TruckSumo – Move anything, anywhere in the most efficient, reliable and cost-effective way

Intra-city transportation in India is a vast and unorganized sector.  But, is there a system in place that creates a powerful marketplace with standardized pricing with a hassle-free experience backup by solid technology?  Transportation is one sector where technology can make a big difference. One side of the marketplace is the business that has an on-demand requirement for transportation and the other side is the mini-truck owner-cum-driver who is an entrepreneur himself ready to go the extra mile.

Observing opportunities in this untouched market, Arun, Abhishek and Nithin came together to give birth to TruckSumo integrates Technology to meet On-Demand Intra-city goods transportation. TruckSumo is an aggregator of mini-trucks and connects businesses with local logistics needs in real-time to service providers who can fulfill those needs. Their mission is to rewire intra-city logistics.

“We want to be an AWS for logistics, offering customers the flexibility of resizing their fleet on-demand, be it a single vehicle or multiple using our platform. We not only work with SMEs, urban customers who need help with moving but are also enjoying working with institutional clients, be it a small startup or a large company. We want to power their logistics part of the business while they manage their core”.

TruckSumo runs on a powerful, reliable, intelligent tech engine which can operate at a large scale. The team of TruckSumo believes in running the company with every employee backed by the right tools and systems to empower them to make the system more efficient. They are constantly experimenting with the latest technology in the market which can improve the experience of the customer or improve efficiency of the team. Their smart algorithms are continuously evolving to make it better for customers and drivers. Their dream is to put a TruckSumo powered device in all SME’s to enable access to these services at the touch of a button.

The idea of this venture was lingering in the founder’s mind for about a good 2 years and they had chats about the same all the time they met. Upon research, they could clearly see a number of problems in the industry. They understood that the goods transportation and delivery infrastructure in India is broken. There was a clear lack of transparent pricing and quality. On the supply base, which was the other side of the coin, was found to be disaggregated and suffered from poor utilization.

Finally in 2015, the founder felt the time was right, tech in place and we felt the market was more open to this idea than ever before.

“Arun and I met via a common friend and have known each other since 2008. Abhishek and I are class-mates from school and have known each other for over 18 years. Each of us at some point wanted to work on the transportation problem and when we all got together for an evening coffee, one of us wanted to crack the intra-city problem, other inter-city etc. We got talking and it clicked and within 24 hours we had a name and logo ready for the new venture. The skill set balance was perfect as well. Arun comes from a solid sales background, Abhishek’s skills were in to running large scale operations in warehouses and I come from a product/technology background. “Says Nithin.

Arun Rao is an engineer by education and marketer by profession. Before this startup, he led a sales team at Google across US, CA & AUNZ markets. He has extensive experience in startup operations and is a Bachelor in Electrical Engineering from IIT KGP. MBA from ISB, Hyderabad

Nithin Baalay has a solid background in startups and technology and has been a founder of SayShaadi.com, an online wedding planning website. He was also the CTO at BuyThePrice.com, a Naspers funded eComm company, and Managing Director at India.com. Before all this, he worked in the US for 4.5 years before moving back to India. He has a masters in Computer Science from Columbia University, New York and is a Bachelors in Computer Science from CBIT, Hyderabad.

Features of TruckSumo

For the customers:

• Super Easy to book a vehicle. It takes 30 seconds to order a vehicle and 30 minutes to get it.
• Drivers are thoroughly vetted, trusted, professional and friendly. Stylish branded trucks with professional friendly drivers who will take care of your goods
• Transparent, modular pricing. You always know how much to pay and what you are paying for
• They offer the Best prices in the city – Up to 40% cheaper
• Hassle-free, all-in-one solution – multi-pickup, multi-drop, proof of delivery, real-time tracking

For the Drivers:

• Opportunity to earn more. Improve the quality of life. (Up to 80% increase in earnings)
• Get access to a larger pool of customers
• Buy vehicles from partner dealers at a discount (they have strategic partnerships with multiple dealers)
• Better interest rates on their vehicle financing
• Prompt weekly payments so that operational expenses are taken care of
• Fostering entrepreneurship and creating employment opportunity

Vehicles are equipped with different hardware to enable tracking, most drivers use their smartphone app. Currently, their consumer booking app is yet to go live on the app store. It has some helpful features which is very handy for customer with regular needs for transportation. The customer can book a vehicle with a single tap. They have a concept of sender and receiver where both parties are notified about the trip.

They have been growing since 2015 – They are currently doing about 17,000 orders a month serving about 900 loyal customers. TruckSumo has also been recognized by notable organizations, and have been finalists of events like Aditya Birla BizLabs, IBM SmartCamp 2016, Yourstory Tech Sparks.

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