Tell us about your company?
MYCRANE is a global platform for online crane rental. We have digitalized the crane rental process through our online platform. We launched our company about one year back. We currently operate in fifteen countries, including India. I have vast experience in the crane business and came up with crane rental business by integrating digitalization and simplifying the process of renting cranes. It will greatly help the crane owners and the customers who are going to rent cranes. To simplify the process and help all those involved in crane rental business, we launched MYCRANE digital platform. Through this platform crane owners can register their crane online and when clients place their order online it goes directly to the crane owner. From here, the owner and the clients take it forward. As per our analysis, going with MYCRANE saves 80% of the procurement process and saves upto 50% of the costs for mobilization and demobilization. We have a big fleet of crane companies registered in our online platform offering the most competitive rates to the clients.
We are based out of Dubai. Apart from crane rental, we also have a Marketplace for selling and buying equipment. Then we have digital tools like MYCRANE Selector where we have digitised the crane charts of hundreds of cranes. Now, clients who don’t know what crane is needed for a certain job just need to insert the cargo weight and dimensions and the site conditions; and MYCRANE Selector will list the cranes that can make this lift, whether mobile or crawler crane. This is a free tool available at the website. We have other services, like independent engineering consultancy being one of them.
Can you please elaborate upon the free MYCRANE Inspections App you have launched?
The Inspections App that we have launched makes the process of renting transparent. The owner of the crane who wants to rent out his crane can put the photos of the crane and perform inspection through this app. By doing so, the renter can inspect the crane online, ie, virtually, before going in for renting the crane. The Inspections App makes the process transparent for both the owner and the renter.
What is the size of the crane rental market worldwide? What opportunities are you looking at here in India?
The worldwide crane rental market is estimated to be around USD 50-60 billion dollars. And here in India, the estimation comes to around USD 1.5-2 billion. Our ambition is to have 35% of the market share globally. That’s our ambition. India is one of the biggest markets with huge potential for crane rental, that’s why we are here.
Is there any expansion plan to cover the different geography of the country?
We are in the process of expanding in India. We are focused on bringing MYCRANE to customers and always scouting for more local crane owners to register in our online platform MYCRANE. This is an ongoing process and we are working hard to get more and more local owners to register on our platform from every corner of the country.
How are you helping your registered customers to take the right decision in selecting the right crane? Are you conducting skill development programs?
We cannot and we don’t influence the process. MYCRANE is an independent platform and doesn't influence the decision of the registered users. The digital procurement system in our website saves time which would otherwise be a lengthy process if the users were to go offline. In future it will eliminate cost too. Now, a lot of people work in the process. When MYCRANE will be fully operational some of the people will not be needed. So first, we help save time and second by bringing all suppliers in one place, we save cost for the customers because when someone needs the crane, we have all the crane companies on our site and some suppliers can be very close to the customer's site and can quote the lowest mobilization rate. We give a platform for customers to find the best solution and the best price. That’s what we do for customers.
What are the strategies you are adopting in India to create brand awareness?
We are doing a lot. We are working hard on the global marketing campaign. We put a lot of resources and efforts into global marketing campaigns, like putting press releases in magazines locally and also in the global magazines. Our press releases are being published by a lot of online portals and in hard copies of magazines. We are doing social media campaigns on LinkedIn, Instagram. We are doing direct sales. This is the most important in our business because we are in the B2B sector. In order to sell our concept we need to engage with lots of people. We use a combination of digital marketing and physical sales to create more brand awareness.
Are there any plans to associate with organizations such as FICCI, ICEMA, CII for brand awareness?
Our plan is to do as much as possible to help the crane market and our customers. So every tool if we see the potential we will integrate it with MYCRANE to help our customers to make the right decision. That’s our goal. On the global level we are associated with big associations related to the crane industry. Here, in India too, we will be associating with organizations working for the crane industry. Associating with organizations attending their conferences, events, exhibitions, helps in creating more brand awareness for us.
Have you entered into tie-ups with major infrastructure companies or contractors?
Yes we have. We are in touch with L&T, a major EPC player in India, that has registered at MYCRANE already. We have also touched base with Essar Group. We had discussions with KEC and Tata Projects. These are the major EPC players we are trying to bring onboard.
We have already registered a lot of crane suppliers, including market leaders like Sanghvi Movers, the biggest crane company in India and Steel Carriers Infrastructure, the second biggest supplier. Likewise, we are in talks with many clients to onboard them to our MYCRANE portal. Clients like our concept, because we bring benefits for them. Neither customers nor the suppliers have to pay to get logged in to MYCRANE. It is a free platform. Only when the deal gets done, the suppliers pay us the commission. Since we get the money in the end, it gives the concerned parties confidence in MYCRANE and its process.
How are you addressing the challenges customers face after renting cranes from your portal, for example a wrong crane is delivered to the customers?
I would like to make it clear -MYCRANE is not liable for it. It is a direct contract between the customer and supplier. However, to avoid such unpleasant incidents from happening, and to support and protect the customers from bad suppliers and bad cranes, we have introduced a lot of tools in the system. For example, the Inspections App allows the customer to see the exact crane which he is going to take on rent. We have a rating system through which customers give an unbiased rating of the suppliers, one star rating being the lowest. Next time, when a registered customer logs in, he will skip the one star rating supplier and go for the highest rating supplier.
As per the contract agreement, customers can go for a site visit before taking the crane on rent. It is a must for the suppliers to download specific inspection documentation of the crane. If it is outdated, he will be blocked. So, the papers of the crane have to be proper. For example if the crane was not maintained or was not certified in time, the system does not allow that crane to be uploaded on the system.
You take on the competition over here and how are you planning to expand your market share over here?
There are competitors over here, but not direct. We are a global platform and we have competition worldwide, but direct. Here in India, we find our competitors mostly cater to construction equipment - right from compactors to excavators to cranes. We are exclusively dealing in crane rental only. When capacity of the crane goes above 25 tons then it’s not so simple anymore and you need to know the market very well to make it work, as it’s a niche and specific market. MYCRANE platform has worked in other countries and it will work in India too. We have received positive feedback from international customers - right from China, France, UAE, Russia and other countries.
We are reaching out to crane suppliers to bring them onboard. There are few marquee players who have already boarded. We started engaging with the EPC players from January onwards. Last year, it was the suppliers we engaged with. I am here personally to meet with customers. I am confident in the Indian market. We have already started engaging customers with MYCRANE. The registration has increased sustainability. India is a huge market for crane rental.
