Startup of the month: ZeKju

Please give us a brief company description about ZeKju.

We enable shippers, freight forwarders and carriers to communicate with truck drivers and subcontractors in a digital, simple and automated way. Our key differentiator is that we do not require end users – in particular truck drivers – to install and learn new software. We use popular messengers such as WhatsApp, Telegram or Viber as driver interfaces.

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Tell us a bit about the founding story of ZeKju. When and how was ZeKju born?

We founders all worked – in management or consulting roles – for companies in the Transportation space. When we started to work together, we wanted to help an incumbent build a digital value proposition for Transport companies. When this project was delayed, we decided the idea was simply too good not to be realized. So we decided to start ZeKju.   

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Who are typical customers for ZeKju (ICP)? Which problems do you solve for them, and what’s usually their most significant pain point?‍

This question is not that easy on answer – simply because there are so many different stakeholders who have an interested in communication around a transport: Freight Forwarders look for real-time updates and digital documents, shippers want to better orchestrate processes around their yard, carriers want to have a direct link to their drivers and optimize incident management and so on.Likewise, it is difficult to pinpoint one ‘most significant’ pain point. However, I would say that most of our customers first look for our help in sorting out transparency and communication in their subcontracted transports. 

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How would you describe the core competence / USP of ZeKju with regard to your customers? 

In one word: Simplicity. Our core believe is that truck drivers – like most of us – do not enjoy the process of app installation, registration, learning. As such, we looked for a digital standard that almost everyone can agree on and found it in the wide-spread use of messengers like WhatsApp. Driver Onboarding with ZeKju takes less than 30 seconds and requires no installation or registration. 

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How do you usually integrate your solution into your customers' existing operations and IT infrastructure? What is needed from their side?‍

Practically the same answer as for your previous question: Just like truck drivers do not want to install new apps, dispatchers and other transport stakeholders dislike learning new software or – even worse, having an additional screen on their desk. Thus, our software is designed for seamless integration into our customers’ Transport Management Systems. Interestingly enough, we currently do see a trend with our customers to work more in our ZeKju interfaces. Step-by-step users uncover more ways in which direct communication can help them to have less friction in their jobs.

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‍Supply chain risk and security are topics of growing importance: is data security in connection with using messenger apps for business communication a concern you’re often confronted with? If so, how do you deal with it?

Data security – just like data privacy – are absolute “must haves' “. As we work with both medium sized as well as with international logistics market leaders, we are regularly checked for data security and data privacy compliance. We achieve this compliance by a mix of technical measures and process design. ‘Process design’ in this regard means, e.g. that we do not store data longer then needed and that we limit data requirements to what is needed for successful transport execution.

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‍The logistics industry is often characterized by analogue processes, a fragmented stakeholder landscape and margin pressure to just name a few of the challenges that new software solutions in this field are facing. How are you dealing with that and how are you potentially even helping your customers to tackle these issues?

The list of challenges that the logistics industry faces is indeed very long. I definitely would add skilled labour shortage to the points you already raised.  From my point of view, industry fragmentation is one of the root causes of the ‘digital delay’ of the industry. This in turn contributes to low margins. We clearly tackle the fragmentation topic. Our value proposition is that different stakeholders can implement digital communication without the need for costly app development and without the known user acceptance challenges. ‍

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Can you potentially share a customer success story where you succeeded in solving one of the challenges described above or generally enabled digitization in the industry?

As our customer industry is a very competitive one, I do not want to go into too many details but happy to share some insights that you can also find online. For example: We are helping Redspher, a market leader in time critical logistics in bosting Visibility of subcontracted transports. This helps Redspher match its customer requirements. And, together with KRONE, we developed the “Smart Assistant'', a digital tool that allows truck drivers to conduct trailer checks via their messenger. It's a common issue in the industry that damages of trailers that are pulled by different carriers throughout a trip are not reported. Again a communication problem caused by fragmentation. We enable trailer owners to keep oversight of trailer damages without the need to force all subcontractors to install new software.  

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How do you see the future of ZeKju? How will the product and the company evolve and what’s your overall vision for ZeKju?

We want to become truck drivers’ favorite communication tool – for many if not all use cases throughout a typical working day. The vision is that as many truck drivers as possible are happy that they have a ZeKju chat in their messenger.