YAMATO EXTENDS EXPRESS SERVICE BEYOND JAPAN

Logistics Insight Asia, 1/1/2010

Yamato Transport (S), a subsidiary of Japanese logistics provider Yamato Holdings regional headquarters Yamato Asia, has launched TA-Q-BIN, a range of express door-to-door small parcel delivery services in Singapore. The launch is signifiacnt in that it marks TA-Q-BIN’s first independent domestic operation outside Japan.

Kaoru Seto, president and representative director of Yamato Holdings commented on Yamato’s strategic decision to launch TA-Q-BIN in Singapore: “Yamato recognises Asia’s growth potential and the growing demand for high quality delivery services in the region. We see Singapore as a strategic location to launch our innovative TA-Q-BIN service in the region, as Singapore off ers a pro-business environment and sophisticated consumer base that is representative of Asia’s affluent customers.”

Anchoring its Singapore operations will be the standard express door-to-door delivery service which Seto projects to be heavily utilized among businesses. Secondly, there is Cool TA-Q-BIN, a chilled and frozen refrigerated delivery service that allows users to send perishable items such as seafood and ice-cream. And the third of the three services introduced to Singapore is a payment settlement service, called TA-Q-BIN Collect, which allows online and retail businesses to tap into an island-wide network to deliver goods and collect payment from customers.

MARKET PROJECTIONS
According to Yamato, 10 million domestic deliveries are made in Singapore each year and the number is expected to rise with new demand created by TA-Q-BIN’s unique service options.

“Yamato aims to achieve an annual delivery volume of 400,000 parcels in the first year of TA-Q-BIN’s operation in Singapore and hopes to increase the number to eight million parcels in the next 10 years,” announced Seto.

Beyond Singapore, Yamato revealed that plans are in the pipeline for the to establish operations for its TA-QBIN service in other parts of Asia, with Shanghai slated to be next after Singapore.

“Yamato believes that service excellence stems from in-depth understanding of our customers’ needs and wants. To maintain our high service standards across Asia, it is essential for us to localise TA-Q-BIN’s service strategy to cater to each country’s demands. So, you can expect us to deliver durian ice-cream cakes door-to-door,” said Naoki Toda, managing director of Yamato Transport (S), who heads up the new operation.

Singapore will segmented into five districts which operate autonomously and are managed by branches located at Ang Mo Kio, Pasir Panjang, Ubi, Penjuru and Anson Road to cater to the respective areas. Parcels are picked up by sales drivers from respective districts, sorted according to delivery destinations and transported from one district branch to another before they reach the recipients.