Gurgaon-based DOT, led by Founder and Managing Director Vineet J Mehra, has been focusing on 'green mobility' in India, with his line of green mobility solutions including e-bikes, electric cars and other services.
Mehra, who is well-known for his progressive views on climate change, started DOT in August 2015, to fill the gap left by public conveyance in Delhi — especially, the first and last mile connectivity. His motivation was to do it in a sustainable way, without adding to carbon footprint or noise pollution.
The company initiatlly got 100 DOT e-bikes running around in Delhi-NCR, each with a maximum speed of 25km per hour. They now have electric buses and e-car services too, apart from e-rickshaws and even electric wheelchairs. DOT is already looking to expand its presence across India, and in 21 other countries. In an interview, Mehra gave us a glimpse of his vision for the future.
What inspired you to come up with the idea of establishing a start-up providing green logistics services?
We came up with the idea of establishing a start-up offering green logistics services when we observed that there was a gap in the last mile connectivity for people and packages. With constant change in our living and working spaces, people’s notion of city living started expanding which also led to the rise of various issues and challenges.
Among the most prominent of these challenges was transportation and its effect on levels of carbon emissions. Adhering to these challenges, DOT came to offer sustainable transportation services to bring down the emission level through the Green Mobility platform.
The concept of DOT originated from the PPP model which refers to People, Packages and Promise of environment friendly mode of transportation for their destination through the use of e-vehicles.
DOT introduced e-bike taxis for the passengers traveling via mass transit modes like Metros and Buses to their workplaces. During the lean period, the same E-bikes were used for delivering packages which were cost effective as compared to the conventional existing modes of logistics.
What were the challenges that you faced when you first stepped into the field of mobility and green mobility in particular?
Well if you talk about challenges then there were lots of them. One major challenge was the lack of infrastructure for electric vehicles. We had to create our own vehicle charging and parking stations which involved extensive capital investment.
Further on our course of expansion, we witnessed the absence of policies related to financing of e-vehicles. This is one of the reasons for us to boot strap our operations.
Another challenge that we encountered was to convince the users to use these vehicles and to educate them about the benefits gained from the usage of an innovative, environment friendly and cost-effective mode of transportation.
How are green logistics services helping in the betterment of our country?
The environment clock is ticking and if urgent measures are not heeded to, it may prove to be the death-knell for our planet. Conventional transport vehicles are a proven source of carbon emissions and this challenge can be overcome by adopting EV-based solutions.
Innovative transport solutions for first-and-last-mile deliveries are areas where EVs will prove to be a boon for the future generations. EVs are as much as 90% efficient with nearly zero pollution in operation.
It is the need of the hour to offer sustainable services to bring down the level of emission through our Green Mobility Platform thereby contributing to a much cleaner and safe environment for our country.
Who are your competitors? What differentiates you from them?
We operate in B2B space which opens up 2PL, 3PL and subsequent segments, therefore we don’t really have to compete with exiting players in terms of fleet operations.
However, we consider innovation in technology as our biggest competitor which we always use it as a driving force to achieve further growth.
DOT works on a plug and play model. High competency factor derived from our proprietary technology platforms and electric fleet operations is one of the major aspect that sets us apart.
Can you shed some light on the name of the brand, DOT?
Being in the field of logistics and last mile delivery, our concept was to imagine the power of dots on maps and graphics to depict the journey from A to B and then on to Z.
Using the idea of owning ‘DOTS’ we instantly came up with the brand name ‘DOT’ that explains the idea of connectivity and movement.