Pharma logistics is known for being an old-fashioned business but changing shipper expectations, new market players, and eroded margins have prompted industry leaders to move from rigid frameworks to flexible business models like Uber, said Rajesh Pednekar, International Expert – Pharma Supply Chain and one of the top 50 influencers in Asia Pacific as adjudged by Terrapin, Singapore.

Uberised business formats are characterized by elements such as the use of a digitalized platform enabling peer to peer, or quasi-peer to peer transactions, minimizing the distance between the provider and customer of a service and the use of a rating system for the quality of the service provided by a provider.

Uber type platforms are bound to have a direct impact on first time or casual shippers. However, the relationship between freight forwarder and customer continues to emphasize interactive communication because not all shipments are alike, especially in pharma. Uber model is essentially the same as that of a freight broker, and reflects much of the role associated with 3PLs (third-party logistics), said Pednekar.

Players in pharma logistics industry need to be prepared to meet the demands posed by uberisation which is on-demand model connecting buyers and sellers, facilitating transactions, setting prices to buyers and sellers and taking a fee.

They will need to be ready to serve megacities and extend their reach farther than ever before, focus on timeliness, with "fastest" becoming a key measure of success, be able to keep pace with the omni channel world, when e-commerce gets approved in pharma, make intelligent asset investment and utilization, share transportation assets efficiently, achieve complete digital transformation to derive all the benefits of staying connected, align with constantly changing regulatory requirement, stay agile to meet the volatility of demand, seamlessly integrate disruptive, futuristic technologies within their existing systems, adopt systems flexible to disparate conditions in different geographies.

Uberisation, especially post GST implementation, seems panacea to pharma logistics industry bogged down by challenges such as minimal end-to-end visibility, apprehension to invest in technology, lack of integrated systems and a 360-degree planning and execution, dependence on legacy systems, inability to place customer, etc.

Companies which operate with particularly inefficient high-cost models, with continued reliance on email and telephone, are likely to be dragged beneath the service by Uber like players in pharma logistics, he said.

The core infrastructure required to move freight - containers, planes and trucks - is not fundamentally changing, but improving data movement that guides freight movement is key to increasing efficiency.

More and more of today’s pharma logistics managers and freight buyers grew up with a smart phone in their hand; they want everything on mobile that they can access from anywhere that makes mobile-app platforms such as Uber model a must for logistics companies, concluded Pednekar.