You are not going to believe this! Can you imagine a door-to-door courier service that delivers within the same day (not 24 hours), not next day, but the same day across 20 cities in India? What’s more, it comes with a money back guarantee!
Potential Market
I am not sure how profitable will this service be but the proposition is quite valuable to B2B (Business to Business) and B2C (Business to Consumer) segments. B2B users could use this for supplying products and equipment. When I say B2C I am particularly thinking of the online shopping business which has really not taken off in India despite there being many players in the market in the last decade.
One of the reasons for that I always thought was timely shipping and delivery. Due to Kingfisher Xpress’s same day service, I am hoping that this industry will get a boost.
Challenges
This new service comes from the house of Kingfisher which draws synergies from its flights routes. Timely ground pick-up and delivery would be key and I am not sure how a package picked up at 6 or 7pm in New Delhi will be delivered in Bangalore on the same day considering that it has to go through multiple steps in collecting, sorting, tagging, loading, off-loading, then delivering after overcoming traffic challenges doesn’t seem like an easy task. It’s not impossible, but probably something unheard of.
Granted that for this too-good-to-be-true service, there may be a catch somewhere, and I suspect that could probably be the cost. Despite the cost, the very fact that you can have the shipment delivered the same day and at the most next day is absolutely fantastic.
Unknowns
There are many unknowns at this point of time like the cut-off times for same day pick and delivery, clarity on who (Kingfisher staff at pick up or delivery site) will repay the customer (sender or receiver) if the package is not delivered the same day as promised or what will be terms and conditions for claims processing.
Bottom line
In any case, it will be a service that has huge potential benefits to the customers and also may enable better utilization of the Kingfisher flights cargo capacity. This service will probably have competitors in both airlines and courier industries sit up and take note to see if Kingfisher is out to eat their lunch. As a consumer, I think this is the best thing that has happened in a long time in the logistics industry.
What is your take on this? Is same day cargo delivery too good to be true?
I am resident of 15th main,5th Block,HBR Layout Bangalore.Residents are facing problems being caused by Kingfisher Express Vans. Vacant plots and the roads have been turned into parking Lots on 15th Main, 5th Block, HBR Layout.They cause lot of noise, block traffic. Many times our sleep is disturbed. The drivers of these vans stand in front of houses, smoke and keep watching, I have had a burglary last year.
Can some one guide me, whom to address this issue.
Thanks,
Raj
Kingfisher is in red for some time now.So this strategic move is basically to extract some revenue from the existing kingfisher infrastructure.I think it’s possible but only question is how will the kingfisher guys make it!!
Hi all,
i visited the site mentioned above and i think they have shared all the info on the web and a very simple site. same day delivery has a separete section and you can even see the multiple time of [pick up and delivery.
Madhav, i agree with you this looks like more of B2B and B2C service and meant for corporates to manage supply chain and just in time consognments. thought they are connecting only 20 cities, i think they want to check before expanding.
Kingfisher Xpress: if you are listening, can you throw some light and may be you can gain :)
hopefully soemone is listening.
looks like they decided this after taking in 7-8 strong beers…from kingfisher…. :)
Its going to be very profitable once there are a lot of goods to be delivered, they’re definitely going to have 100s of agents in each city, so its definitely a profitable business. I haven’t heard much about Deccan 360s success rates, but the logistics industry has got good growth.
Vishal,
Yeah, I think even Vijay Mallya is keeping his fingers crossed on this one to improve the operational margins on his flights. On-going success in logistics is more difficult than meets the eye, unless they have already tied up with or acquired ground pick-up and delivery companies with established networks and who have good track record for timeliness and customer service.
link?
http://kingfisherxpress.com
It will obviously be crippled with conditions like “Cargo booking before XX:XX time”, delivery only within a particular radius, etc. We have only read the prospectus of the service, we are yet to read the small font terms and conditions. :d
Rohan,
You are correct. As I mentioned in my reply to Pradeep’s comment, the minimum shipment weight is 10kgs. So even if their service were to be excellent and they kept their time etc., I can hardly imagine a common needing to ship something that heavy and needing same day delivery! So it probably is a B2B or B2C service and they may as well read the fine print.
Its really hard to believe, but i think there would be a twist like limited cities where same day delivery will be offered specially where they have direct flight and for sure there would be some time limitation to post and accordingly it would be delivered.
Hi Pradeep,
Yes, currently the cities they deliver same day are mentioned here- http://kingfisherxpress.com/ship/SameDayDelivery.aspx
Going by the fact that the minimum shipment weight is 10kgs(http://kingfisherxpress.com/products-services/xpress-additional-service.htm) which is quite a lot I doubt the common man might rarely need this service and when they do they might generally prefer a cheaper service even if takes a few days.