LOGISTICS DURING THE CORONA CRISIS
Corona pandemic promotes digitisation among transport service providers
Bordesholm, October 1, 2019
CHAPTER 3
New opportunities for traditional logistics: cooperation with innovative start-ups
Large logistics service providers and a number of start-ups are entering the race with their own innovative solutions and are promoting the alleviation of the last mile problem with new, customer-friendly convenience services. Investments in solutions for last mile logistics amounted to 1.7 billion US dollars in 2017. In 2018, almost $3.8 billion was invested worldwide in start-ups with solutions for the last mile, and the trend is rising.
The technologies and concepts used have so far developed very differently. Some are still under development, others are currently being prototypically tested in practice and some have already been implemented as common solutions in everyday logistics.
Technology and service platforms such as “Liefery” or “Tiramizoo” have also geared their pilot projects to time-critical delivery in online retail, among other things, and were able to gain a foothold in the market. The success of their 90-minute delivery concept proves that projects, structurally identical to DHL's preferred delivery time, can survive with the right strategy.
The efforts among start-ups are already demonstrating that there is still a lot of innovation potential waiting in the last mile.
Drone delivery to consumers is also being tested. The UPS CEO* expects that test kits or, if available, the vaccine against the Coronavirus may also be distributed using drones.
The efforts among start-ups are already demonstrating that there is still a lot of innovation potential waiting in the last mile.
The next logical step is to expand cooperation of traditional logistics service providers with those start-ups in order to close gaps in their own delivery structure and to remain competitive. The effects of the Corona crisis will likely exacerbate existing last-mile difficulties for the time being. This will make new, relieving concept innovations all the more interesting for classic logistics in the future.
More information on this topic
The following article is also part of our reports on the effects of the corona crisis on logistics:
CORONA CRISIS ACCELERATES STRUCTURAL CHANGE
Digital solutions support logistics companies in the competition for e-commerce partnerships
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