Amid Covid-19, Mahindra Logistics plans third-party foray with Alyte

Amid the Covid-19 pandemic enforced lockdown, businesses had to innovate to survive and one such company that did its fair share of innovation in mobility solutions to stay afloat was Mahindra Logistics.

Prior to Covid-19, last financial year Mahindra Logistics’ enterprise mobility business had annual revenue of Rs 400 crore.

"Alyte is a brand under which our enterprise mobility business operates. In FY20, we reworked for our strategy for enterprise mobility business and focused on 4 elements: expand our service and offerings, leveraging and expanding our green and sustainable fleets, expand our technology and supply partnership program especially by expanding drivers cum owners (Financial Empowerment for drivers) and offer unique solutions and services," said Rampraveen Swaminathan, Managing Director and CEO, Mahindra Logistics.

The company hopes to have 30 per cent green and sustainable vehicles in its fleet in the next 3 years or by FY23-24.

The company claims that while Ola and Uber are hail ride services wherein the customer can book the driver, cab, and passenger (in case of shared mobility business) at that very moment without having any control over it, while Alyte is a service wherein you order for yourself, you get to book the desired cab, driver, and passengers every single day assuring the safety and protection while commuting to the office.

Mahindra Logistics is the only pan India-company offering employees transport services that operates in 9 major cities in India and most of the competition comes from local players in these regions.

Alyte contributed 11% of the total revenue of MLL in FY19-20.

Pandemic has definitely affected the enterprise mobility business as the majority of the workforce is working from home therefore there is less commuting. Although few of the offices have resumed, there is a fear in people’s minds for their safety which has led to an increasing desire in people to self-drive. It will take at least a year before mobility recovers from the impact of Covid-19. The next 12-15 months will be challenging for the enterprise mobility business, Swaminathan said.

The company rebranded the entire business as Alyte. 

It launched ‘Alyte’ free emergency cabs services across 9 cities in 9 days in collaboration with the local administration to cater mainly to the senior citizens, pregnant women, patients to visit hospitals for their medical checkups. The services were offered till May.

The idea behind these cabs services was just to support these needy communities as it focused on senior citizens, disabled and expecting mothers, who are unable to secure transport for essential services like shopping for essentials and medication, visits to banks and post offices.

The cabs also served doctors, nurses, and others in essential services. The cabs covered millions of kilometers across the country without a single Covid-19 case while it was operating ensuring safety for the customers, he added.