Last night’s news featured a displaced employee who is trying to earn a living through community delivery using his bicycle. Unfortunately, his bike was stolen, but a good Samaritan came along and replaced it with a new one. Similarly, a company messenger who was also sacked recently had to resort to delivering food using his bike within the Makati vicinity where he lives.
Community logistics is now an integral part of our day-to-day living, largely due to the rise of community commerce. People are resorting to transacting online, thus creating the need for physical delivery. In fact, when Metro Manila was under strict lockdown, I remember being at the Makati Medical Center and seeing the roads filled not with cars, but with bike riders delivering food.
Community logistics range from your simple pasa-buy/pabili service to delivering the furniture or plants you ordered online. This allows logistics providers to add more services that cater to needs that we now see as not just limited to food.
In fact, displaced employees can consider this option as a new revenue stream, given that this industry is thriving. While largely driven by food, new trends are also pushing this further, such as trade (bartering), foliage and basically anything that requires a physical task.
In the same manner, Filipinos, ever being so creative, always find ways to make opportunities out of this. I once saw a post where one man is offering to use his SUV to deliver items to a specific area in Alabang for P100 for each household, minimum of 10. If you are in the food business, this will eliminate the hassle of booking 10 separate orders and can give you the convenience of dealing with one (micro) logistics provider, enabling you to manage your operations more efficiently.
Truth be told, this space in the logistics industry will continue to thrive and open more opportunities. We will see an exponential increase in this, especially in the last quarter of the year, when we celebrate the Christmas season and gift-giving will be done through community logistics.
The message here is to encourage displaced workers to look into this space and assess its feasibility as a new income generator. In addition, doing community logistics using a bicycle will also give the added benefit of exercise, which would contribute for a strong immune system that is much needed at this time.
Kay Calpo Lugtu is the chief operating officer of Hungry Workhorse, a digital and culture transformation firm. Her advocacies include nation-building, sustainability education and financial literacy. The author may be reached at kay.lugtu@hungryworkhorse.com.
Source: https://www.manilatimes.net/2020/09/17/business/columnists-business/community-logistics/768794/