The car rental and leasing arm of ComfortDelGro Corporation Ltd, ComfortDelGro Rent-A-Car Pte Ltd, has ventured into leasing heavy vehicles after the company added five units of prime movers to its rental fleet.

These prime movers have been leased to Haulio Pte Ltd, a logistics tech startup company which offers a B2B platform that connects container haulage companies, clients and drivers. Haulio tracks its containers using its Internet of Things (IoT) smart trailers solution and scheduling algorithms, in order for them to maximise their fleet of trucks and drivers.

Transport giant ComfortDelGro Corporation has invested US$100 million in Haulio through its venture capital fund ComfortDelGro Ventures that was set up last year. The fund was set up with the objective of investing in mobility technology startups that complement its business in land transport.

The first two units of Volvo FM and UD Quon trucks have been delivered to ComfortDelGro, with the others to come later.

Haulio will now be able to expand its rental capacity and allowing them to offer hauliers prime movers for on-demand rental, as well as other port-related jobs such as inter-terminal transfers. With these services, hauliers will no longer need to keep and maintain spare prime movers, which in return allowing them to save on operational costs.

"We are excited to further expanding into the heavy vehicle leasing business. Given similarities in vehicle fleet operations between container and passenger transportation. We believe this tie-up with Haulio will enable us to expand beyond passenger transport and into adjacent disciplines such as smart logistics," said ComfortDelGro Group chief executive officer Yang Ban Seng in a statement on August 5.

Yang added that more prime movers may be added to the rental in the future should there be more demand.

Currently, Haulio has over 80 percent of Singapore's hauliers onboard on its platform, with an outreach of over 2 000 trucks. The prime mover rental is in beta testing on its platform, with plans to go live in September.

In ComfortDelGro Corporation latest financial report shows that the group has recorded a 1.2 percent year on year (YoY) increased in its net profit of SGD$75.9 million for its fiscal second quarter ended June 30, 2019. It was driven by higher public transport takings and contributions from new acquisitions.

Its revenue for the same quarter rose by 4.2 percent YoY to SGD$980.8 million from SGD$941.1 million over the same period, attributed by strong contributions from the acquisitions made in 2018, which offset the decline in its taxi business.

The group believes that the revenue from the public transport services business in Singapore is expected to be higher this year. "However, it will continue to experience significant cost pressures from operating and maintenance costs."

It added that the group will continue to pursue growth through acquisitions and investments in new technology in the mobility space while transforming and building capabilities to strengthen its existing businesses.