To date, the truck-based logistics industry is still on-demand and viral in Indonesia. With geographical characteristics varied of land, water and air; land transportation remains the leading way for shipping and distributing goods, including being the backbone of the e-commerce business.

In this country, land logistics estimated to spend about US$290 billion in 2020. Aside from the large market, total commercialized vehicles (9.6 million units in 2019) has created tighter competition.

Webtrace intends to be a useful platform for fleet management to have a technology solution for the more efficient logistics business, also to improve productivity and security. It can work using IoT solutions and sensors to produce data compilation and real-time analytics.

“The tight service and price competition among land transportation providers and high non-transparent costs, has caused low-profit margins. The solution we are trying to offer is IoT which regulates and optimizes vehicle utilities, drivers, and reduces unnecessary non-transparent costs,” Webtrace’s CEO & Co-founder, Erwin Subroto said.

Particularly, Webtrace performs a thorough analysis from two devices. First, through application for drivers using GPS Engine App on smartphones. Also, they offer Fleet Solution, a small unit equipped with each vehicle. Both are to send real-time data to be managed on the platform.

Secures seed funding

Currently, Webtrace has owned 3500 units registered (signed a contract) trucks and it’s onboarding. Units connected to the platforms are distributed around Sumatera, Java, Borneo, Madura, and Sulawesi.

Although with the recent rise of similar players, Webtrace stated the marketshare is still wide open, as the massive land transportations with passengers reaching 12 million units.

“We aware of similar solution providers, but the total fleet connected to our platform and competitors is around 250 thousand units now. The real challenge is how to educate those land transportation players,” Subroto added.

In order to accelerate business growth, Webtrace has secured seed funding led by Prasetia Dwidharma. Also participated in this funding was Astra Ventura.

With the fresh funding, the company plans to toughen marketing activities and acquire more customers while increasing sales.

“Technology implementation is currently a must to increase productivity, competitiveness, and accelerate the right decision making. The solutions we provide are expected to give clients an edge in industry competition, and in turn, enable Webtrace to help the transportation industry become more secure and cost-effective,” Subroto said.

–
Original article is in Indonesian, translated by Kristin Siagian