New Challenger in a Conservative Industry

2015.11.28

Sendify is the challenger aiming to simplify the transport industry. Students from Chalmers University of Technology have realized that SMEs are in need of a more flexible solution for sending goods.

 

The music industry has changed, the taxi industry as well. Now it is also time for the transport industry to change as Sendify are launching their new service in late November. With a simplified process, Sendify want to help SMEs to find transport solutions that best suits their needs.

Sendify founder Fredrik Edeland and a group of students at Chalmers noticed that the transport industry is conservative with very little innovation in terms of customer service solutions. It has been difficult for companies to get an overview of transport options, and expectations are often high.

‐ It seems as if people have settled with how the transport industry looks like and often have high expectations on transport companies. Meanwhile, transport companies have been poor at communicating their service offering to customers, which has led to a gap, says Fredrik.

The process of sending goods is not very smooth, says Fredrik. Companies often use several carriers and they all have different terms and conditions. Also, website interfaces are not very user friendly.

So, what is Sendify? Fredrik explains the service as a transparent search portal enabling SMEs and individuals to get an overview of transport options as well as booking freight to and from Sweden. With a few clicks, after selecting the destination and the goods dimensions, transport options from carriers show in a comprehensive list. The alternatives can be sorted by price or delivery time and the customer books the shipments through Sendify.

‐ It’s all about simplifying logistics. We have integrated the whole process, and take full responsibility. We want to be that one point of contact for our customers. Customers sign up directly with us and the process to get started only takes a few minutes, says Fredrik.

Several of the leading transport companies have already joined Sendify. In the future, however, the idea is that also small carriers will join, enabling them to compete with the larger transport companies on the local market.

‐ We do not favour anyone. If you have a good offer, you should be given the opportunity to reach our customers.

The idea is that the customer expectations will be more in line with what the transport companies offer, this because of the simple process and clear information Sendify will contribute.

One might think that an intermediary would increase the costs. Fredrik assures that this is not the case. Sendify signs large contracts with the carriers which gives lower rates than if the customer would book directly through the carrier. Sendify is also free of charge once the customer have signed up.

‐ Now it is time for the smaller actors to get the same competitive advantages as the big players, says Fredrik.