Work-pressure: Truck drivers are always under pressure to meet their target time. They are framed with a time limit to deliver each shipment. To deliver the cargo on-time, they have to travel continuously for hours and they don’t even get much time to rest and eat. Truck drivers hired by online truck booking companies spend very less time with their families due to work pressure.
Payment: According to a survey, truck drivers are getting monthly salary about 10-15,000 and that too not given on time. This shows that drivers don’t earn much as a fixed income. Due to this, most of the youngsters get demotivated to work as a driver. This adds to the shortage of drivers in the transportation industry.
understand that it’s difficult for drivers to manage their families’ expenses from the poor salary, thus they have increased their drivers’ monthly income and also give it on time.
Insufficient sleep: As the drivers are bound with time target, they drive for long distances nonstop. To ensure that they meet the target, they don’t get proper sleep and drive without taking a break. Time limitations force them to work for 15 hours a day. This is a major cause of their poor health.
Due to poor load carrying efficiency truckers are forced to overload trucks and also drive long hours to get more load as there is a lot of uncertainty
Highway conditions: India has one of the largest networks of roads in the world but the sad part is, many of them are not properly maintained. 77,116 accidents and 25,199 deaths happened due to overloaded vehicles in reported accidents, the report says.
Health issues: Drivers sit for long hours due to their job nature. They don’t get time to exercise. Hours spent seated on a truck along with unhealthy food options lead to
and many other diseases. According to the survey, only 14% of the 3 million truck drivers in the US are not obese. Non-stop driving by these truck drivers make it hard for them to go to the doctors and get necessary treatments. When they face any health problem, they ignore the symptoms and keep on offering their logistics services.
Road accidents: On highways, most of the accidents happened between trucks and other vehicles. But in every case, the truck drivers are blamed even if the other party is responsible for it. Some start beating and abusing the truck drivers without even giving them a chance to prove their side. People don’t look into the actual matter and start blaming drivers. In some cases, it is recorded that drivers are even beaten to death. They don’t get help from anyone as they are away from their home. This makes their life really miserable.
Lack Of Connectivity – Due to lack of connectivity, almost 5-7 Lakh vehicles are unable to function at an optimum. Bringing in technology will help to lower the logistics costs, which have been estimated at 13-14% of India’s GDP. Through digital streamlining of communications between stakeholders and initiating an infrastructural as well as policy change, the logistics industry of India can emerge as a pivotal piece in the growth story of the Indian economy.
Unorganized Structure – The disorganized nature of the logistics sector in India, its perception as a manpower-heavy industry and lack of adequate training institutions has led to a shortfall in skilled management and client service personnel. There is a lack of IT standard, equipment and poor systems integration.
Problem Shippers
Truck Availability
Shippers across India want trucks whenever they have a requirement.
Sometimes these requirements are planned and sometimes they are
unplanned.
They do not know who has the nearest truck and whether it would reach
them when required.
Due to the lack of above information, the shipper resorts to broadcasting /
carpet bombing everyone on calls / messages with their requirements on a
daily basis.
Competitive Price
Every shipper wants to procure at the most competitive prices. Shippers spend a considerable amount of time on calls in order to negotiate a good rate.
On the other hand, the price of a truck is largely influenced by the distance that the truck needs to travel to reach the loading point. These are the empty miles that a vehicle covers, and are eventually factored into the price that is quoted to the shipper.
The nearer the truck is to the loading point, the lesser the price a shipper would have to pay generally.
However, the shipper does not have the information about the trucks that are available near them. Therefore, the shipper either pays a higher price or has to make a barrage of calls to offline / traditional brokers to find such a truck that is present nearby. This process is inefficient, time consuming & uncertain.
Trust / Safety / Transparency
The shippers would want to work with verified partners (brokers / fleet owners) who can ensure them the following -
That the truck will report / reach to the origin & destination as promised.
Give tracking (“Where is the truck?”) - when the truck is enroute to the loading point, or enroute to the destination.
That the truck delivers the consignment without any incidents of accident / damage / theft / shortage of material/goods.
Shippers do not have many options available to ensure they work with a verified partner. They have to eventually spend a considerable amount of time in order to ensure the above.
i. They often experience anxious moments when any of the above is not ensured by the traditional brokers or unverified/untrusted fleet owners.
4. POD (Proof of delivery) on Time -
POD is needed by the Shipper (transporter) in order to bill the enterprise.
The sooner the transporter receives the POD, the faster they would be able to
bill the enterprise, and hence save money / working capital.
PRIVATE & CONFIDENTIAL
c. A not on time POD or a lost POD can possibly lead to 100% revenue loss for these transporters. On the other hand, the transporter also withholds the remaining 10% balance payment to the broker till they receive the POD.
POD is collected by the driver at unloading point and has to find its way back from the driver, to the trucker, to the broker, to eventually the transporter.
In terms of analogy, a POD is like a cheque in the name of a transporter but in
the hands of a driver. We have real money stuck in transit till it reaches the transporter, who eventually encashes it. This leads to bloated receivables and higher working capital for the transporter. Eventually this affects the broker as well, whose 10% balance payment is also stuck at this step.
Currently, it takes anywhere between 15-30 days for the POD to reach back to the transporter. On top of that, the issues of lost POD and in transit issues with PODs lead to delay in collection of the POD.
A case in point is force majeure events like Covid in the last year or so, that affect the truckers ability to submit the POD on time. This has led to payments being stuck across the value chain - from transporter, to broker, to the trucker as well.
Trucker (Fleet Owner)
1. Asset Utilization -
a. A small trucker wants to maximise the revenue from assets by the following
Reduce waiting time - Finding a load for the truck immediately after
the last unloading
Dead haul / Empty run - Finding a load closest to the last unloading
Best lane combination for rates - Finding loads that maximise the revenue / Yield for the trucker
Reduce waiting time - Finding a load with quick loading and unloading, so that the truck can be on the road
b. The
always on the move. In order to ensure this, they are constantly reaching out to traditional brokers throughout India on calls.
trucker needs to keep on finding loads for these trucks so that they are
c. A trucker does not know the right lanes in order to maximise their revenue. Hence they are always looking to gauge the rates by calling other market participants.
Payment On Time -
When truckers do business with traditional/small brokers throughout India, they struggle with the collection of their payments (especially the balance payments).
A significant amount of time of the trucker is spent in follow-ups for these payments, many of which are eventually written off.
Managing truck / driver / documentation
For a small fleet owner, doing all of these is very taxing, given the limited amount of management bandwidth they possess.
A significant portion of their time is already spent on calls for loads, payments, with drivers etc.
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