As of 14 April 2021, the proverbial doors of the new platform 'Bulkio' have been open to anyone who wants to offer bulk shipments. Bulkio matches these shipments to a suitable carrier.
Network
A platform needs users in order to exist independently. The first goal was therefore to increase the shipper and carrier network. ‘’In the past year, we have added more than 100 new carriers to the platform. In addition, there are 88 shippers posting their shipments. That’s a considerable expansion of the network.’’, says Pirke van den Elsen, managing director at Bulkio at the time. ‘’Our collaboration with shippers often starts with spot orders. That’s when panic grows in a company and they are in need of a short-term transport solution. We can offer them that solution. The nice thing is that we see this leading to structural long-term collaborations.’’
Proud
‘’I’m very proud that Bulkio is growing rapidly. The team has grown a lot compared to last year, but we’re still very driven and professional.’’ Van den Elsen says. ‘’I’m also very proud that something that started out in our heads has turned out to actually work in practice. We see there is a need for the concept we came up with.’’
Future
What does the future look like? Bulkio’s ultimate goal is to reduce empty miles in bulk transport. Van den Elsen: ‘’My ambition is to digitally connect the network of bulk carriers to reduce the number of empty miles. At the moment bulk carriers tell us they are ‘extremely full’, meanwhile we see them driving empty for more than 35% of the time. It would be great if we could reduce that by 10%.’’