Now, Ramco’s Lynk makes inroads into logistics sector

Eyeing a share in the Rs 100 crore on-demand intra-city cargo transportation segment, the home-grown company has completed 70,000 transactions till date.

Founded by the techno-preneur duo –  Shekhar Bhende and Abinav Raja, the firm is looking at a month-on-month growth of 10 to 20 per cent in the city alone. An offshoot of cement-to-software giant Ramco Group, Lynk is positioned as a technology-driven solution that offers time and resource efficiencies to the highly unorganised logistics sector. 

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. Given the exposure to technology and the ability to sense a business opportunity, along with Raja, the two kick-started the e-commerce logistics aggregating platform. “We don’t own any assets. We only enable suppliers (read drivers) to come on board using our application and our effort is to provide connectivity so that the goods reach the destination on time,” says Bhende. 

Interestingly, the entrepreneurs have even been approached to transport “people” for protests! On being prodded, Raja says “Well, for the jallikattu protest, we had requests for trucks to move people from various parts of the city to the Marina beach, the agitation site.” So, Lynk has been enabling the movement of furniture, plywood, pharma, chemicals, tiles, flooring materials, metal channels, mosquito nets, trees among other things to people too. 

Noticing that the maximum time loss happens during loading and unloading operations, Lynk with its technology approach has been able to cut these inefficiencies. 

“The customer is incentivised to become more efficient. By deploying this strategy, the chances of reducing the number of trips for consignment delivery increases and we typically charge Rs 4 per minute,” says Bhende, who goes on to add that intense data exercises revealed that by opting for such an option, price haggling could be avoided. 

By addressing the root of the problem and preparing well, the cost savings were tremendous. 

Also, 95 per cent of the people in the transportation segment belonged to the self-employment owner-cum-driver category. Lynk, presently, is focused on the 0-3 tonnes segment, where the bookings happen at multiple points. Dwelling on the challenges, Raja says trust and technology adoption issues have been factors that Lynk has tried 

to resolve through training programmes. “Our app downloads have crossed the 40,000 mark,” he says. 

Also, the pace of technology adoption among its customer profile has indicated that Lynk is gearing up to pull the plug off its call centre once the total shift happens. “Currently, 70 per cent of our transactions have been received on app,” he says.

Demonetisation has hit their operations to an extent of 20 to 30 per cent. But in the wake of remonetisation, Lynk is confident of achieving the business targets it has set for itself as it competes in an unorganised space where there is room for plenty. For now, the big established players are The Porter, Let’s Transport and SmartShift, with whom Lynk is competing against. But, with plans to tap the Tier I locations within two years, the company is in for a long haul!