It was barely a month ago when Anand Mahindra spoke of mobility dynamics at play in the auto sector.

The occasion was the launch of the TUV 300 when the Chairman of the Mahindra Group remarked that the bigger threat stemmed from the age of access as youngsters had no compelling reason to own a vehicle in today’s times. “We live in an age of the Olas and Ubers and transportation is a commodity that will be given to you,” he said.

Now fast forward to Tuesday when Mahindra & Mahindra launched SmartShift, a digital mobility platform. Intended to be an interface for cargo owners and transporters in the intracity segment, it has become a reality after 2,000 hours of market research. SmartShift is an independent business with initial funding coming in from M&M and other investors likely to follow later.

According to Pawan Goenka, Executive Director, mobility is going through disruption as evident in the personal space. SmartShift, likewise, has the potential to be disruptive for the goods sector.

As he explained, there are inefficiencies in cargo transport especially in small intracity movement which is largely disorganised. “M&M is a leader in the light commercial vehicle space right from three-wheelers to pickups and we have a good understanding of goods transport within cities,” added Goenka.

According to Kausalya Sreenivasan, CEO, SmartShift, the small cargo space has a host of logistics-related issues which are not core to the business and create inefficiencies in the process. Through extensive market research, her 10-member team understood that this is a low entry barrier business where quality of users is an issue with inconsistency in pricing loads. On many occasions, transporters decide to charge for goods on the spur of the moment.

Another trait of the small cargo business is that there a huge base of owners and 70 per cent of transporters take whatever load is offered. To that extent, there is uncertainty in the business model.

This community is also limited by its networking, added Sreenivasan and, at one level, it is an industry devoid of aspiration where stakeholders crave for some kind of acknowledgement. The M&M team interacted with thousands of customers and cited the case study of an operator who supplies mineral water. When he gets an order, his first concern is arranging transport followed by anxieties about pilferage and logistics.

Sreenivasan’s team understood that this user needed relevant technology with a host of solutions. With SmartShift, a vehicle can be booked quickly which means the mineral water supplier can devote more time to growing his business. Price is critical for the user in intracity cargo and SmartShift offers the power of choice to the user and supplier through bids and counter bids.

According to Sreenivasan, the pilot now underway in Mumbai has shown an amazing response and the application will go full scale very soon. For the moment, the country’s commercial capital makes sense as a launch pad since it is a large market for cargo with nearly 57,000 vehicles on offer for its small and medium enterprises. SmartShift will extend to other cities in course of time.

Anish Shah, Group President (Strategy), said M&M has been hiring talented people across the industry with the objective of transforming the digital business. “This is a good team with a deep understanding of the cargo ecosystem,” he added.

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