The SmartShift Story: Celebrating the “Entrepreneurial” spirit of Indian transporters & bringing about efficiencies in the unorganised logistics space

The first intrapreneurial venture funded by the Mahindra group, Smart Shift has experienced significant growth in the past one and half years. It is essentially a tech-marketplace for intra-city logistics that enables cargo owners to find the right transporters through a mobile application.

In an exclusive with Team CVF, Kausalya Nandakumar (CEO of SmartShift), shares her view on the SmartShift story, digitization of the logistics value chain in India and how to succeed as a startup.

Q: For some of the uninitiated readers of this article, could you please tell us briefly about the SmartShift story? 

Kausalya: In my last role with Automotive Strategy at Mahindra, while debating the “next big idea for commercial vehicle industry”, I put forward the idea of a technology-based aggregator in this space. Then led a team, in a heavily male-dominated space, through six months of rigorous efforts of meeting customers, identifying their pain points and developing in granular detail every aspect of the business plan. The efforts got recognized when the start-up was evangelized by none other than Mr. Anand Mahindra himself, and SmartShift was launched in October of 2015.

Q: How has the market response been to SmartShift? Both from SME (Cargo Owners) perspective as well as the transporters?

Kausalya: In the span of one-and-a-half years, we have been able to successfully achieve our key milestones. Starting from Mumbai, we have successfully expanded our service to Hyderabad and Bengaluru and today we service more than 900 pin-codes in these 3 cities. Clocking over 50% growth month-on-month, today we have impacted lives of more than 15,000 stakeholders, emerging as leaders in our segment in both the cities of operations and growing by the day. While our focus remains SME “on-demand” market, we have diversified and partnered with over 25 corporate clients including FMCG companies, e-commerce clients and logistics companies for their last-mile logistics requirements.

Reverse Bidding helped us create an attractive differentiated model on the transporter side as well. Taking forward the Mahindra group’s heritage of CV industry, we designed SmartShift to celebrate the “Entrepreneurial” spirit of the transporters and give them the autonomy that they desire in a smarter fashion. On our platform, transporters not just decide their working hours, they also have the freedom to choose the right price for the cargo movement. This concept has received positive response from almost all our transporters, and has been critical to our growth – more than 3000 transporters in just one-and-a-half years is monumental! Moreover, improvement in efficiency and productivity through Reverse Bidding has led to, on an average, 30% savings for customers.

We have consistently received positive feedback from both our customers (SME business owners) and collaborators (transporters). In a recently conducted NPS study by a third party agency both customers and transporter partners have reinforced our commitment to provide best in class service.

Q: How do you see SmartShift evolving/scaling in the future?

 We aim to innovate on a regular basis to create a sustainable, relevant technology that impacts nearly 1 million stakeholders in the next three years.

We aim to become the leaders in logistics’ solutions for in 6 key applications/industries

With careful, consistent nurturing, we aim to own the universe of surface cargo transportation across the country

Q: How does SmartShift differentiate itself from the other companies trying to disrupt the cargo movement space?

Kausalya: SmartShift has 4 key differentiators/innovations which sets it apart from competition

Smartshift Story for CVF 2017, Pune
Q: Do you see other CV OEMs like Mahindra building digital platforms such as SmartShift?

Kausalya: The space is large and needs the attention of organized players who are dedicated to the cause of enabling efficiency and better transparency in cargo transport. It is also a space that needs a tremendous commitment in terms of building a sustainable service value to consumers. Hence, though I am uncertain of whether other OEMs such as the Mahindra Group are looking to enter this industry, it is safe to say that a well-established player would have a greater chance of succeeding in this space.

Q: Any new venture faces multiple challenges, what has been the single biggest challenge for SmartShift?

Kausalya: Like all other companies, we have had our share of successes and learnings since inception. However, our single biggest challenge has been to effectively communicate with semi/illiterate transporters. Largely illiterate, most of the transporters struggle to use the ‘text’ feature on these phones. They are unaccustomed to texting due to their low levels of literacy. Thus, we introduced SmartBoli, an industry-first advanced IVR technology through which feature phone transporters receive & respond to jobs. The SmartBoli tech allows for multi-response choices, each customized to replicate the current decision flow that a transporter follows for a job. Today, ~70% of our transporters who own feature phones respond to our SmartBoli calls.

Q: You are part of the keynote and future of mobility panel discussions at the upcoming Commercial Vehicle Forum (taking place on 18th May 2017 at the Westin in Pune). What are some of the key insights and themes you are looking to focus on as a part of this forum?

Future trends in the CV space and how forum members see it changing/progressing
Efforts by OEM’s and suppliers in the space of vehicle digitization
Efforts being made globally on enhancing customer experience

Q: What are your expectations from the Forum?

Kausalya: To learn the importance of thought leadership in the space of digitization of the logistics value chain

Q: As one of the few female leaders trying to disrupt this male dominated space, what message would you like to share with women who want to emulate your example?

Kausalya: The advice that I would like to give is gender agnostic, so it applies to all aspiring entrepreneurs; not just the female ones. You must be prepared for an extremely fulfilling but challenging journey. You must never yearn for short-cuts & that hard-work is the only way to success. Don’t be afraid to ask for help; in fact, create an enabling support-system that helps you manage your life. And lastly, step up, step forward, be committed. You must take initiative, you must demonstrate leadership and you must deliver!