Interviewed By Sumaiya Siddique, MBR Team
MBR: eCourier is one of the major players in logistic ecosystem in local industry. What made you enter into this market and how has eCourier started its journey?
Biplob G Rahul: It is silly but better to say one thing about me is that adrenalin flows through my veins every minute and that was the reason I chose logistics as my business passion where the industry never sleeps. Besides, I have tried to find out the difficulties my countrymen face and that was my first and foremost motive to run my wheels to move the emotion of my fellow countrymen through parcel deliveries. Logistics sector is thriving and it is fast becoming an area of interest for the new generation. Logisticians populate almost every field from retail to finance to government. In the private sector, it handles shipping, distribution, warehousing and quick deliveries to customers. Even in the times of economic struggle, the logistics industry has continued to grow with jobs across the sector in everything from manual warehouse work to supply chain management.
MBR: eCourier has recently launched a variety of services to expedite its operations such as ‘air-parcel’. Will you kindly tell us more about the services and their contribution in adding value?
Biplob G Rahul: We are in the era of digitization. We have made our life a lot more hassle free through
digital supports. It was always bugging me how to be more tech enabled and help the SMEs of our country which will help them to conquer more. E-commerce and F- commerce sectors are the emerging side of this digital era. I wanted it to last long and that made me keep pushing myself to make this whole process easier. So, I kept adding value to my products and thought to give people the fastest service in one platform. Through the aforementioned service, users are able to send their urgent documents and parcels within the same day to any airport based district zone. So, that is how I am still learning and growing with the new ideas.
MBR: Online purchases have become very popular among customers as a result of the pandemic. We believe, eCourier has also experienced increased demand in this Covid era. Could you tell us how you managed to deal with such growth in demand?
Biplob G Rahul: The pandemic has been a huge wake-up call for all of us. Businesses that had considered their way outs to be resilient suddenly found out that they were not actually. Businesses and industries that had resisted change suddenly found themselves embracing it.
Of course, when a pandemic breaks out, it is alarming, but life cannot get stuck and we have to fight back and that is what we did. Covid-19 gave consumers a new way of thinking. Our thought process have changed now. Now we know, work from home can be a thing also. So, the pre-new normal phase made us learn a lot and we have jumped in every possible way to grab everything we could in order to support our merchants and clients. Business demands were not the same and so many transitions happened. In that critical time, we have run through COD service and cashless delivery also through BOD (bKash on Delivery). The journey from lockdown to ‘pre-new normal’ and then to new realities needed a reassessment of today’s supply chains based on a changed environment and a potential new set of priorities and we have managed to pull that off.
MBR: With several notable players in the market and a growing e-commerce customer base, how are you foreseeing this market to evolve in coming years and how is eCourier planning to increase their market foothold?
Biplob G Rahul: Well, for me, it is actually good to have notable market players. It helps me to think and reshape my ideas. With the growing customer base, it is actually healthy to have competitors and this shows a future of steady upward trend with less signs of decline. But, what is even more interesting is that the global e-commerce sales have been steadily eating up the worldwide retail market and here we are only focusing on quality service commitment, faster delivery and larger network coverage based service.
But, we want to grab this opportunity. We want to expand in every possible way to hold the market and create demand where it is required. eCourier is planning to set the trend for that. As our catchphrase is “We move emotions”, we do want to serve people with the best solutions so that their emotions get overwhelmed and it is helpful for both ends.
Commercial Vehicle Industry: Rolling the Wheels of Economic Growth
With the expansion of the manufacturing sector in our country, the demand for the commercial vehicles is on the rise than ever. Manufacturers of various goods and logistics companies are the end customers of commercial vehicles, as they require transportations to deliver goods to various points all over the country. Due to the countrywide shutdown, the industry suffered from negative growth for the first time in the last few years. However, the pandemic-stricken economy is reviving in tandem with the recovery of the commercial vehicle industry.
GDP of Bangladesh is projected to reach 340 billion USD in 2022. Keeping pace with that, the commercial vehicle industry is expanding by 15% to 20% every year. Fast track projects undertaken by the government to develop the roads and highways of the country are helping to sustain the growth. Technological advancements have touched this sector as well like many other sectors. Resultantly, technologies like GPS and smartphone apps like Truck Lagbe, GIM, Loop Freight etc. have already become widely available to city dwellers and have positively impacted the industry.
Needless to say that the success of trade and commerce of a country largely depends on its well-structured transportation system. Keeping that in mind, the government in collaboration with foreign investors is patronizing local assembly with the goal to manufacture commercial vehicles with locally sourced materials.
Like every other industry, this industry is also going through some major challenges. Congested traffic, unsafe roads, poorly trained drivers, high import duty etc. are some of major challenges that must be mentioned. Government initiative to formulate industry-friendly policies and proper implementation of them is highly required to help this potential industry flourish.
RIFAT ISHTIAQ KHAN
Manager
IDLC Finance Ltd.