It’s catchy and Greek. The name ‘4TiGo’ is taken from Fortigo which means ‘truck’ in Greek language. Everything else is Indian and born out of a desperate need for transparency, efficiency and availability of service as per demand in the Indian transport sector. Fortigo Network Logistics Pvt. Ltd. (4TiGo) is backed by the former Chairman of the Unique Identification Authority of India, Mr. Nandan Nilekani.
The founding partners – Mr. Anjani Mandal, Co-Founder & Chief Executive and Mr. Vivek Malhotra, Co-Founder & Chief of Strategy & Marketing, having experienced demand-supply mismatch during their previous work stints with transport logistics going haywire, latched onto the sole ingredient – TRUST – which, they believe, has kept the apple cart unsettled.
Mr. Mandal says: “The market is growing rapidly and is supposed to be $300 billion by 2020 yet it is highly fragmented, inefficient and opaque. People hide information and use it to leverage their own agendas.”
He continues: “There will be a supply-demand mismatch at any given point in time, which means imbalance exists all the time. Unless the stakeholders provide value addition or information then we know that the system is waiting to be disrupted.”
The partners believe that the sector is ripe for a change and having found the gap, they have launched a technological platform that aims to bridge distrust among all the stakeholders involved.
But how ready are these stakeholders to adopt the technology is another ball game altogether.
Unique solution
4TiGo offers a common technological platform for all the stakeholders. The technology and the user tool are given free of cost and the revenue comes in as transaction fee.
Mr. Mandal shares the advantages of the platform, “Monitoring of the truck, helping driver reach a facility, amenities or a service ahead of time by which you can lessen his stress, letting him know if a road block is up ahead, helping him with a particular route where there is a likelihood of supply-demand mismatch, facilitating for him to get a probable load… all this what we call as traffic alert… when he has a problem we will get him road side assistance. And the biggest problem always has been – No Cash, No Go – so we facilitate that with the technology as instantaneous cashless payments even when he is on the road. It solves all the problems and we facilitate the trust factor.”
The partners offer contract fulfillment assurance and payment guarantee through the network platform. Mr. Malhotra says: “Think of us as common technology platform which is almost like an ERP for the industry with a frontend which is a market place. Since we don’t want to disrupt and we want to maintain its current behaviors, one of which is that every contract is negotiated… so we allow for each trip to be negotiated and then we manage the contract end-to-end from the time the trip is confirmed till it is closed.”
While all this is taking place, the rest of the platform manages the fleet, performs live marketing, trading, tracking, and additional services like roadside assistance. All this can happen provided all the stakeholders agree to be on the network.
But every chain has a weak link… and here it is the driver adopting the network. Mr. Malhotra shares: “Just connecting doesn’t make the network good, it’s the participants. It is easier for the transport company, the brokers, and the fleet owners to adopt the technology but what is the network doing for the drivers? For them, we have tied up with Indian Oil and created a special product, Fuel Card. We provide incentives for the driver based on his performance on the network through a common loyalty program, besides discounts on fuel.”
The basic philosophy driving 4TiGo is that when a stakeholder has the maximum information, then the entity can deliver better. And the other driving factor is providing specific solutions to each stakeholder involved, without which they would not be attracted to join the network.
“4TiGo offers the agent access to a higher supply chain. If someone is willing to take guarantee of that instead of working with same set of known people, I will probably not venture out. So to venture out I need a cross network and if that is cracked I would have the problem solved,” says Mr. Mandal.
Data is the game changer, according to 4TiGo.
Reducing delays
So how does 4TiGo plan to reduce the delays at the loading and unloading points which in today’s context are but natural?
Mr. Mandal answers, “It is possible. Levying penalty beyond certain hours to load and unload is built into the platform. We are extending the network to them and providing them end user visibility of their consignment which right now they don’t have. With the platform and network, you can have full transparency. It may be kind of Utopian at the moment but really it’s only a reset. That is why we don’t expect everything to change overnight. It’s possible that the discounts will still happen, but it will be tracked…”
Training the entrants on how to get on board, using and transacting on the platform is the next step.
Mr. Malhotra begins by saying, “With the advantage of visibility the truck financing person receives from 4TiGo makes him also look at the whole thing in a different light, he doesn’t have to be vigilant, it comes to him. And over a period of time the positive behavior is enabled. It’s just that it takes a few banks with several crores, and the vision, and a bit of luck also, because it’s just now that mobility has happened, but this is a legal system….and there are mechanisms to facilitate a person being on the network…” and Mr. Mandal finishes it with, “We just want a few lakhs of them to come onto the platform and do good business. We reward them for that. Where will they take away the business from the other guys? So we say, make yourself efficient on the network and be better than those people who are not on the network…”
Driving force
4TiGo outsources consultants for its legal, contracting, advisory and audit requirements. Key aspects like finance, treasury and human resources are performed in-house. Since their product launch in June 2016, 4TiGo is working on building up market awareness.
Mr. Mandal says: “There are close to 2000 trucks who are interested in getting on to the network. And there is equal number ready to use the services.”
Mr. Malhotra adds: “Each member would go through a background check. Field trials have been on for some time now. The technology is ready and so is the payment integration with the bank.”
With 4TiGo now in six States, namely, Goa, Kerala, Andhra Pradesh, Telangana, Karnataka and Tamil Nadu, the partners are focusing on giving 100 per cent coverage in the geographies they are in because while the platform is there supporting the need for efficiency, yet the question now is of driving adoption among the stakeholders and bringing about a behavioral change.
4TiGo hopes to fire on all cylinders by 2017.