Prahu-Hub’s Tactics to Overcome Expensive Logistical Costs in Indonesia

Based on Frost and Sullivan data, logistics costs in Indonesia are the highest in Asia. For this reason, The Prahu-Hub startup focused on the efforts to reduce logistics costs by overcoming several obstacles that had occurred over the years, such as the unidirectional flow of goods.

It makes logistical costs in the country inefficient because containers only carry goods from Java to other islands, but not vice versa. For this reason, Prahu-Hub tries to overcome it by bringing together freight forwarding and shipper users to achieve a more efficient process.

“The concept is, we want to empower people in the region, both logistical and merchant players so that they can improve their standard of living,” Prahu-Hub founder, Benny Sukamto explained. This startup offers four things including efficiency and effectiveness due to transparent prices.

“We are competitive in market prices. Cheap is not valued from the rupiah only, but also many things that can be seen as benefits,” he said. Moreover, the startup also offers online transactions so that everything can be monitored in real-time.

Prahu-Hub’s Consumers Can Easily Know Delivery Time

To his knowledge, so far most logistic services do not let their users know exactly when their goods will arrive. They do not provide a specific time about it. With Prahu-Hub, users and service providers on the platform more easily know the results of sales and delivery time.

“We have a tracking system. The notification is sent via WhatsApp and email. Thus, consumers can easily know where the package has arrived,” he said. For freight service providers, this system will make it easier for them to run their business since they know exactly when the delivery time is.

This way, they can start the next transaction as they know the position of the goods. As a result, the velocity of money is claimed to be smoother. Moreover, Prahu-Hub also offers loyalty programs, such as discounts and promo codes for the customers.

Prahu-Hub Also Offers Loyalty Programs for the Customers

Benny said that the partner service providers on his platform can submit tariffs and offer discounts to certain users. Besides, they must inform their service capacity. Later, users will choose services that will be used according to the partner’s budget and capacity.

“So, there is nothing like overbooking. The conventional system typically takes everything and then tells the customers that the delivery is late due to overbooking. We don’t want this issue to happen,” he added. Currently, Prahu-Hub services are available in 14 cities including Medan, Balikpapan, Makassar, Kendari, Merauke, and Fakfak.

Prahu-Hub is now still focused on expanding its market coverage in Indonesia rather than to other countries. Benny himself has struggled with the shipping service since he was a child since his parents also did the same business. He already understood the ins and outs of the industry.

His parents then sent Benny to the United States to learn about software systems and big data. His parents understand that logistics services in the country are very complicated and need to be made systematic. Thus, Beny established Prahu-Hub in 2017 to overcome this issue.