{"id":20569,"date":"2016-11-18T17:56:07","date_gmt":"2016-11-18T22:56:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/digital.hbs.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/skootar-transforming-the-messenger-service-in-bangkok\/"},"modified":"2016-11-18T17:56:07","modified_gmt":"2016-11-18T22:56:07","slug":"skootar-transforming-the-messenger-service-in-bangkok","status":"publish","type":"hck-submission","link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/skootar-transforming-the-messenger-service-in-bangkok\/","title":{"rendered":"Skootar: Transforming the Messenger Service in Bangkok"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Bangkok has a sprawling metro system, consisting of a network of skytrains, subways, river ferries, and canals.\u00a0 However, for years, the Bangkok metropolitan area has wrestled with traffic congestion.\u00a0 A recent study placed Bangkok second on the list of most congested cities in the world.\u00a0 During morning rush hour, Bangkok&#8217;s traffic moves 85% slower on average compared with a clear road situation and further slows to a \u201csnail-like\u201d 114% in the evening, meaning that journey times more than double during commutes [1].\u00a0 Unfortunately, the traffic situation is only expected to worsen, especially as Thailand\u2019s middle class continues to grow [2].<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/2-15.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-20545\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/2-15-300x200.jpg\" alt=\"2\" width=\"300\" height=\"200\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/2-15-300x200.jpg 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/2-15.jpg 500w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Enter, Kamolprudh Jumbala, CEO of Skootar.\u00a0 Kamolprudh, along with one of his co-founders, had operated a few businesses before founding Skootar.\u00a0 One of the biggest struggles they had encountered in every business was finding a reliable messenger who could run business errands around Bangkok in a reliable and timely fashion.\u00a0 Errands ranged from sending invoices to clients, collecting checks from consumers, and delivering other important documents and packages.\u00a0 A lot of the time, they found themselves navigating through the Bangkok traffic in their mid-sized sedans, spending hours in traffic \u2013 hours that they could have utilized much more productively otherwise.\u00a0 Realizing that this problem was something a majority of the small- and medium-sized enterprise (\u201cSME\u201d) market faced, coupled with the recent proliferation of that market, Kamolprudh and his co-founders came up with an idea to build a platform to help solve these issues and allow businesses to operate more efficiently and reliably [3].<\/p>\n<p>Skootar.\u00a0 Skootar is a digital platform that allows customers to place motorcycle delivery orders in the Bangkok metropolitan area via its website and smartphone application.\u00a0 In Bangkok, motorcycle taxis are a licensed form of transport, and one of the fastest and most popular ways to get around town.\u00a0 If you have ever been to Bangkok, you cannot have missed the sight of motorcycle taxi drivers in bright orange vests whizzing between cars and in and out of seemingly impossible to maneuver traffic gridlocks.<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/3-10.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-20546\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/3-10-300x194.jpg\" alt=\"3\" width=\"300\" height=\"194\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/3-10-300x194.jpg 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/3-10-600x387.jpg 600w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/3-10.jpg 620w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a> <a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/4-7.jpg\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-20547\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/4-7-300x169.jpg\" alt=\"4\" width=\"300\" height=\"169\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/4-7-300x169.jpg 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/4-7-768x432.jpg 768w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/4-7-1024x576.jpg 1024w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/4-7-600x338.jpg 600w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/4-7.jpg 1280w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>The application and website serve as a marketplace that connect SMEs and home users with motorcycle messengers, allowing customers to easily place an order around the clock, 24 hours a day, seven days a week.\u00a0 The Skootar platform will then match the order with the closest and most reliable drivers within a couple of minutes.\u00a0 Drivers go through a rigorous screening and training process, and peer ratings keep the system fair and transparent.\u00a0 Users are also able to track the job status and driver location during the process and payments are easily made online or through the application.<\/p>\n<p>Skootar\u2019s business model leads to genuine value creation and efficiencies.\u00a0 SKOOTAR\u2019s goal is \u201cto provide motorcycle delivery service that gets more convenient, reliable, and cost efficient every day\u201d [3].\u00a0 Utilizing motorbikes to navigate through traffic while providing access to safe, reliable drivers is an ingenious way of turning a troublesome process into a more efficient one that can be completed within seconds.\u00a0 The delivery process is enhanced by calculating and combining similar routes to optimize the time and cost, and as a result, SMEs are able to operate in a more effective and cost-efficient manner while not having to deal with trust issues surrounding time, price, and driver behavior.\u00a0 Thousands of businesses and individuals are utilizing Skootar for same day pickup and delivery of documents and parcels [4], [5].<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/5-9.png\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-medium wp-image-20548\" src=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/5-9-300x202.png\" alt=\"5\" width=\"300\" height=\"202\" srcset=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/5-9-300x202.png 300w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/5-9-768x517.png 768w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/5-9-1024x689.png 1024w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/5-9-600x404.png 600w, https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/4\/2016\/11\/5-9.png 1202w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 300px) 100vw, 300px\" \/><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Skootar is successfully displacing the archaic messenger systems that have pervaded Bangkok, winning business from competitors such as Classic Express Service (\u201cCES\u201d) Logistics.\u00a0 The Company is in a strong position to capitalize on a largely underpenetrated market.\u00a0 While future threats include increased competition, Skootar has unparalleled first-mover advantages and can also expand its service to all niches of the on-demand market, including food delivery and transportation.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>Word Count: 645<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p><u>Text Citations:<\/u><\/p>\n<p>[1]\u00a0 Ho, Victoria. &#8220;Bangkok Is the Second-most Congested City in the World.&#8221; Mashable. Accessed November 18, 2016. http:\/\/mashable.com\/2016\/03\/22\/bangkok-traffic-jams\/.<\/p>\n<p>[2]\u00a0 &#8220;Bangkok.&#8221; CNNMoney. Accessed November 18, 2016. http:\/\/money.cnn.com\/gallery\/news\/2016\/03\/21\/worst-traffic-cities\/index.html.<\/p>\n<p>[3] SEAS100. &#8220;Skootar Co., Ltd. | The South East Asia Startups 100.&#8221; The South East Asia Startups 100. Accessed November 18, 2016. http:\/\/seas100.com\/en\/seas-en\/skootar-co-ltd-2\/.<\/p>\n<p>[4] &#8220;SKOOTAR | LinkedIn.&#8221; Accessed November 18, 2016. https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/company\/skootar.<\/p>\n<p>[5] Pardon Our Interruption. Accessed November 18, 2016. https:\/\/www.crunchbase.com\/organization\/skootar.<\/p>\n<p><u>Picture Citations:<\/u><\/p>\n<p>[1]\u00a0 &#8220;Tech in Asia &#8211; Connecting Asia&#8217;s Startup Ecosystem.&#8221; Tech in Asia &#8211; Connecting Asia&#8217;s Startup Ecosystem. Accessed November 18, 2016. https:\/\/www.techinasia.com\/dtac-thai-startups-at-tia-sg-2016.<\/p>\n<p>[2]\u00a0 &#8220;BRT for Free in Bangkok | TheCityFix.&#8221; TheCityFix. Accessed November 18, 2016. http:\/\/thecityfix.com\/blog\/brt-for-free-in-bangkok\/.<\/p>\n<p>[3] &#8220;Motorcycle Taxis in Thailand &#8211; My-Thai.org.&#8221; My-Thai.org. Accessed November 18, 2016. http:\/\/my-thai.org\/motorcycle-taxis-thailand\/.<\/p>\n<p>[4] &#8220;\u0e40\u0e23\u0e35\u0e22\u0e01\u0e41\u0e21\u0e2a\u0e40\u0e0b\u0e47\u0e19\u0e40\u0e08\u0e2d\u0e23\u0e4c\u0e2d\u0e2d\u0e19\u0e44\u0e25\u0e19\u0e4c.&#8221; SKOOTAR. Accessed November 18, 2016. https:\/\/www.skootar.com\/.<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n<p>&nbsp;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>How one company is digitally transforming the Bangkok courier system.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2137,"featured_media":20570,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","categories":[],"class_list":["post-20569","hck-submission","type-hck-submission","status-publish","has-post-thumbnail","hentry"],"connected_submission_link":"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/assignment\/digitization-challenge-2016\/","yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v27.3 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/product\/yoast-seo-wordpress\/ -->\n<title>Skootar: Transforming the Messenger Service in Bangkok - Technology and Operations Management<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/d3.harvard.edu\/platform-rctom\/submission\/skootar-transforming-the-messenger-service-in-bangkok\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Skootar: Transforming the Messenger Service in Bangkok - 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