Entrepreneurs are constantly attuned to the problems people face on a daily basis and are always innovating new ways in solving them. 

This is the case for Kay Ong, founder of CrossTrack.sg - A company founded in 2013 born out of the struggle many businesses faced when it comes to procuring reliable and urgent delivery services.

The idea came about during the days when Kay was helping his friend out in the printing business. He realized that delivery arrangement for urgent or same day delivery was incredibly cumbersome for customers as many logistics companies did not have their websites up during those times. Kay decided to tackle this problem by creating a marketplace for “on-the-way” delivery.

What is CrossTrack

CrossTrack is a crowd-based courier service platform that connects customers with reliable couriers using Artificial Intelligence (AI). Think of it as UBER for logistics but with one major difference - users are able to 'book' a same day/urgent delivery service DIRECTLY with large logistics firms (couriers) with an easy to use online platform at very competitive prices.

The CrossTrack platform automatically connects customers to their  pool of established logistics companies to find the best matched logistics provider for their delivery needs based on the parameters supplied by the user. 

All a user needs to get started is an account on the CrossTrack.sg website to go about booking a delivery service.

Insights

Kay mentioned that one of the biggest problems the industry faces is that large logistics companies will not handle small delivery requests, and small delivery requests are typically handled by 'freelancer' (or concierge service) companies, which usually result in the lack of reliability and heavily inflated pricing.

He also mentioned that many existing logistics companies fail to reflect accurate pricings on their platforms such as hidden costs like toll and parking charges. Furthermore, some of these platforms fail to provide official delivery and tracking receipts from the courier companies they use, making it difficult to keep track of where their parcels are throughout the delivery process.

Due to that, many large corporations prefer not to rely on these freelance services, especially when handling important and confidential documents.

Kay intends to disrupt this market.

CrossTrack Today

CrossTrack currently works closely with 14 logistics firms across Singapore to perform deliveries for over 140 long term customers, out of which 56% are B2B customers. 

Kay's goal is to turn CrossTrack into becoming the first B2B oriented crowd-sourcing platform that helps logistics companies fully automate their operations by providing a novel Artificial Intelligence management solution. He also mentioned that Singapore's land logistics business market alone reported a SGD $5 billion market size in 2014.

To achieve their goals, they focus on targeting corporate firms that require routine delivery services, partnering with law associations, event associations, MCST of office and commercial buildings, and service offices. They have also been actively involved in events, roadshows and seminars that target admin and operations managers. 

The team is also working hard to scale their product development and customer acquisition more effectively.

Inspirations and lessons learnt

Kay believes that humility and the hardship that his family went through were the factors that brought him to where he is today.

“My family is my pillar of strength. Making them proud and providing them a comfortable life is what pushes me on”, Kay said.

Kay mentioned that listening to customers and digging deeper on their feedback is the key to identifying ways to improve his business.

“What I love the most about entrepreneurship is that I can immerse myself in a constant learning journey”, Kay mentioned in an interview.

More information on CrossTrack can be obtained from their official website at: www.crosstrack.sg or their facebook page.