Doha – Mubasher: Qatar Navigation (Milaha) announced starting a “door-to-door” shipping service between Qatar and the UAE, and vice versa.

Allowing customers to track their cargoes online from the point of origin to destination, the new service will be carried out on a weekly basis in the beginning, Milaha said in a statement to the Qatar Stock Exchange (QSE).

The Qatari transport firm said it will use its own transport assets and logistics infrastructure to provide the service.

The first consolidated shipment of the service is expected in this month, Milaha revealed.

The new “service is ideal for small- and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) as it provides a quick delivery time with regular departures between Dubai and Doha, and a single rate which covers pickup, ocean transport, customs clearance, and delivery within the two cities,” according to the statement.

Milaha, which mainly targets SMEs in the automotive spare parts, fashion retail, and the fast-moving consumer goods (FMCG) sectors, said that the service is part of its plan to be “a one-stop shop for its partners’ shipping and logistics requirements.”

“This new service is a great example of the advantage of our presence across the supply chain, and how we can leverage the synergies among our business units – in this case, our Logistics and Container Shipping units – to give our clients and partners seamless solutions at very competitive prices,” Milaha’s chairman and CEO Abdulrahman Essa Al Mannai said.

The Qatari logistics company last reported a 33% profit drop to QAR 236 million in the first quarter in 2017, compared to QAR 352 million in Q1-16.

For the full-year 2016, profits slid 35.3% to QAR 711.46 million, from QAR 1.095 billion.