U-Freight Group Unit Launches Philippines Delivery Service

The Filipino partner of freight forwarder U-Freight Group (UFG) has launched iShipmore, an online shipping platform aimed at assisting sellers who need to ship items bought online to Philippines-based consignees. The platform targets logistics problems experienced by online purchasers of goods, who find that some sellers do not offer delivery to the Philippines.

Transportation and delivery costs and logistics chains are major challenges to e-commerce in a country spread across more than 7,000 islands and plagued with poor physical and digital infrastructure. The Philippine e-commerce industry is poised for exponential growth.

A report by Statista, a Hamburg, Germany-based provider of market and consumer data, indicates Philippine e-commerce market revenue grew to $840 million in 2018 from $688 million in 2017. Revenue is expected to grow in excess of 10% annually, leading to a market volume of $953 million for 2019. Statista expects the size of the market to expand to $1.4 billion by 2023.

iShipmore account-holders gain access to a U.S. or Hong Kong address to which online purchases can be delivered — a requirement to complete an order destined for the Philippines.

U-Freight then consolidates purchases destined for addresses in the U.S. and Hong Kong for delivery via one of the company's established and regular air freight consolidation services that operate between the U.S. and Hong Kong to the Philippines.

Shipments from the U.S. are priced at $5.90 per pound, with expected delivery time of five to seven business days following arrival of the shipment at the U.S. consolidation center. Shipments from the Hong Kong consolidation center are charged at HKD60.00 ($7.65) per kilogram, with an expected delivery time of three to five business days from the date of arrival in Hong Kong.

The iShipmore platform uses proprietary supply chain management software developed by UFG for general logistics activities, which offers track and trace visibility for registered users, as well as an online payment facility. Users also benefit from the logistics infrastructure that UFG has in place in the Philippines, Hong Kong and the U.S.

Over the past several years, UFG has pioneered the development of logistics services for the business-to-business and business-to-consumer e-commerce sectors and has established partnerships with a number of online shipment platforms, including EasyShip and Fulfilled by Amazon.

In September, UFG became one of only several freight forwarders to have one of its logistics hubs in Hong Kong certified by the Hong Kong Civil Aviation Department (CAD) as a regulated air cargo screening facility (RACSF).

CAD launched its RACSF scheme for off-airport locations in October 2018 to facilitate the establishment and operation of cargo screening at off-airport sites to help the industry meet the International Civil Aviation Organization policy of implementing security checks for all air freight shipments by June 30, 2021.

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