Jai Kanwar, under, co-founder and joint-managing director of digital freight platform Zeus Labs, tells us concerning the firm and managing the highway haulage provide chain
Inform us the background of Zeus. When did you set it up and what was the pondering behind it?
I launched Zeus along with my co-founder Clemente Theotokis in 2020 whereas finding out on the London Faculty of Economics and Political Science. We recognized a spot available in the market after we realised that the haulage sector had not but modernised away from paper-based and manually intensive processes. We noticed a terrific alternative to make trade extra environment friendly and sustainable. Zeus is a next-generation tech platform geared toward streamlining the highway freight trade and decreasing emissions in a single go. The tech allows shippers to chop out the 5 or extra intermediaries generally seen and effectively ebook, handle, and live-track shipments. With a single level of entry mannequin, it gives a large 71 per cent discount in admin hours, full forecasting & reporting, scalable entry to over 10,000 vans (and rising) and auto reconciliation of all fees per load.
Who’s your goal buyer?
Any giant enterprise (producers, producers, retailers) who ship excessive volumes of freight by highway. Zeus works exhausting to create an excellent enjoying area for owner-drivers and small haulage firms (with fewer than 12 vans) by giving them quick access to new work. We serve greater than 40 enterprise-level purchasers, together with Primark, P&G, Decathlon, AB InBev, and Apollo Tyres, dealing with over 660,000 tonnes of cargo yearly price circa £6 billion.
What makes you stand out out of your rivals?
Zeus stands out from the gang because it brings collectively two distinctive fashions into one: a devoted fleet and a free-to-use freight market. Hauliers pay nothing to make use of Zeus and profit from spot hundreds (advert hoc work) in addition to contracted, recurring work. Every thing is digitised and by way of the free Driver app, proof of deliveries is uploaded immediately, triggering funds inside 48 hours (in comparison with market common of 60 days). Hauliers get notified of latest hundreds and might settle for and schedule jobs whereas nonetheless on the highway. Our distinctive hybrid enterprise mannequin is driving effectivity for shippers and actual development for hauliers, mixed with correct reporting which allows additional reductions in carbon emissions.
The place do you see your small business in 5 years’ time?
Our imaginative and prescient is to create a single technological commonplace that allows everybody to work collectively to extend effectivity and cut back the environmental impression of world freight. The event of {the marketplace} is the primary product, a platform that brings collectively hauliers and enormous/enterprise shippers, offering full truck load enterprise as scale.
It will then fund the event of extra developments to this market:
- Partial Truck Masses (PTL) & Groupage – transporting a cargo with different items
- Vans and light-weight items autos
- SME enterprise service – the place single assignments of any measurement might be catered for
And different SaaS options are additionally in improvement, which is able to permit firms to make use of the Zeus platform for his or her inner logistics operations too. Zeus plans to increase these capabilities past simply highway freight into different transport modes, with a view to modernise and streamline provide chains for everybody.
Does your age have an effect on how you might be perceived / handled internally & externally?
The availability chain trade may be very conventional. Most carriers and freight operators are male owned and male operated (over 95% of drivers are males), whereas the trade total has a excessive median age (over half are aged over 46). On this sense, beginning a digital freight administration service at 23 years previous has been a novel expertise. It has include some challenges, externally greater than internally, but additionally brings many benefits, not least of which has been being the face of much-needed change. Buyers and purchasers respect younger, formidable entrepreneurs who usher in new concepts and convey recent bouts of vitality.
At Zeus, each Clemente and I imagine that the freight trade might be actually sustainable, each fulfilling our financial wants and decreasing its environmental impression on our planet. The present gasoline disaster highlights how a zero-emission-based freight system would even be extra resilient too.
What recommendation would you give to somebody seeking to begin their very own enterprise?
There are a number of important steps everybody ought to take earlier than launching a enterprise. Firstly, it’s key to totally validate and analysis your market. Zeus was solely launched after a yr of enterprise validation research, analysis, and planning.
Secondly, in case you’re a younger entrepreneur, it’s essential to perceive that though you’ll have an amazing concept, it’s the execution of that concept that may decide success. Having an amazing management workforce – your ‘core’ – is an absolute should. Clemente and I had to make sure our workforce mirrored stable trade expertise, complementary pioneering attitudes, and significant pondering talents.
Thirdly, be ready for issues to not go to plan. Mitigate this by ensuring your small business planning is just not primarily based on finest case situations. Additionally put together your self mentally. At Zeus, what we thought could be most difficult, like getting traction with main producers, went extra easily than anticipated, while different areas didn’t go to plan. With start-ups, nothing will ever be ‘good’, however with the ability to acknowledge this and collaborate along with your workforce to beat surprising situations is a necessary funding that may repay.
