Realizing transportation problems in towns and small towns, 29-year-old Biswajit Muduli founded Foliyoo, a logistics startup, to address the difficulties of both customers and truck drivers in Odisha.
Transportation has always been a problem in most small cities in India. When Biswajit Muduli started his own plumbing parts shop, he faced many challenges when it came to transporting materials to his shop.
Since there was no way to trace the vehicle, Biswajit was unable to provide an estimated delivery time to his clients. He also found it difficult to book a truck in a short period of time. Coming from Balimela in the Malkangiri district of Odisha, which is a Naxalite-Maoist area, Biswajit also saw the difficulties truck owners / drivers and customers face when transporting materials.
To address these issues, Biswajit launched Foliyoo in 2018. The Bhubaneswar-based logistics startup is a transportation aggregator that offers an online platform to book moving and moving vehicles.
Trip
Biswajit completed his diploma in Electronics and Telecommunications from KIIT Polytechnic under KIIT University. In addition to the founder, the startup has 12 full-time employees in sales, technology, marketing, logistics management, and customer service, along with six freelancers.
Biswajit explains that Foliyoo Express was built to meet the transportation needs of both customers and truck drivers.
It offers truck drivers the option to decide how much they want to charge for a particular reservation, while customers can choose the best option from the list of truck drivers and their cost of service. Hence, it becomes a win-win situation for both truck drivers and customers.
He adds that the startup does not compromise the security of the client’s information and material, which must be transported from one place to another.
The startup incorporates truck drivers onto its platform only after background checks. Once this is done, the drivers register with Foliyoo Express and are guided on how the application works.
How does it work?
Available both as a web version and in the Android app, Foliyoo addresses changing and movement-related concerns in a three-step process.
Explaining the process, Biswajit says: “Customers use our app to book a truck driver. Users get multiple truck driver options in the app when searching for a particular route where they want to transport material. The app will also display the review of truck drivers. User can choose driver and make reservation. After delivery, payment must be made in cash to driver. ”
“We also plan to provide online payment options,” he adds.
All trucks have a tracking system through which customers can get real-time tracking information.
Truck categories on the platform include: Small (one to five tons); Medium (six to 15 tons); Large (16 to 25 tons); and Extra large (26 tons and more). Customers also have the option to select the type of vehicle, such as open, container, troller, and others. They can even select the material to be transported, such as cars, building materials, food agriculture, etc.
So far, the online fleet booking platform claims to have embarked 600 truck drivers and completed 3,000 reservations.
The market and the business model
A report from ResearchAndMarkets suggests that India’s logistics market is projected to reach $ 11.48 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 18.8 percent.
Started by Biswajit with an initial investment of its own savings, Foliyoo follows a commission-based business model and charges between Rs 500 and Rs 750 per booking from truck owners.
Currently, the startup is operational in Bhubaneswar, Sambalpur, Rourkela, Baleswar (Balasore) and Cuttack in Odisha. These locations are your pickup areas, and they deliver Indian bread.
