Info-tech

Start-up looks to solve freight market information asymmetry, raise funds

Mamuni Das New Delhi | Updated on January 20, 2018 Published on May 23, 2016

Lobb connects freight demand with supply for long-distance routes

Varanasi-based Ashwani Kumar Singh, who drives a truck between Delhi and Uttarakhand, for transport firm Omax, has started doing seven round trips a month instead of four a few months ago. Increased trips means more asset utilisation and more money for the company as well as the driver.

Thanks to his company signing up for an App named Lobb, Singh has been able to make more trips as his company is now able to discover return cargo to Delhi faster than earlier, when he had to search around for return cargo after offloading it in Uttarakhand.

The app, which went live five months ago, connects freight demand with supply for trunk or long-distance routes on Indian roads. “After using GPS-based smartphone with Lobb, I have seen two clear benefits. First, I do not get disturbed by phone calls asking me for my location. Second, after I reach Uttarakhand with diesel gensets from Delhi, I don’t have to spend the day looking for cargo,” Singh told BusinessLine.

Lobb, a one-year old company, which was in beta-testing phase till December, has transporter clients, such as Prakash Basu Services, Southern Cargo, East India Corporation and Indo Arya, Venu Kondur, CEO of Lobb, told BusinessLine.

About 1,500 trucks, belonging to 300 large transporters and 200 truck-owners, are using the app.

The app helps improve the net margin by 20-30 per cent for transporters and truckers, claims Kondur. From truckers, Lobb charges 2 per cent of the freight charge per transaction as fee.

Singh, who is paid a salary by his transport company and lives in his truck except during his home visits to Varanasi once every 4-5 months, says he makes more money by saving the allowances provided per trip. Also, there are 120 manufacturers from the coffee, textile and automobile space, who can register free and use the app to track the automobiles.

“We help truckers with route navigation, en-route service stations, including ATMs, service stations and dhabas,” said Kondur, who co-founded the company with Jayaram Raju. The company is now in talks with venture capitalists to raise Series A funds.

Blackbuck is another start-up in this space looking to balance information asymmetry between cargo availability and truckers in the Indian freight market and has already raised $50 million from Tiger Global, Flipkart and Accel.

Published on May 23, 2016

A letter from the Editor

Dear Readers,

The coronavirus crisis has changed the world completely in the last few months. All of us have been locked into our homes, economic activity has come to a near standstill. Everyone has been impacted.

Including your favourite business and financial newspaper. Our printing and distribution chains have been severely disrupted across the country, leaving readers without access to newspapers. Newspaper delivery agents have also been unable to service their customers because of multiple restrictions.

In these difficult times, we, at BusinessLine have been working continuously every day so that you are informed about all the developments – whether on the pandemic, on policy responses, or the impact on the world of business and finance. Our team has been working round the clock to keep track of developments so that you – the reader – gets accurate information and actionable insights so that you can protect your jobs, businesses, finances and investments.

We are trying our best to ensure the newspaper reaches your hands every day. We have also ensured that even if your paper is not delivered, you can access BusinessLine in the e-paper format – just as it appears in print. Our website and apps too, are updated every minute, so that you can access the information you want anywhere, anytime.

But all this comes at a heavy cost. As you are aware, the lockdowns have wiped out almost all our entire revenue stream. Sustaining our quality journalism has become extremely challenging. That we have managed so far is thanks to your support. I thank all our subscribers – print and digital – for your support.

I appeal to all or readers to help us navigate these challenging times and help sustain one of the truly independent and credible voices in the world of Indian journalism. Doing so is easy. You can help us enormously simply by subscribing to our digital or e-paper editions. We offer several affordable subscription plans for our website, which includes Portfolio, our investment advisory section that offers rich investment advice from our highly qualified, in-house Research Bureau, the only such team in the Indian newspaper industry.

A little help from you can make a huge difference to the cause of quality journalism!

Support Quality Journalism
road transport
software
This article is closed for comments.
Please Email the Editor
You have read 1 out of 3 free articles for this week. For full access, please subscribe and get unlimited access to all sections.