By Lilian Museka
With the advent of E-commerce, many traders and consumers are increasingly buying and selling products online. However, the challenge comes when they want to transport the products to their intended destinations.
“The customer is forced to negotiate with various transporters for better prices and sometimes ends up encountering middlemen who overcharge them. Security of the products is also not assured as some of the middlemen cannot not be trusted. It is difficult and tedious to compare prices and transporter track records. This is where the Amitruck platform comes in,” says Mr. Mark Mwangi, CEO and Co-founder of Amitruck.
Amitruck is an online platform that connects clients directly to transporters. It cuts out expensive middlemen and ensures clients have a safe, competitive and convenient source of transport.
Founded by Mark and his brother Mr. Timothy Mwangi early this year, the platform enables a customer to book deliveries and get price quotations. This, Mark says gives customers an efficient transport platform and enables transporters to get business outside their normal networks.
Asked how it works, Mark explains that “Once a customer buys a product online, the merchant or customer books a delivery on the platform. The vehicles in the surrounding area get notified and they send their quotations directly using the app. The merchant chooses the best quote and makes payment which is held in escrow and only released to the driver upon confirmation by the customer that the delivery of the product was completed satisfactorily.”
Mr. Mark Mwangi, CEO and Co-founder explaining how Amitruck works
Mark says, customers have an opportunity to choose a driver based on the rating and price, adding that customers also gets an opportunity to select payment terms, contact the driver directly and track their products on the platform.
But what is unique about Amitruck? It provides a safe convenient avenue for customers to have their products transported at competitive prices. Multi-stop deliveries also help in consolidation of goods, reducing costs further. Customers can track their goods which are insured for security purposes. Larger clients can also now integrate directly with the platform and have their deliveries done automatically.
He adds that truck owners and their drivers get access to business outside their networks, set their own prices and choose the types of deliveries they want to do.
“Goods on the platform valued up to Ksh 500,000 are insured for free with the option for customers to increase this cover for a small premium. We cover loading, offloading, theft, fire and any kind of damage. We are however glad to report that since we began, we have never encountered any security challenges,” Says Mark.
Currently, Amitruck operates with over 5,000 vehicles delivering orders around the country and across the border to countries which include Burundi, Congo, Uganda and Tanzania, with plans to expand to other African countries. The transport modes include trailers, trucks, pick-up, vans and even boda bodas.
“We vet transport owners and their drivers before we list them to ensure the security of customers’ goods,” says Mark, adding that listing on the platform is free through the web https://www.amitruck.com/.
Photo: Courtesy of Amitruck
Mark says they make revenue by charging a commission for every delivery. Their clients are drawn from E-commerce, the agricultural & industrial sectors and individual consumers who may include people moving house or making large purchases.
What was the need in the market? Mark explains that he had noticed a variety of challenges which included a lack of a reliable source of transport, challenges with middlemen who would take advantage and overcharge clients as well as a lack of transparency and security. There was no reliable, competitive and convenient place to get safe transport.
“I teamed up with my brother Timothy who had experience in Silicon Valley, a global center for high technology and innovation and implemented logistics automation in the Kenyan market thereby connecting buyers directly to transporters. This has also helped streamline working relationships between truck owners and their drivers as there is an increase in trust, transparency and reliability,” he adds.
With a population of over 51 million, a 2019 mobile report by Jumia, indicates that Kenya is leading the continent in terms of internet usage and smartphone penetration, at 91 percent. It indicates that the phone is currently widely used by a large percentage of the population to do most of their transactions and activities.
“This is an enabling factor for us as it has given us an opportunity to offer people a relevant solution that is now streamlining the transportation of goods as Kenya embraces digital transformation,” says Mark.
Transport being at the core of President Uhuru Kenyatta’s Big Four Agenda, Mark says Amitruck is at the far front in ensuring food security by helping farmers to get inputs and outputs safely delivered to various destinations. “Faster, reliable transport means that farmers get inputs quickly and deliver their produce in good time, he says.
Mark adds that Amitruck is also helping the manufacturing sector receive raw materials and have finished products delivered to clients. Within the healthcare sector, pharmaceutical companies deliver medicine and medical equipment enabling the healthcare system.
“We hope the transport sector can fully embrace technology to push the agenda to a breakthrough level,” adds Mark.
And with every business facing various challenges, Mark admits that Amitruck has not been spared. “The biggest challenge that Amitruck has faced has been breaking through the traditional logistics model and explaining to clients how innovation can transform the sector and make it more efficient.”
Most clients are still clinging to the old models of finding transporters through referrals or by calling companies. This leaves them at the mercy of middlemen who end up overcharging them while the safety of their products is not assured. Truck owners are left with no choice, they literally have to look for business.
“If they can embrace this technology, we will have increased business, reliability and efficiency in the sector, “adds Mark.
Amitruck envisions expanding to the larger African market in the near future.
