- Trucks with capacity to transport an average of 5,000 packages each will be used to link the firm’s logistics centers;
- The Latin American company is seeking ways to deal with the significant increase in operations due to the coronavirus pandemic.
This week Argentina-based Mercado Libre started leasing 60 trucks to help deliver parcels in Brazil, as the largest e-commerce portal in Latin America seeks ways to deal with the significant increase in operations due to the coronavirus pandemic and depend less on third parties.
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Trucks with capacity to transport an average of 5,000 packages each will be used to link three logistics centers the company operates in the country (two in São Paulo and one in Bahia) and smaller plants in the states of Rio de Janeiro, Goiás, Paraná, Rio Grande do Sul, the Federal District, and even cities in the interior of São Paulo.
Up until now, the company had been using trucks on a loose basis, but due to the high level of orders, it decided to “wrap” the vehicles with the company’s colors and logo, the result of contracts signed this week for a dedicated operation.
“By the end of the year, we should be operating with about 150 of these trucks,” Leandro Bassoi, vice president of Mercado Envios, the logistics arm of Mercado Libre, told Reuters.
According to the executive, the trucks are leased from small logistics companies spread across the country. There are no plans by Mercado Libre to have its own fleet, he said.
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The decision occurs amid the strong expansion of e-commerce, accelerated since March with the closing of physical retail by measures of social isolation.
