Sanjay Aiyer likes to take risks. He quit the comfort of a job in a top hotel chain to follow his passion: becoming part of KLM’s cargo division at Mumbai. In the eight years he spent with the carrier, Aiyer learned the intricacies of the air cargo trade and in 2005, launched his own forwarding organization, Blue Bird Logistics, headquartered in Delhi.
     Ten years to the day, he has taken another bold step by launching India’s first e-platform: e2ecargo.com. Talking to ACNFT, Aiyer pointed out that the portal does for the exporting community what Amazon does for the common consumer. With a few clicks, the exporter can book consignments, make the payment online, and even schedule a pickup.
     Looking at and experiencing what Aiyer termed as “the lack of transparency” in the air cargo industry, he was prompted to launch the portal. The foundation for the portal came after consultations with exporters and importers, which focused on their expectations of a freight forwarder.
     “What they wanted was ease of operations,” said Aiyer. “We have put logistics on an e-commerce platform and offered a one-stop shop for cargo bookings. These can be done without stepping out of the confines of your office or home, and at any time of day or night.”    
     Though the initial service offering for the small shipment market is focused largely on Small and Medium Enterprises—for the moment, the platform allows exporters to book their general cargo air export shipments to 50 top global destinations—Aiyer said that in the course of the next few months, the number of destinations would increase substantially.
     e2ecargo.com is designed around the users’ requirement and is incredibly simple in terms of access and usage. A standard price requisition, comparison, decision making and booking process, which would normally take between 4 to 6 hours, can now be completed in less than 5 minutes. It facilitates instant bookings for a maximum weight of 480 kgs per shipment and dimensions as permitted on standard wide body aircraft.
     Signing up is easy. The e2ecargo.com portal simplifies the booking process and allows the user to choose his preferred date and time for pick up. Users have been assured of quality services, backed by a professional and dedicated team with the company’s exemplary track record in customer satisfaction over the past 10 years (Aiyer and his company have worked for, among others, the WHO, delivering medical and life-saving supplies around the world). In addition, Blue Bird is also committed to a complete physical verification of shippers and their facilities and will be maintaining a database similar to the U.S.’s TSA. Aiyer also said his company would work closely with all competent authorities to ensure the database is updated regularly. The known shipper concept of the company is Know Your Customer compliant and will go a step ahead to ensure complete safety and security. 
     e2ecargo.com has started taking bookings from Delhi and the surrounding areas. Exporters in Mumbai, Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Chennai will be able to use the services by the end of 2016.
     “Blue Bird Logistics,” said Aiyer, “has taken the first step towards bringing in much needed simplicity and transparency in the freight forwarding business in the country. We will provide an opportunity for the Small and Medium Enterprises segment to reduce cargo costs by 30-40 percent and expand their business exponentially. With this we target to capture a minimum of 10 percent of the market share within the next two years.”
     As for shipments that exceed set booking parameters, Sanjay Aiyer provides users the option to e-mail a rate request.
     “The offline mode will continue to offer solutions for shipments that cannot be currently booked via e2ecargo.com. This includes Dangerous Goods, Pharmaceuticals, shipments requiring Temperature control, Odd Dimensional Shipments as well as complete charter requirements,” Aiyer said.?
Tirthankar Ghosh