As e-commerce grows, Safexpress moves from bikes to vans

Shunning the use of bikes to deliver e-commerce orders, the Safexpress Group is procuring 1,000 Eecos from Maruti Suzuki for delivery to consumers.

The vehicles would be deployed across the country by Safexpress B2C, the e-commerce arm of the group. At present, Safexpress, a ₹1,000-crore firm in the logistics and supply chain space, has a fleet of 4,000 trucks of an average size of nine tonnes.

The company cited multiple reasons for adopting this strategy of using cars instead of two-wheelers or even small-sized trucks.

Unlike bikes, which are essentially private vehicles being used for commercial purpose, the company will register the Eecos with the transport department as commercial vehicles.

Also, the e-commerce market is evolving from small sized light-weight goods to large sized, heavier goods, which will be difficult and unsafe to carry in two-wheelers. For instance, from books, mobiles, fashion, home décor, goods being shopped online now involve kitchen items and furniture to even cars.

“Our research shows the bike delivery model is not sustainable in the long term. There is lack of a defined commercial model for the use of two-wheelers. Now, most products are gram deliveries – of small size and less than one-kg weight. But we expect the average size of parcels to become heavier over the next few years,” said Vineet Kanaujia, Vice President (Marketing), Safexpress.

Moreover, as products become heavier, delivery personnel will have to engage more with customers. “With cash-on-delivery a given, e-commerce sellers would also want higher customer engagement so that there are fewer returns. Also, end-customers would expect a much better interface, which requires people with more selling skills,” said Kanaujia.

Safexpress has already ordered 200 Eecos and is procuring another 800 vehicles over one year. It claims to be the first such player in the e-commerce logistics space to be building a last mile delivery strategy around cars at such a large scale. Two-wheelers are not considered safe and have health hazards. “So, we chose cars. We are training ‘Delivery Executives’, who will be car drivers and salesperson with more soft skills and perceive this as a respectable, long-term profession,” said Kanaujia.

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