According to Johan Holgersson from Bring, digital natives and growing e-commerce paves the way for Uber-inspired delivery services, that traditional carriers can learn a lot from, writes Lotte Weichenfeldt Schjøtt, of delivery management software firm EDI-Soft.
Lotte Weichenfeldt Schjøtt, EDI-Soft
Since the start of Uber in 2009, on-demand mobile services have spread to many other industries than taxi driving, and has become synonymous with digital disruption, innovation and convenience. In transport, delivery services such as Danish Trunkbird and Norwegian Nimber have emerged. At EDI-Soft’s annual conference, the Nordic Delivery Conference 2015, Johan Holgersson, SVP Marketing and Director e-Labs Bring, expressed openness to cooperating with new social delivery services. EDI-Soft has subsequently talked to Johan Holgersson about his views on the rise of these innovative delivery services.
“It is especially the growing e-commerce and digital natives’ demands for simple, flexible and convenient delivery methods, which means that we today are seeing more and more social delivery services. The new delivery services have social platforms as focal point, which are user-friendly and attract the digital natives. These new innovative solutions show the consumers the possibilities, and this places innovative demands on carriers like us. The consumers’ power has never been greater,” Johan Holgersson says. He welcomes the disruption that Uber brings to traditional logistics and believes that traditional carriers can learn a lot from social delivery services and is not dismissive to cooperations.
Cooperation could meet the consumers’ needs
Holgersson says he finds it inspiring that the Uber philosophy on digital disruption and innovation is possible in such a traditional industry as logistics: “Disrupting services like Uber, Trunkbird and Nimber, are driving forces for innovation for us. All improvements in the supply chain, which contributes to a better experience for end users, are warmly welcome. Uber can learn traditional carriers something about communication, web interfaces, mobile apps and traceability.”
In line with the explosive growth of e-commerce, cooperation between social delivery services and traditional carriers may be necessary in order to meet the consumers’ needs.
“I believe we all share a responsibility in making it possible to obtain a smoother product flow especially with the growing e-commerce. It will be difficult for carriers to meet consumers’ far-reaching demands and wishes for delivery 100% on their own. Therefore, I could easily imagine a cooperation for Bring in the future,” Holgersson concludes.
Further reading
- Bring is a part of Posten Norge, one of the largest logistics and postal operators in the Nordic region. It has 6,000 employees.
- In May 2015 Bring introduced 1-hour delivery in Stockholm, Oslo and Copenhagen.
- Johan Holgersson participated in the panel debate at the Nordic Delivery Conference 2015 together with Carsten Dalbo, Head of Logistics & E-commerce at PostNord, Dwain McDonald, CEO at DPD UK and Morten Villberg, Managing Director at DHL Parcel Nordic & UK. Read more about the panel debate here.
- The Nordic Delivery Conference is a yearly conference, which focuses on delivery as a competitive advantage for people, who work with shipments and delivery on a daily business. Read more about the Nordic Delivery Conference 2016 here.
- Delivery management software company EDI-Soft hosts the Nordic Delivery Conference. Read more about EDI-Soft here.
