HCMC continues to grapple with shipper shortage

Last week, the Vua Cua restaurant chain had over 3,000 undelivered orders shipper shortages. Vua Cua CEO Doan Thi Anh Thu said her company had recruited 22 shippers early this week and are recruiting another 20 to deliver fresh crabs and agricultural products.

Nguyen Tuan Khoi, head of the FoodShare Project, which sells foodstuff, said demand for delivering groceries at home was very big. "We have 800-1,000 orders stockpiling each day," he said. FoodShare, which currently has 10 shippers, plans to recruit more motorbike riders and truck drivers.

After HCMC expanded its vaccination drive to include shippers and truck drivers, and allowed goods deliveries across the city, some businesses and consumers said that the severe shortage of shippers had eased.

However, other businesses say the problem has not gone.

Thang Dang in District 3 said he placed seven orders on two e-commerce platforms Shopee and Tiki nearly a month ago, but the goods have not been delivered yet.

Delivery platforms told VnExpress that some of the pressure created by the lack of motorbike riders and truck drivers has reduced, but they continued to face difficulties.

Loship, which has 1,000-2,000 motorbike riders taking orders each day, is working with the HCMC Health Department to add Loship shippers to the list of people getting vaccination priority, the firm’s CEO Nguyen Hoang Trung said.

AhaMove said it has registered for 15,000 shippers to operate in HCMC and all of them have been given permission. To date, 20 percent of the shippers have been vaccinated. Giao Hang Nhanh says about 25 percent of its 8,000 shippers have been vaccinated.

As of August 4 morning, all three wholesales markets and 204 out of 234 traditional markets, seven supermarkets and 127 convenience stores in HCMC remained closed.

Six e-commerce platforms – Sendo, Voso, Tiki, Postmart, Shopee and Lazada are also supplying goods to residents citywide.

Since the wave started on April 27, over 197,000 community transmissions have been recorded in 62 of Vietnam's 63 cities and provinces, with HCMC accounting for the most cases, nearly 116,000.