New | Logistics firms push regional truck networks
Express delivery companies bank on growth from integration and e-commerce, with road services running from Singapore to Shanghai
International and regional logistics firms are ratcheting up efforts to set up trucking networks across Southeast Asia and up to China, betting on further growth and integration in the region and, more particularly, exponential growth in demand for express delivery fuelled by online shopping.
Companies, including DHL, Kerry Logistics, Agility, Nippon Express and Singapore Post, have made punts in the fledging e-commerce logistics market in Asia, which is estimated to reach US$175.24 billion next year, according to Transport Intelligence.
Kerry, through the Kerry Asia Road Transport (KART) platform, has opened seven routes since 2007 and now has about 150 trucks hauling goods across an area extending from Singapore to Shanghai.
"Ultimately KART will become an Asean (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) express platform, which will aid greatly cross-border e-commerce between Asean and China," said Samuel Lau, an executive director at Kerry Logistics (Hong Kong).
Lau said Kerry had decided to brand the platform, based in Bangkok, with the neutral name KART because the company welcomed its peers and competitors to use the service.
He declined to specify cargo volumes going through KART, but said it was growing "very fast".