How tech is helping truckers say goodbye to hardships

BILASPUR, HARYANA: Ram Kishan, 40, drives a truck for a living, but you wouldn’t have guessed it from his starched uniform. He is resting in an airy ‘pit stop’ his logistics firm built at Bilaspur village outside Gurugram.If he can help it, he does not eat at grimy and greasy dhabas. He brings home-cooked food and most nights, he makes it back home in time for dinner. medium69167288Indian trucking, which employs more than 1 crore drivers and moves nearly 60% of the country’s freight, is seeing a quiet transformation, courtesy firms that use tech to not just move goods more efficiently but also improve the lives of drivers like Kishan.“Earlier, I used to be away from home for days, but now I am able to come home every day. In my village, people look at me and say, ‘duty pe ja rahe hain’,” he says while checking his smartphone that has his work schedule and digital copies of all the documents he needs to carry with the truck for checks and clearances on the way. medium69167489Trucking in India has long been a dangerous and thankless job. Most drivers have to deal with long periods away from home, sleepless nights, and harassment by police and other authorities. They have high rates of alcohol and drug abuse, and sexually transmitted diseases. So, while India’s growing economy needs around 10-15 lakh new drivers every year, very few young men want to take up truck driving.It’s no surprise then that the new-age logistics companies are trying to humanise a trucker’s job. And the change at Rivigo, started by IIT Kanpur alumnus Deepak Garg in 2014, starts with changing the driver’s job title to ‘Pilot’. medium69182941The company has also devised a relay system — a new driver takes over at a pit stop located every few hundred kilometres — for its 4,000 trucks. For example, on the 1,370-km Delhi-Mumbai stretch, pit stops have been set up every 250km. A driver makes the four to five-hour journey from one pit stop to the next. Another driver takes over the truck, while the first one drives back to the starting point in another truck after a mandatory rest period. Rivigo claims it has cut down the Delhi-Mumbai travel time from 80-100 hours to 30-32 hours as the truck is constantly on the move. Sensors and telematics on its trucks have also reduced fuel pilferage and accidents. Gaurav Rakawat, an IIT Delhi alumnus, who is a regional manager for the pit stops in the northern region, said the ‘pilots’ are hired from villages near pit stops based on the recommendation of the sarpanch and other eminent persons of their village. They go through rigorous tests before they are brought on the rolls. “Nearly 90% of the workers return home the same day,” Rakawat said, adding that only those who get stuck at warehouses for unloading get delayed. New economy companies such as Flipkart and Amazon are efficient in handling unloading of trucks at warehouses while companies from the pharma and consumer industries have an antiquated system which often delays unloading.boxcontent medium69168256How modern systems are benefitting truckersDrive shorter stretches thanks to a relay systemReturn home same dayHigher productivity, shorter travel timeSensors, telematics reduce fuel pilferage, accidentsPit stops with resting room, toilets, doctor, safe parking Schedule/digital copies of documents on phoneHealth & life insurance, education benefits for kidsThe salary of a driver can go up to about Rs 34,000 a month with health insurance, life insurance and education benefits for his children. The company also gets him enrolled for all the government schemes that he is entitled to. “This is better than the average salary in the industry,” said Rakawat. Salaries vary widely in the industry, and could even be as low as Rs 5,000 plus money for expenses on the trip.But the higher wages have meant that Shiv Kumar, 40, can now send his children to private schools.” The payment comes on the 30th of the month and I have medical benefits for myself and my family,” said Kumar, who used to drive for a single truck owner earlier. large69167490Other trucking companies have also seen a sharp increase in efficiency after they introduced modern systems in the business. “Productivity has definitely improved. The vehicle is always on the move, but the changeover enables the driver to return home at the end of his shift,” said Akash Bansal, executive director of Om Logistics that has 5,000 trucks and 300 pit stops across the country.Even international majors like DHL and Blue Dart are working to improve the life of drivers, while Indian Oil Corporation has turned 900 of its 27,000 fuel stations into pit stops for truck drivers to rest and recover. IOC’s stops have toilets, resting rooms with mattresses and TV, a kitchen, doctor on call and safe parking.Since driver fatigue is the main cause of truck accidents – a study by Castrol last year revealed that 53% of truck drivers have a health issue while 23% are sleep-deprived – some companies are trying to address the issue. “We set up a ‘Nidra Dan’ centre (literally, sleep donation centre) in Dudu, Rajasthan, for drivers to rest. It has toilets and resting rooms, and can accommodate 500 drivers. Any truck driver can use the facilities, which include subsidised food from the dhaba,” said Ramesh Agarwal, chairman and worker at Agarwal Packers and Movers, which owns 1,200 trucks.“Our study showed that accidents and deaths reduced sharply after the setting up of the centre on that stretch,” said Agarwal whose company is building another such facility on the Madhya Pradesh-Maharashtra border for 200 drivers. medium69175370Firms like Blackbuck, which aggregates trucks on its tech platform and works on the lines of Uber, provide incentives to drivers for higher productivity. “The basic issue is that the drivers are paid less,” said Ramasubramanian B, co-founder and COO-strategic initiatives, Blackbuck. “If you ask the truck owners, they will say they pay less because drivers take make money through other means (pilfering fuel and carrying extra cargo are two examples). Our approach is to ensure drivers get paid better officially, so that they don’t resort to other means.” Blackbuck’s app captures driver activity closely. medium69167635“We incentivise drivers who complete their tasks ahead of time,” Ramasubramanian said, adding that they keep a close eye on safety, as the trucks on their platform are connected.Welcome though this change is, industry watchers say it is a small step as trucking is still largely an unorganised sector. “The change does not impact even 5-7% of the drivers. Most of them still sleep in dhabas and their pay is not in line with minimum wage,” said S P Singh from IFTRT, a transport think-tank. “We need hundreds of these companies to modernise the transport business,” he added.(Additional reporting from Sanjay Dutta in New Delhi)Photos/Video: Anindya Chattopadhyay