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?