Maersk, a major ocean container carrier, has created a partnership with India’s BlackBuck to provide an online marketplace for containerized trucking in export-import logistics in India.
The new platform will be owned and operated by BlackBuck, with Maersk supporting development of industry-specific solutions. The platform will be open to the entire industry, and the companies expect it to drive sustainable growth and efficiency by reducing touchpoints in the supply chain. This will help improve consistency in service delivery through real-time visibility and control.
It also will take steps toward the Indian government’s goals of reducing logistics costs from 14 percent of gross domestic product to less than 9 percent by 2022, the firms said.
“Our customers are dealing with fragmented vendors with varying service levels of communication, geographical, financial and infrastructural dis-parities resulting in suboptimal supply chains,” Arjun Maharaj, head of sales for Maersk South Asia, said. “At Maersk, we have committed ourselves to working with partners who understand these challenges, match our set of values and have expertise in both logistics & technology.”
BlackBuck has focused on bringing the offline operations of trucking online, either by matching a shipper with a trucker or reshaping the infrastructure around trucking to facilitate payments, insurance and financial services.
“At BlackBuck, over the last four years, we have developed our robust product and technology that maximizes the billable kilometers of a truck, delivering higher realization to the truck owners and driving a low-cost transportation network to the shippers,” Ramasubramaniam B, chief operating officer of strategic initiatives at BlackBuck, said. “Our product will add significant value to the EXIM containerized trucking industry in India that has the additional complexity of meeting the timelines of sea freight connections, apart from other regular trucking related challenges. Maersk with their industry specific knowledge and expertise, will help us transform this space through digitization.”
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Maersk has set out to digitally transform its operations, and among its global initiatives is the India-focused OceanPro accelerator program launched in 2018. The solutions developed by some of the start-ups in first stage of OceanPro are already being implemented through various services to accelerate innovation in India’s shipping and logistics industry, the company said.
“At Maersk, we are collaborating with such start-ups that will help us solve land-side logistics challenges in India by not only reducing costs but also creating efficiencies for all the stakeholders in the value chain,” Bhavik Mota, head of product for Maersk South Asia, said.