Redefining cargo mobility through technology by Omega Seiki Mobility

From making steel bars, the company has moved up the value chain significantly in last 10 years, making critical components for engine and powertrains.

Uday Narang, the second generation entrepreneur left his financial business in US and Europe and returned to take over the reins after his father passed away. He has been relentlessly driving the group towards technology upgradation, expansion and global foot print.

Cargo logistics is of serious interest to Uday. Seeing that Indian Logistics Industry remains highly disorganised relying on unskilled, semi-skilled personnel, he thinks it is time for a big change in the industry.

In his own words “Indian logistics industry is ripe for technology disruption. The industry has remained largely unorganised with multiple players operating in various formats. There are huge wastages across every link of the supply chain leading to financial losses. Industry needs to recognise this and build robust technology driven business models built on efficiency.”

His company Omega Seiki mobility is planning to change the landscape of cargo logistics in India with their electric vehicles in middle and last mile connectivity.

Introduction of EV as the most significant change coming in the logistics industry. It’s a big business enhancer for the industry due to the cost benefits it offers to the fleet owners. E-commerce today is the biggest driver for the battery vehicles in the last mile space. But soon battery vehicles in first and middle mile too will come with long range and fast charging. The cost of a battery powered 2 and 3 wheelers on total cost of ownership basis works out to be around 15-20% cheaper than its IC engine counterpart. This is quite significant for ecommerce players who spend around 60-70% of their cost on delivery. Out of this the last mile delivery is most challenging in terms of cost and efficiency.

The company started working on its own vehicle 3 years ago with its own small team of R&D engineers. Starting vehicle engineering with no previous experience was a challenge. However, the company realised it became an opportunity to do something new in a short period of time with no legacy issues.

By 2019 the first working prototypes were made and deployed on the actual fleet run by a large e-commerce delivery operator. With the infield learnings, the company engineers got back to their drawing boards quickly and the final vehicles were presented to the world in Auto Expo Feb’20.

Omega Seiki Mobility modelled its business on providing complete mobility solution to the customers. The company set up an integrated supply chain starting with battery to vehicles to fleet operations.

Omega Seiki vehicle fleet will comprise of two three and four wheel pickup trucks. In additional to the vehicles the company has launched its own last mile logistics fleet operations too. The drivers, charging and entire delivery management would be handled by the company. This is a unique business model as customer need not deal with multiple partners for vehicles, fleet, driver etc. It’s a one stop shop approach.

As Uday says “As mobility solution provider we see ourselves as part of the ecommerce supply chain. We do not provide vehicles to them rather we provide cargo space. This is essentially a space selling business. This is unique in India and we bring this knowledge from years of working in the automotive business”.

The mobility segment needs to be a profitable business. Many of the start-ups today have designed their businesses around scale and generating top line only. However, they cannot continue burning investors’ money all the time. The investor needs return on his investments.

The logistics business around the world has undergone tremendous change and next few years would see bigger changes. Autonomous driving, long range battery operated vehicles and connected vehicles powered by enormous data computing capabilities would drive this change. It would be safe to imagine similar changes for the Indian industry too would be imminent.

Omega Seiki believes in agility of decision making. The company has no layers of organsiation to deal with multiple levels of decision making, typical seen in auto OEMs.  

It plans to bring a disruptive change though technology to Indian cargo logistics industry.

Disclaimer: The views, suggestions and opinions expressed here are the sole responsibility of the experts. No Forbes India journalist was involved in the writing and production of this article.