Ryde pips Grab to the post with Singapore express courier service

Photo credit: Ryde

Ryde will launch an express courier service in Singapore on September 3, in an attempt to stake a claim in the city-state’s last-mile logistics segment before larger rival Grab.

Users will be able to access the new RydeSend feature in the main app. Ryde founder and CEO Terence Zou said at a launch event today that the service can deliver documents, parcels, items purchased online, and “well-packed meals” throughout Singapore within an hour.

With 60,000 driver-partners, the startup’s entire private-hire fleet will have the option of providing the service. Drivers that opt in will have to pay a S$100 (US$72.45) deposit to cover damage or lateness. RydeSend will also begin signing up motorbike drivers – with the aim of having 20,000 on board by the end of the year – as well as bicycles and e-scooters beginning September 3.

We’re not doing anything new – we’re just trying to make it quicker and more efficient.

For deliveries by car, packages weighing a maximum of 20 kg will be eligible for the service. Users have to pay S$6 (US$4.35) as the base door-to-door fee. On top of this, time and distance surcharges, along with any road toll fees, will be dynamically priced.

Zou said that motorbike deliveries will have a lower maximum weight, but the price paid by users will be between 20 and 30 percent cheaper than the car-based service.

One step ahead

Ryde’s key competitor in Singapore is Grab, which dominates the local ride-hailing market following its takeover of Uber’s Southeast Asian operations earlier this year.

Grab recently launched on-demand food delivery in the city. When GrabFood was unveiled in May, Grab’s country head Kell Jay Lim indicated that logistics would be one of the firm’s main strategic directions in the near future.

This was underlined by co-founder and CEO Anthony Tan a month later when he said that Grab Ventures – the company’s new incubator and VC arm – would have logistics as one of its four core themes, alongside fintech, food, and transport.

Grab CEO Anthony Tan launches Grab Ventures at Innovfest Unbound 2018 in Singapore / Photo credit: Grab

Grab offers last-mile logistics and express courier options in Indonesia, Thailand, and Vietnam – as well as the Philippines, where it has partnered with ecommerce portal Shopee. But it is yet to bring a similar service to Singapore.

With RydeSend, Ryde is hoping to get one step ahead of its larger competitor – with which it has been engaged in sometimes ill-tempered rivalry – in at least one vertical.

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