MANILA - Transportify Philippines on Friday said it was eyeing expansion in the Visayas and Mindanao as more businesses turn to app-based services during the pandemic.

The on-demand delivery and trucking app grew 50 percent in 2020 due to the "seismic" shift in consumer behavior, Transportify country director Paulo Bengson told ANC.

"To the benefit of everyone online, customers and users are more open to using applications for everyday uses and they take that behavior in the workplace and say 'why not use it for deliveries'," Bengson said.

"So most of our clients are businesses. Businesses have adopted to app-based services very quickly. So it’s a very quick way for procurement of vehicles and it’s quite reliable and it’s on a scale that’s needed. So it’s available to everyone and it’s very easy to expand very quickly," he added.

Transportify's business model involves partner drivers who own delivery vehicles, making it an asset-light model which requires less capital and is also a lot easier to expand.

Offering its services in Cebu and Davao is "the next logical step," Bengson said.

Despite the growth, Transportify along with other logistics services has also suffered from the effects of the pandemic-induced recession. Its prices have been reduced by 15 percent since last year, Bengson said.

"Recovery is happening but to a lesser extent than forecasted. Since logistics is a cyclical industry, there’s a lot of logistics players affected by this. This can be seen in the prices, even our prices," he said.

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Consumer behavior has pivoted online since the COVID-19 pandemic hit the country in early 2020. This has resulted in growth for most online services, e-commerce platforms and logistics delivery services.

Bengson said Transportify has projected another 50 percent growth this year as more purchases online continue due to the ongoing pandemic.

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