Deep Learning in Logistics Enables Better Experiences for All the Stakeholders” Says Prasad Sreeram

Faster delivery, that too last mile delivery is crucial and constitutes around 2/3rds of total logistics costs. However, logistics is rife with numerous challenges all because they lack the structure to support current-day technologies. Issues such as delays incurred by inefficient planning mismanaged reconciliation, and muddled sorting and sifting inhibit optimal performance in logistics. COGOS logistics, a frontrunner in leveraging IoT and AI in logistics, helps shippers reduce transportation costs by 60%. Analytics Insight has engaged in an exclusive interview with Prasad Sreeram, COGOS Technologies. 

1.Kindly brief us about the company.

COGOS is an AI-led logistics platform coupled with mobile and control tower capabilities. The superior workflows are digitally transforming the $80 billion Intracity Logistics market, by bringing the capacity discovery time from weeks to minutes and reducing operating costs by up to 60% for shippers. In the current gig economy where the ability to respond quickly to market dynamics is key, COGOS is fast becoming the de-facto player for marquee customers for City Logistics, operating in more than 300 cities in India and expanding rapidly. COGOS was founded in 2016 by Serial Entrepreneurs Prasad Sreeram and Dr. Rama Mohan Katta with decades of experience in Logistics, Technology, Scaling, and Global Operations.

2.With what mission and objectives, the company was set up? In short, tell us about your journey since the inception of the company.

COGOS was set up with the idea to organize the fragmented city logistics market with technology integration. Started in 2016, COGOS offers a one-stop destination for all the intra-city link-supply chains. In these 6 years, it has taken the commercial transportation sector by storm with intelligently integrated advanced sensors, IoT technology, and third-party applications to uplift fellow truckers via cutting-edge technology. COGOS is the only aggregator with a strong presence in 24+ Indian states and is positive to expand our horizons in Pan India soon.

3.Tell us how your company is contributing to the IoT/AI and how the company is benefiting the clients.

COGOS uses integrated advanced sensors, IoT technology, and third-party applications to assist truckers plan, executing, and controlling the transportation and storage of goods while providing a clear view of the fleet in real time. To meet consumer needs such as delivery tracking, the platform also provides actionable information between the point of origin and the destination. The Planning & Optimization claims to help companies book trucks, track their location, and manage freight flow while also offering real-time vehicle tracking. In addition, it provides electronic evidence of delivery to protect against theft and other issues while in transit.

4.Brief us about the proactive Founder/CEO of the company and his contributions towards the company and the industry.

 Prasad Sreeram is a Serial Entrepreneur, Tech innovator, and Visionary with 20+ years of experience building teams, platforms, and systems design from scratch. He is an expert at cross-functional team management and customer product engineering. Proven track record in bootstrapping, concept to mass production in a short span. At COGOS, he is digitally transforming shippers, truckers, and customers with tech innovations in logistics. Early in his career, he devised vehicle navigation systems, GIS information systems, and wireless emergency systems for middle eastern clients. Before COGOS, at Prysm, USA (Silicon Valley) he innovated and spearheaded the team for LPD technology, where he holds multiple patents. Built teams at Conexant and Skyworks Hyderabad, for mobile, video, and STB products. He also founded a startup Scorpioze Solutions, which innovated in geo-specific, user-aware classifieds pushed through STB (set-top box).

5.What are some of the challenges faced by your company today?

 The logistics industry in India can easily be called the backbone of any sector's supply chain. Be it the healthcare, hospitality, or manufacturing industries, logistics companies play one of the most important roles in connecting organizations to their clients.  When we speak of logistics, everything is time-bound. Each process depends on the one preceding it and a minor delay in one stage causes a magnified ripple effect on all the other stages. By the time we reach the stage of delivery, there ends up being a delay of days because of a few hours of downtime. Every logistics organization wants to achieve the same target: reducing the time for a supply cycle by streamlining processes efficiently. However, this does not always go according to the book and it should be expected.

Although the industry has transformed massively over the years, there are various challenges that the sector is currently facing, a few of them being – high order intensity ratio, transportation roadblocks, lack of skilled and specialist personnel, slow transition into newer technologies, warehousing and taxation discrepancies, competition with global giants, increasing fuel costs, shortage of drivers and delivery staff.

6.How are disruptive technologies like IoT/Big Data analytics/AI/Machine learning/Cloud Computing impacting today's innovation in the sector?

 The traditional Logistics chain is going through a digital transformation with the advent of smart technologies and IoT adds further momentum to it, though different sensors have been part of the supply chain and logistics, these are getting standardized and clear interfaces are evolving. With deep technologies connected through different IOT sensors, not only can we route efficiently, assign to the right resource and track the delivery, the constant learning (deep learning) enables better experiences for all the stakeholders.

7.What are your growth plans for the next 12 months?

COGOS is already present in 24+ states and 300+ cities and we are aggressively aiming to have a pan-India presence. We are also aiming to build a strong and efficient network in tier 2 and 3 cities and have been quite successful at it. We eventually want to master the city logistics space in India. We are also looking forward to training more driver partners under various internal programs that we have. We have already launched a few initiatives for our driver partners so that they own their vehicles and we aim at launching more such initiatives. We also acquired the FMCG modern trade business of PORTER (a Sequoia and Tiger global-backed company) recently and we are currently working towards growing that segment even further.

Along with all of these, our ultimate goal is towards going completely green. We are already working towards adding more EVs to our fleet and have been successful in converting a part of our fleet to electric.