay when opting for traditional unorganised transportation service providers.
Lynk so far has enabled movement of furniture, flooring materials, plywood, small vehicles, chemicals, metal channels, mosquito nets, even trees to people. Abhinav & Shekhar, Co-founders, Lynk say ‘The customer is charged on per minute basis, thereby incentivizing customer’s efficiency to transport without unnecessary delays in packing, loading and unloading. The cost per minute is currently priced at Rs. 4 per minute. Customers can opt for cash or cashless payment for transportation, using internet banking or Lynk wallet.’
Lynk Logistics is funded by Ramco Cements and with personal funding from the founders.
LYNK’s drive & road ahead
Lynk is fully focused on On-Demand trucking, i.e. Small businesses and individuals book trucks as and when they need them therefore serving and impacting 7,000+ small businesses and individuals that book every month in Chennai alone. Lynk has the highest driver utilization in the sector as Lynk’s dedicated drivers do close to 4 trips per day on an average, compared to the market average of 1-1.5 trips per day, leading to higher earnings. Lynk makes positive gross margins on each trip even after incentives and discounts.
Lynk, presently, is focused on the 0-3 tonnes segment, where the bookings happen at multiple points and plans to tap the Tier 1 cities in next two years. Lynk is currently the second most downloaded trucking App (80,000 + downloads) in India.
