29/06/2015 10:25 AST
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail. Email ftsales.support@ft.com to buy additional rights.
It has been more than two years since Hussein Hachem took over as chief executive of Aramex, the Dubai-based logistics company. With acquisitions across the globe to drive its ecommerce business and investments in infrastructure and technology, Mr Hachem is adamant that it will transform Aramex and bring “disruptive” change to the industry.
“The idea is to have Aramex as a technology enterprise selling solutions without really owning any assets, but facilitating supply and demand and managing the process,” Mr Hachem says.
High quality global journalism requires investment. Please share this article with others using the link below, do not cut & paste the article. See our Ts&Cs and Copyright Policy for more detail.
This year, Aramex will invest $20m in technology, and becoming increasingly asset-light is part of this strategy. Unlike most of its competitors, such as global giants DHL and FedEx, it does not own aeroplanes and uses commercial airports while running a combined network of fully owned operations alongside partners and agents. The company is present in 60 countries and offers services across freight, express, logistics and warehousing, ecommerce and record management.
“We have less luggage and, with the transformation to become a technology enterprise, we are able to move, shift and introduce new products to the market faster than others,” he says.
Change is occurring in the final leg of delivery, or the so-called last mile, as the company prepares to launch mobile apps and invite the public to become couriers on a part-time basis. This allows it to create an open-source model that changes based on demand, solving the issue of capacity in its ecommerce business, an increasing revenue generator.
“This is a new thing that will be disruptive and change the industry in a big way. It will allow us to scale up based on demand, have a better delivery component and be more cost efficient,” Mr Hachem says.
The apps, one for consumers and another for couriers, will be rolled out by the fourth quarter, starting with Dubai, Cairo, India, Turkey and South Africa.
“The workforce of the frontline of Aramex will become the community. Anyone can participate in the delivery component. You might be a housewife, a student, a part-time worker, and we would pay according to the success of the delivery component,” he explains.
People will be trained and certified before becoming couriers. Once verified and vetted, they can access the app via a pin code and start deliveries based on their availability. “This allows us to move from fixed-cost last mile into a variable-cost last mile,” Mr Hachem says. “It’s similar to the Uber component.”
On the other hand, consumers will use their app to interact with the courier online, track their package and rate the quality of delivery. Over time, this should result in enhanced service. Aramex has also partnered with UK-based Pivotal Labs where data scientists are sifting through millions of transactions to help analyse customer behaviour.
For more on this
Click Here
Financial Times
Please wait...
