An Uber for Trucks Is Hitting Obstacles in China
The industry is ripe for disruption, but it’s a lot tougher than ride-hailing.
Now get them on the road.
Photographer: Qilai Shen/BloombergOne of China’s fastest-growing unicorns is an Uber for trucks, backed by SoftBank Group Corp. and Alphabet Inc.’s CapitalG. It delivers millions of packages every day across China. But that doesn’t mean Manbang Group should be valued like Uber.
More than 30 billion items are distributed every year nationwide by low-wage truck drivers and couriers who underpin a logistics industry handling 220 trillion yuan ($36 trillion) of goods. Vast it may be, but the industry is fragmented and riddled with inefficiencies. About 90 percent of the trucks on Chinese roads are individually owned, and they stand idle for 40 percent of the day. Logistics costs account for around 15 percent of China’s GDP, a much bigger slice than in other developing economies and even the U.S.