The Missing Truck!

At Gun Point (Hindi)

In Search of Eggs & Sex....

You would not believe, but it is true.

If you are travelling on the highways of western Madhya Pradesh, try asking at roadside dhabas or decent restaurants for egg curry or burji (scrambled egg with tomato, onion, green chillies with spice) either in truck or SUVs.

You will be met with a firm, but a polite “No”.

Why? “This is a Jain-dominated area,” explains Dharam Veer Chaudhry from Haryana at whose massive dhaba we halt around 4 p.m. for our lunch. (Jains are pure vegetarians. They don't even touch garlic and onion).

Co-traveller and TRANSTOPICS Editor October-end born fortyish, but boyish-looking Girish Mirchandani and of course yours truly are crystal clear: no egg, no lunch. Significantly, both of us are vegetarians - rather eggetarians. 

So we halt at many dhabas on State Highway No. 31 or National Highway No. 79 asking, “Bhaiya, anda hai?”  (Sir, do you serve egg preparations?) only to be negatived.

Pissed off is a mild expression.

At last, we find Tauji’s dhaba @ Dodar – situated between Mandsaur and Jaora.

What actually attracted us is the huge line of Agarwal Packers & Movers (APM) vehicles in the courtyard  one of the most well known and reputed logistics firms in India.

“I bet this dhaba won’t have eggs as well,” opines Girish.

What makes him so say? I demand.

“APM is Ramesh Agarwalji’s company. He's vegetarian to the core. These chalaks (Drivers) working for him ought to be Veggies,” reasons Girish, on his maiden long trip on highways with me to get a first hand knowledge of truck drivers’ zindagi (world).

 

Yet, Tauji - who bought the zameen for Rs.13 lakhs five years ago and turned into the ‘mashoor dhaba’ (well known highway eatery) on this stretch, confirms that he would be able to serve eggs.

Wow... At last... Eggs going to be on our plates .... (Not on our faces!)

We troop in to chat up with APM drivers and Tauji.

Okay, the search for egg is likely to end positively soon.

What about our collective search or urge to know more about commercial sex workers on this stretch?

Have we not been advised by dozens of truck drivers and transport blokes not to miss checking out Dodar area – famous for prostitutes who service truck drivers?

We are in Dodar and why miss a chance?

But.... how to open the topic?

I take courage and ask Tauji...

“Burra mat maniyega (Don’t mistake me!)... Is it true this highway has a large presence of prostitutes?”

Krishna Kant Sharma, our driver since we left Indore more than a week ago, is watching the unfolding drama. This MP Brahmin driver, who has traversed this route for several years, has confirmed the belief 2-3 days ago.

“Kya chahiye?” (What do you want from them?) asks Tauji mischievously.

“Hame kuch nahi karna hai.... sirf baat karni hai yeh auraton ke saath,” (We just want to talk to them. Nothing else!), I tell Tauji - dispelling his doubts about moral compass needle!

APM drivers are watching us closely.

Tauji smiles.

“Worry not. Look at those huts at the entrance to our dhaba. They are whom you are looking for,” he says.

“Tauji, you must introduce us,” Girish jumps in.

“Chinta mat karo. Mein kar doonga,” (Don’t worry. I will do the needful) promises Tauji. 

“Pehle kaane to kaalo,” (Eat first) advises the Haryanvi eatery owner.

Must tell you this...

In the past 48 hours we have spotted several hutments on this stretch as we shuttle between Ratlam and Neemuch (150 km distance) and noticed ‘colourfully dressed’ young and old girls/women on the highways.

They were there for the asking, so to say. Sharmaji, shy by nature, slows down our vehicle with the idea of helping us to pick up courage and ask him to halt and step out. Somehow, neither Girish nor I have the courage to step out, go to them and say, “Hello.... Can we ...?”

Can we.... what?

What if they mistake us for 'potential clients' seeking physical pleasure?

Our middle class pseudo moralistic stance perhaps raises its ugly head.

Girish looks for 'directions' from me - he being younger to me.

Am definitely a coward. Could not take that call.

Driver Sharmaji, am sure, must be equally curious to know why these blokes from Mumbai and Delhi want to meet ‘prostitutes’.

He never asked us that question, no doubt.

We kept insisting to Sharmaji that our journey will be incomplete without a rendezvous with these prostitutes. So desperate we were.

Actually I was more eager than Girish.

Why, you may ask.

Over the past four years I have travelled 21,000 km in trucks on Indian highways and written three books. And, significantly, the chapter “Sex @ Hubli” included in my second book, Naked Banana! drew more interest than any other subject.

Sex is an interesting subject to harp on. That’s human psychology.

One more chapter, “Sex on highways” while passing through Bareilly-Meerut stretch also flashed through my mind.

I was looking for nuggets to complete the ‘triology’ on sex on highways.

Now is the biggest opportunity and not wanting to miss it.

Lunch over, we walked up to Tauji.

“Tauji, chale? (Sir, can we go?)” I asked.

With a twinkle, he led both of us to the hutment perched on the periphery of his dhaba.

The row of huts, made of mud walls and tiled roof, stood there.

At two-three feet below the highways level.

On the verandah, we noticed an elderly “madame” sitting there munching something and surrounded by two young girls in colourful salwar kameez.

Two twentyish youth were sprawling on the cot, talking to her.

No, they were not ‘clients’ but part of the business perhaps.

The girls giggled.

The men looked and just ignored us.

Another lean lady squatting on the doorsteps of the two-room hutment mumbled something to ‘madame’.

She saw Tauji and smiled.

Tauji said something in hushed tones.

He was standing very close to her.

Girish and I were still on the highways.

Heartbeart could be heard miles away. Anxiety.

Will she? Won’t she?

Tauji turned to us and said: “You can, now” and left us there.

Girls moved out.

Men turned their back.

The squatting lady moved in quietly.

Madame stood up.

“Kya baat karni hai?” (What do you want to talk?).

Both of us mumbled something.

She signaled us to come down from the highways.

“Not in the open. Come into this room,” she said pointing to the second room with a door.

Few more girls in the next hutment sitting on the cots in the open were watching us curiously.

Maybe they thought we were ‘negotiating’ rates with madame!

If the terms are not agreeable, maybe they can ‘have’ us .... Is this what they were thinking? I don’t know.

Madame entered the hut and we followed.

Nonetheless, her body language and attitude was not friendly.

Who the heck these chaps are? What they want to talk?

There was a mat and a pillow on the cow-dung plastered 6 by 4 feet low-ceilinged hut.

She quickly sat on the mat and Girish moved in next to her.

I took the cow-dung plastered ground space.

“Bolo,” (Shoot) she began.

Girish explained to her about our ongoing study of truck drivers lifestyle on Indian highways.

She nodded.

“How much you charge per driver?” That was Girish.

Rs.200-250/per sitting. Or bedding!

How long they stay with girls?

They come. They do their act. And they walk about.

All in a matter of few minutes.

“Lekin, why you want to know these things?” she demanded.

We can sense her aggression.

Our fear was that she should not mistake us for some police raid or something.

“Look,” I began, “these drivers are ill treated. Nobody respects them. When they seek your services, are they aggressive to take out their frustration on your girls?”

“Nothing of that sort. They come. They do. They go,” Madame repeated.

There was a short pause.

To break any negative vibes, I said: “We are not police. We are writers.”

“So what? We don’t worry about police.”

“How long you have been in this trade?” – Girish

“We don’t keep records.... May be for years,” she blurted out.

“What kind of conversation takes place between drivers and your girls?” I asked.

She gave a dirty look.

No response.

Then she said: “Over? Go now!”

Girish was surveying the room and found packets of condom lying on the ground.

The room smelt of liquor.

I signaled to Girish  that the ‘meeting with madame’ is over and it is time to scoot.

We exited.

She followed us.

Men on the cot ignored us.

Girls in the next hutment kept a vigil.

So quick? That too, two men and one lady?

We thanked Madame and climbed onto the highway.

Though I carried my Sony Handycam, I did not have the courage to click a picture of Madame or the hutment.

Even before moving out Tauji’s dhaba, Girish made it clear that he would not carry his Canon. If necessary, he will use his Iphone camera.

None of us shot a single frame during the meeting with madame which possibly must have lasted a little over 5 minutes.

As we re-entered Tauji’s dhaba, APM drivers asked: “How was the meeting?”

Nothing great, we said.

Tauji kept quiet.

“We exited the dhaba after thanking Tauji.

“If we paid her some money, possibly she would have opened up more and spoken,” surmised Girish.

Maybe he is right.

Had there been a lady partner in our team, would these commercial sex workers have been more frank and forthcoming?

“I don’t think so. They are business-minded. Gender does not make a difference. Time is money for them. Possibly, talking to us is not lucrative," explained Girish.

Tauji hinted that they may be making at least Rs.1,000-2,000 per day.

Dodar village has a peculiar history. Residents of this village dedicate their eldest daughters to prostitution and there is no social stigma attached.

I have to content with shooting their colourful wardrobe on their clothline in their compound.

Just a kilometre away from Tauji's dhaba, says Girish: "Had we given her money, she would have opened up and spoken. That  was a mistake on our part."

I felt it is nothing to do with money. She's a karmayogi - a believer in 'action' and not talks.

Why waste time talking to a bunch of .... whatever?

Opportunity cost calculations reverberated in my psyche.

What opportunity cost? It was fourish and their trade starts not before sunset.

"Will you try them next time by acting like a client?" asks Girish.

What?

"What I mean to say is that will you go to her as a client without any prelims and instead of getting into the 'act', just keep talking to the girl (not the Madame). Pay her and get out?"

Not a bad idea.

Like what Kamalhassan did in the classic Mani Ratnam-directed Nayakan - the 1990s' Tamil superhit film and made into Hindu as Dayavan with Vinod Khanna re-enacting Kamal's role. 

(In the movie, Kamal/Vinod visits a brothel and select a young girl. But both permit her to study the entire night to enable her sit for her high school exams next day!)

***

"Commercial sex workers," I began.

"Come again!" demanded Girish.

"Commercial sex workers...." I repeated.

"Is there another group called 'Charitable sex workers'?" demand Girish.

His quirky sense of humour divert my thoughts.

"Do you think these drivers use condoms?" Girish.

I don't think so. Many drivers point blankly asked three years ago outside Chinchwad Tata Motors plant whether elephants, horses etc wear condoms in the natural act of procreation.

Also remembered a driver at a HIV/AIDS awareness campaign pavilion, tried to fixed a wooden genital with two condoms when asked to demonstrate.

Asked why, his response was: "For double security".

He has to be advised that two condoms is actually dangerous.

Sad, India is the land of Kama Sutra. Yet we are embarrassed to discuss/talk about sex generally.

Sex education is a must - not only for children in high schools. Even for adults.

The right way, I mean.

How safe Indian trucks are?

Take a look at this LMV, snapped at Ujjain.

No seat belt.

No door lock.

Does motor maliks care for their drivers?

Does drivers really care for themselves?

Nobody cares for anyone.

Fact of life.

Postal Ballot Facility for Truck Drivers

                                                                                                         18 September 2013

Mr V S Sampath

Chief Election Commissioner of India

New Delhi

vs.sampath@eci.gov.in

Dear Sir,

Sub: HCV/Truck Drivers – Postal Ballot Facility – Exercise of Democratic Rights

Greetings.

Having returned from interacting with over 500 truck drivers yesterday (17 September 2013) as part of nation-wide Driver’s Day celebrations in National Capital Region (NCR), one thought that kept reverberating in my mind was these “unlettered professionals” desire to have a say in the election/selection of political leaders to rule over them.

Well, it was not the only time I heard them voice their need to exercise their democratic rights in the Republic of India.

These drivers – running into huge numbers  (a few lakhs, if not more ) – have been sharing their thoughts on this critical issue with me over the past three years as I keep crisscrossing India in trucks to understand their working and living conditions. Well, that is a different issue altogether.

On crucial polling dates for Assembly or Parliament, a major chunk of them are ‘ON DUTY’ – steering toiletries, food, medicine, motor fuel and what not – so that aam janta and Constitutional Heads such as the President of India, your goodself and the Chief Justice of Supreme Court of India are not deprived of ‘necessities’.

Like army, police and government employees on polling duty, even these truck drivers are on a ‘crucial mission’ – far away from their homes.

Therefore, they simply cannot cast their votes at the designated polling booth on the give polling day.

While the entire nation takes a day off from their regular work to exercise their democratic rights (how many of them actually utilize this golden right is debatable) with pay, truck drivers cannot even be offered such a facility.

Why?

Because they cannot leave their loaded/unloaded vehicles on the highways wherever they are to rush back home, cast their votes and return to stranded vehicles within 24-hour cycle.

Their living and working conditions are pathetic and they strongly feel political parties DO NOT consider them as vote banks. In a way, they are voiceless and not represented by political parties.

Hence these truck drivers pondering about ways and means to have a ‘say’

The adult franchise enshrined in the Indian Constitution be allowed to be exercised by those needy ones who want to.

Therefore, I request your goodself to examine this request of truck drivers to use ‘postal ballot’ route

I will begin the process of collecting at least 10,000 request forms of truck drivers on this issue soon and submit the same for your favourable consideration.

Election Commission, am sure, can devise ways and means In this regard

In this regard, KRK Foundation working for improving the living and working conditions of truck drivers will also take it up with relevant ministries and Members of Parliament to examine this genuine request and help ushering  in changes in the relevant laws of the land.

I shall be grateful to Election Commission if it can do something in this regard.

Waiting to hear from you,

Cheers

Ramesh Kumar

KRK Foundation 

New Delhi

What Skills will Help a Truck Driver?

Being successful in a truck driver job involves a lot more than sitting behind the wheel and driving a truck all day. Truck drivers are not held in the highest regard today, but there are multiple skills needed to become great driver delivering  fast, friendly and safe service.

A good truck driver should have excellent communication and people skills. There must be no confusion between them and their dispatcher and they must be able to work well with customers to resolve any delivery or pick up problems. No matter what phase of the job, a driver will be in contact with people and needs to be able to get along and communicate with others.

While modern electronics and GPS have made things easier, a trucker still needs to be able to navigate, particularly in the case of a large semi truck, and be aware of roads that can and can not be traveled. Even with electronics, drivers should be able to read maps in case they find themselves in a remote area where their GPS keeps “recalculating” and they must be aware of all clearances to make sure the truck and trailer can safely pass under them.

Truck drivers need to be reliable and responsible. a truck driving job can be a dangerous proposition and the driver must be constantly aware of all others on the road to help prevent accidents and mishaps. It goes without saying that they must follow the rules of the road and all laws, such as the posted speed limit, as well.

As in many other contracted fields, self motivation is very important in a truck driver job and helps a driver to perform at their best. It’s so easy to hit the “snooze” button on that alarm after a long haul, but being motivated to make the delivery on time is what separates the men from the boys, or the women from the girls, in a truck driver job position. Let’s not forget that truck drivers may be male or female and vary greatly in age and experience.

Perhaps one of the most important skills to be a success in a truck driver job is organization. With the latest regulations, there is more and more paperwork that must be done on a daily basis. All logs, electronic or otherwise, must be filled out correctly to avoid troubles with regulators and employers. Speaking of electronic laws, some basic computer skills can also be very helpful. Trip packets have to be completed as well as accurate expense reports to either get paid or as deductions on tax returns.

With so much time spent alone on the road, sometimes in very “out of the way” places, it can be a trip saver if the driver has some basic mechanical skills and a thorough understanding semi truck operation. With these skills, a trucker can identify problems before they cause a breakdown and may be prevented as well make some the necessary repairs to get back on the road if an issue does occur. While not a necessity of the job, it can definitely come in handy and save a great deal of time and money in shop repairs.

For the aspiring trucker, having some of these skills will make you even more employable. For experienced drivers, these skills can help to ensure a success

ful career, advancement and generally will make your life a whole lot easier.  For the rest of us, next time you meet a trucker you might want to shake their hand and appreciate a little more all the skills and techniques they master in order to deliver our stuff safely and on time.

Go filmi to dodge penalty!

Somit Sen, Times of India News Service May 19, 2010

MUMBAI: Amitabh Bachchan or AB for short, Lal Rumaal, Kachcha Papad... Well, these are
some of the monthly code words used by unscrupulous agents to help truckers bypass RTO
checks for overloaded trucks and tempos in the state.

Sources in the transport industry have revealed a major nexus between agents and RTO
officials whose unusual modus operandi has encouraged rampant overloading in the past few
months. Besides being illegal, overloading is a major hazard as it can cause accidents on busy
highways as well as damage road surface.

A big-time Mumbai transporter who did not wish to be named told TOI, "The RTO has a flying
squad which checks trucks and tempos anywhere on the highway for overloading. The agents,
who are hand-in-glove with them, usually operate from some of the dhabas situated en route."
According to the modus operandi, a truck driver is instructed by his owner (or the party
sending a consignment) to contact an agent at a particular dhaba. The driver is supposed to
stop over at the dhaba for refreshments. He then interacts with the agent over a cup of tea or a
glass of lassi and collects the chit containing the code words.

Sources said that sometimes, these codes are the first few lines of a song from a recently
released Hindi film. Once the driver sings the song, he can bypass every check, they said.
Another transporter from Dana Bunder said, "The RTO has to maintain its targets of
recovering fines. So, it nabs innocent truck and tempo drivers who are not part of the cartel.
They are harassed by the officials who scrutinise every detail of the consignment and find some
loophole to fine the truck driver."

When contacted, Maharashtra Truck Owners Association general secretary Parshuram Katke
confirmed that there was corruption in the RTO, which encouraged rampant overloading of
vehicles across the state. "The fine has increased from Rs 200 a few years ago to Rs 2,500 per
tonne recently. But, this has not deterred unscrupulous truckers," he said, and added that there
have been accidents due to overloading, which posed dangers to other motorists driving on the
highway.

J K Jain, general secretary of the Bombay Goods Transport Association, said that the RTO
often harassed those carrying machinery for government projects. "Since the machinery is
fixed to the vehicle, the officials often insist that they would calculate the collective weight of
both vehicle and equipment. And, if this weight is not declared in the documents, it is termed
as overloading," he said. Another transporter alleged that the RTO manipulated the fine
collection to meet its annual targets.

A senior RTO official denied the charges by saying that the transport department was serious
about collecting fines from overloading vehicles. "Our fine collection for overloading offence

Courtesy: Times of India

Hollywood 1957 classic: Hell Drivers

Truck driving madness.....

Must Watch....

Try to locate Sean Connery in this movie - third or fourth after he was launched.

Not Emperor Ashoka’s enemy!

“Don’t mistake me. I am not an enemy of the Great Emperor Asoka,” says Dr S T Ramesh, Director General and Inspector General of Police, Karnataka Government in mid-May this year. He agreed to meet after I “SMSed” my request for an audience with him to discuss the “failing law and order” situation on National Highways while traversing through Karnataka, which he and his team police. For a while, I could not get the drift of his comments. What has Asoka got to do with him or National Highways?

“Permit me to explain,” he requests. I oblige. Ramesh was on the Ministry of Road Transport & Highways’ Panel on Road Safety until recently. He was of the firm opinion that trees on both sides of highways are a big obstacle causing accidents. So, he was giving expression to the agitation of some group or other who were opposed to cutting trees to widen roads. “How can you widen roads, if some trees cannot be felled down?” he asks pointedly.

Now I get his “Asoka” moment. At school, we learnt that the Great Emperor Asoka planted trees on roadside and he was lauded for that developmental work. Nobody doubted – or will – the brainwave behind the ‘plant tree’ movement of those days. But, the ex-cop from Karnataka simply cannot see eye to eye with those who oppose tree cutting for highway development.

His line of argument is simple. Forget about felling trees for widening of roads so that today’s heavy movement of commercial vehicles ferrying goods to various parts of country. Ramesh goes to the extent of saying trees are one of the “major causes” of highway accidents. “Not every stretch of national highways is four or six lane. Put it differently, a major length of national highways are just dual carriageways and with decades old trees on both sides. Today, the vehicle sizes have also undergone changes. They carry more,” adds he. It is no secret that road has come to dominate even for long haul, causing heart burns to the railways, a government monopoly.

Ramesh is not alone in voicing his demand to fell trees. Prashant Gawasane, Project Director at National Highways Authority of India at Mangalore, joins the chorus. Don’t mistake them for anti-nature campaigners. They are as good a development strategists as you and I. As our Leyland truck, ferrying granules from Bangaluru to Mangalore is passing through NH 48, I am witness to highway expansion most of the time. Massive tree trucks, cut in large pieces are lying on the roadside for transportation out of the place. Road levelers are working as early seven in the morning. Two lane highways are being turned into four or perhaps six lane highways. Good, we will all agree. If NHAI’s Gawasane is to be believed, tree displacement is the second biggest challenge before him next only to land acquisition.

“What do they expect me to do? They certainly appreciate road expansion. But put a condition that trees if they to be cut, should be uprooted and planted elsewhere. What can we at NHAI do? We are not into tree plantation. The state government has to make provision for such things because afforestation falls under its jurisdiction,” explains Gawasane in his office in the heart of Mangalore hardly a few kilometers away from Mangalore port.

Reverting to ex-cop Ramesh’s tree-as-the-cause-for-road-accident, it appears he is not off the mark. On my journey from Tata Nagar in Chattisgarh to Ludhiana in Punjab with steel wire rods on the Tata truck we were moving via Ranchi in mid-February. Having passed through the capital of Chattisgarh, suddenly I notice a tree in the middle of the highway, left untouched. Since Pandeyji travels in the same route always, I could not help looking at him seeking explanation. “It is a big challenge to veer our trucks around. We also don’t know why this has not been felled down so far,” says he.  At the nearest dhaba where he halt for a tea-break, other heavy commercial vehicle drivers echo the same sentiments. Catching hold one of the contractors en route supervising the expansion project, I politely ask him about the tree-in-the-middle-of-the-road syndrome. He throws up his hand in despair and sneaks out.  Such things lead to accidents mostly in the night time due to lack of adequate lighting on the highways.

What Asoka, the Great, did in his time has little relevance to us today. Those days, trees provided shade to travelers on foot. Perhaps to horse riders as well. There were no motorized vehicles moving on those passages. Today’s situation is totally different. Roads, it is rightly said, changes the landscape of thousands of villages through which they pass through. Road building exercise provides massive employment opportunity and helps trade in a big way.

Development comes at a cost. Let’s accept this fact. Let’s not miss the forest in search of trees.

NOTE:

This Chapter was part of 10,000 KM on Indian Highways published in November 2011. 

To know more about this book, visit www.10000kmonindianhighways.com

Mr S T Ramesh has retired since then.

Truck Driver - Bollywood clip

Check out from 6.15...

Life of a truck driver and his dreams on the food front alone...

Film: Mela (2000)

Check out  for more details:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mela_(2000_film)

Novel Justice!

Dushman, released in 1971, turned the spotlight on how to tackle when a truck driver kills someone and this untimely death renders living unbearable for the victim's family.

This movie, a super hit, examines how it can achieve twin purposes: punish the guilty and at the same time ensure the victim's family also gets support...

Watch this clip - an emotional scene (with English subtitles)....

Truck driver song-1 - Gaddar (2001)

It was one of those peppy songs with a typical truck driver's penchant for loud and foot tapping number.

Sunny Deol, in this movie Gaddar released in 2001 alongside Aamir Khan's Lagaan, was a super hit.

To know more about this movie, check out ...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gadar:_Ek_Prem_Katha

FEEDBACK: Straight From The Heart...

Dear Mr Ramesh,

Yesterday (20 August 2013), I met Mr Gur-Prasad Kohli and received your book, An Affair with Indian Highways.

Everything seems to have been said in Preface itself. 

Check http://driversduniya.blogspot.in/2013/08/preface-to-affair-with-indian-highways.html

to read Preface in full.

Each word is as inclusive and explosive as an Atom can be.

This reminds me of writings of Tao mystiques and Zen monks. 'Less is more' is well reflected in this piece of your mind.

Speaking from your own experiences, straight from heart, this books seems to be a benchmark in anything which is worth writing and can be written about drivers and our attitude towards them,

Its shaking and thought provoking.

My best compliments for this awakening effort.

Also congratulations for being part of Congress Library !


thanks n regards,

Achal Paliwal
Head - Logistics & Exports
Honda Cars India Ltd
Greater Noida, UP

PREFACE to An Affair With Indian Highways

Where do I begin?

And where do I end?

It’s a challenge.

It has been a long drawn affair. I have been sucked into its orbit and honestly unable to retrieve from its octopus-like grip.

Am I cribbing? Nope.

Not at all.

This affair with Indian highways is enchanting. Educative.  Most times it helps me clear my mental cobwebs on a host of issues concerning my fellow human beings. Businessmen. Ordinary men – like you and I. Rulers and policy makers.

No doubt, am happy to note the growth story of India – however sputtering it might be.  If only, a few things can change, how different the lives of my 1.2 billion fellow Indians.

Simple respect for fellow human beings will bring about a sea change in the way in which the Indian trade and commerce is being carried out. But that is something similar to asking for the moon at this moment.

Imagine a day from dawn to dusk and you will unhesitatingly accept that without them-  HCV drivers, to be precise – you and I will be leading a stone age lifestyle.

Do we care to admit that?  Not at all.

If we do, then the loud cry about the looming driver shortage – 5 million by 2015 – will be just a dream, not an emerging reality.

Without drivers at the wheels of the fast-trundled out sophisticated dashboards in trucks that carry raw materials from production lines and subsequently finished products to nook s and corners, the Indian economy story will turn negative. Do we need that?

Honestly, none of us want that.

The life of truck drivers on Indian highways is pathetic. After turning the spotlight on this issue through my maiden book, 10,000 KM On Indian Highways, I did not – and could not stop the odyssey. By the time I clocked 21,000 KM in December 2012, I sat down to look at the fresh experience and nothing has changed as far as drivers were concerned.

But one thing has changed. There is a greater discussion about how to usher in a change of mindset all around – involving stakeholders. That’s a pleasant development for me.

The government is keen. Industry is eager. Yes, driver community is watching this minutely changing script.

Is there a light at the end of the tunnel? Certainly.

But, at this moment, that ‘light’ is far away.

Still, am happy that there is that hope.

Don’t forget that dirty-looking, lungi-clad, bidi smoking, illiterate truck driver who ensured that you have your Colgate toothpaste ready in the morning to brush your teeth. Your scented lavender bathing soap in the washing room.  Your bread toast and hot beverage on the breakfast table. As you sit behind the wheel of your own vehicle, the personal mobility item itself and the diesel/petrol in its belly to move you wherever you wish to go. The mouth-watering lunch at home or workplace. And your favourite tippler as you shut down your day’s work and decided to chill out. This list is endless.

All, courtesy, that man – the truck driver.

It’s said that God is omnipresent and omnipotent.

To me, this guy – the truck driver is more omnipotent and omnipresent.

The only difference is that God knows his strengths.

This Dirty Man does not.

It is a pity.

The day he knows that, it will be a different world for you and me.

The future is tense. Let us change our behaviour.

It’s never too late.

Ramesh Kumar

14 February 2013

Those Madmen Driving our National Highways

Book Review


DWIGHT GARNER


KILLER ON THE ROAD
Violence and the American Interstate
By Ginger Strand
Illustrated. 252 pages. University of Texas Press. $25.


When Vladimir Nabokov wrote in “Lolita” that “you can always count on a murderer for a fancy prose style,” he was not predicting the arrival of the serial killer and necrophile Ted Bundy. But he might have been.

It’s unclear to me how fancily Bundy wrote. But he spoke with a grisly élan. Asked by a prison interviewer to describe his crimes, he said: “How do you describe what a quiche tastes like? Or what the juice of a bouillabaisse is like or why it tastes the way it does?” He added, “Some people taste clams” while others “mullet and the mussels.”

Among American serial killers, Bundy seemed especially terrifying because he was mobile. He confessed to murdering 30 young women in the 1970s, and those killings were spread across seven states. He was bad, as the ZZ Top song has it, and he was nationwide.

Ginger Strand’s new book, “Killer on the Road: Violence and the American Interstate,” examines the links between random killings and the anonymity and soullessness bred by our Interstate System. These are connections most of us have long ago made in our minds. As Ms. Strand observes, “If a song or book title contains the word Interstate or Freeway, expect mayhem.”

Ms. Strand’s slim book is part true-crime entertainment, part academic exegesis, part political folk ballad. I don’t wish to overpraise it: it has soft spots; it frequently deals with material covered in better books; you will not confuse the author’s modest prose with Nabokov’s. Yet her cross-threaded tales of drifters, stranded motorists and madmen got its hooks into me. Reading Ms. Strand’s thoughtful book is like driving a Nash Rambler after midnight on a highway to hell.

On its most primal level “Killer on the Road” recounts the crime sprees of men like Charles Starkweather. In 1958, at 19, he cruised around Lincoln, Neb., in stolen cars with his girlfriend and a sawed-off shotgun, killing 11 people and leading the National Guard on a multistate manhunt. His bad actions inspired two indelible pieces of American art: Bruce Springsteen’s song “Nebraska” and Terrence Malick’s film “Badlands.”

Starkweather was driven, in no small part, by class rage. He said later, “Dead people are all on the same level.”

Ms. Strand, whose previous work includes “Inventing Niagara” (2008), a history of Niagara Falls, dilates frequently upon class issues in her new book, upon the social inequities and simmering resentment behind many violent crimes. But her political analysis has more tentacles than that.

In a chapter about the killings of young people, mostly black boys, in Atlanta in the late 1970s and early 1980s, murders for which an unhinged man named Wayne Williams was ultimately arrested, she carefully parses how the Interstate System plowed through black sections of town, eliminating old neighborhoods. These were “white men’s roads,” as the National Urban League put it, “through black men’s bedrooms.”

She charts the social atomization that resulted. “Atlanta’s urban renewal and expressway construction had, at the very least,” she declares, “built the stage on which the tragedy in Atlanta could unfold.”

This book’s most unsettling chapter takes its name from one of the great, literate rock bands in this country: Drive-By Truckers. This chapter gives us Ms. Strand at her angriest, grisliest and most convincing. In it she proposes that America’s 10,000 or so truck stops breed serious crime, including serial murder, at a terrible (and largely preventable) level.

She commences by observing that “at least 25 former truckers are currently serving time in American prisons for serial murder.” Trucking has become a job that attracts marginal characters, she writes, “less educated, less stable, less tied to unions, less rooted in family life” than they once were. She quotes the economist Michael Belzer, who calls trucks “sweatshops on wheels.”

The bars to entry are low: criminal records and even drunken-driving convictions are often overlooked. The pay is abysmal. Many drivers are lonely and depressed. Annual turnover at some trucking companies, she says, is around 100 percent.

This information is clearly not enough to suggest that even a fraction of America’s 18-wheelers have sociopaths at the wheel. But in 2009 the F.B.I. went public with its Highway Serial Killings initiative, noting the numbers of women, often truck-stop prostitutes, killed each year, and suggesting the suspects are mostly long-haul truckers.

Ms. Strand focuses primarily on one case. She attended the 2010 trial of Bruce Mendenhall, the so-called Rest Stop Killer, who was convicted of murdering one woman in his truck in Nashville but will likely stand trial for the killings of other truck stop prostitutes in other states.

Her analysis deepens. She notes how little work has been done on the mental health of truckers. She asks if there might be “something about trucking that could push some people predisposed to violence over the edge.”

She advocates for trucker’s welfare. Do truck stops have to be such soul-crushing places? “It’s not hard to imagine how truck stops might counter the rigors of driving,” she writes. “They might have salad bars and dog runs and fitness centers. Instead they offer arcades and dingy drivers’ lounges — a row of easy chairs all facing a giant TV, as if what a driver should do when he stops driving is go and sit some more.”

She is even better on the lives of truck-stop prostitutes, the so-called lot lizards who knock on truckers’ doors at night, offering their services for as little as $30. (Truckers who don’t wish to be disturbed, the author says, post a sign in their windows, “a lizard behind a circle with a bar through it,” so they can get some sleep.)

When these women disappear, few tend to notice. Ms. Strand interviews an Indianapolis detective who calls them “throwaway people” about whom, sometimes, only the cops seem to care. But these women can be made more safe, as can the truckers themselves, by better lighting, design and security at truck stops, the author argues, in much the same way planners designed away much of the crime at the Port Authority Bus Terminal in Manhattan.

Her plea on behalf of these prostitutes is a plaintive call for simple human dignity. “Those devalued lives,” she writes, “like the truckers’, are unimaginable outside the landscapes highway federalism built: the anonymous world of exit ramps, right-of-ways and travel plazas where places are numbers, people are anonymous, and human interaction is entirely mediated by commerce.”

Ms. Strand probably doesn’t mean to creep us out on her book’s dust jacket, where she writes that she “spends a lot of time on the road.” No matter. We’ve already been creeped out. “Killer on the Road” is a small book that carries a heavy load of unpleasant but important freight.



Courtesy: The New York Times, September 4, 2012

Dalian to Rotterdam in 35 days - 13 days less than via Suez Canal

Richard MilneFinancial Times | Sunday, 11 Aug 2013 |

A Chinese cargo ship is attempting the country's first ever commercial transit of the Northeast Passage above
Russia, as global warming opens a short-cut that promises to reduce shipping times between China and
Europe.

The Yong Sheng, a 19,000-ton vessel operated by state-owned Cosco Group, set sail on August 8 from
Dalian, a port in northeastern China, bound for Rotterdam. According to an announcement on Cosco's
website, the journey via the Bering Strait could shave as much as 15 days off the traditional route through the
Suez Canal and Mediterranean Sea.

Also known as the Northern Sea Route, the Northeast Passage is Europe's answer to the more fabled
Northwest Passage that threads its way across northern Canada and then around Alaska. Sir Francis Drake
and Captain James Cook were among the many adventurers and entrepreneurs who coveted the fabled routes as potential short-cuts to lucrative trading markets in East Asia.

The longer Northeast Passage, at approximately 5,400 kilometers, has the advantage of offering a relatively
straight journey over the top of the Eurasian landmass. Its shorter North American rival, by contrast, twists and turns through narrow, dangerous channels in the Canadian Arctic. The Northwest Passage claimed the life of explorer Sir John Franklin and the crews of his two ships, HMS Erebus and HMS Terror, in 1845.
First traversed in 1879 by a Swedish explorer, Baron Adolf Erik Nordenskiold, the Northeast Passage has more recently attracted serious attention from shipping companies as climate change opens Arctic sea lanes for longer periods each year. Russian authorities have granted 372 permits this year to ships intent on sailing all or some of the passage, compared to 46 full Asia-Europe transits last year and only four in 2010.

Arctic shipping is taking off faster than the other big economic prospect for the polar region, oil exploration,
where companies such as Royal Dutch Shell and Cairn Energy have been plagued by delays.

But analysts caution that it will be years before the route, which is only passable for a few months, is
commercially viable let alone a rival to the Suez Canal, which handled more than 17,000 ships in 2012.
Valentin Davydants, captain of Russia's Atomflot fleet of nuclear-powered icebreakers (see below), estimates that by 2021 15 million tons of cargo will use the full route. In addition, 15 million tons of liquefied natural gas and 10 million tons of oil will use the route partially to leave Russia's northern Arctic shore.

But that pales into insignificance compared with sea freight in the Suez Canal where in 2011 almost 18,000
vessels transported 929 million tons of cargo.

"You might see some oil and gas leave Russia - but I think the day that container ships will choose to use the
northern sea route for economic reasons is quite a long way off," said one of Norway's biggest shipowners.

But some see great potential if the Arctic route can bring its costs down, which is indeed happening as the
melting sea ice means icebreakers are no longer required under Russian rules for all journeys.

Besides the Suez Canal, the traditional maritime route linking China to the EU passes through the contested
South China Sea, the Strait of Malacca and pirate-infested waters in the Indian Ocean.

The voyage between Dalian and Rotterdam along this southerly route takes 48 days. By sailing the Northeast
Passage, the Yong Sheng is expected to reach its destination on September 11 - a transit time of only 35
days.China, which claims to be a "near-Arctic state", has become more aggressive in asserting its interests in the northern Pacific and Arctic oceans. In May, Beijing secured "permanent observer" status at the Arctic Council, a group uniting the eight countries with territory in the polar region. It also stands to gain from Russia's de facto control of access to the Northeast Passage.

COURTESY: The Financial Times and CNBC.com

Improving driver health one click at a time

Part of any insurance company’s job is to minimize risk. That includes ensuring driver health. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, the average life expectancy for a commercial truck driver is 61 and high blood pressure is one of the primary health risks facing commercial drivers. 

Further, few commercial drivers eat the recommended five or more servings of fruits and vegetables per day.

This is one reason why Travelers Insurance, Northland Insurance and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute (VTTI) have teamed up to offer Drivinghealthy.org, a website and related social media tools such as Facebook and Twitter dedicated to improving the health of commercial truck drivers. The site received initial support from the National Surface Transportation Safety Center for Excellence.

“There are a lot of statistics out there that connect driver wellness and driver safety,” Matt Bordonaro, spokesman with Travelers’ Claims and Risk Control group, told Fleet Owner.

Traveler’s and VTTI experts were on hand Friday at Travelers’ Claim University in Windsor, CT, to discuss driver wellness as well as other commercial insurance needs with trucking customers and agents in a series of workshops as part of the Travelers/Northland Truck Safety & Education Symposium.

The Drivinghealthy.org website includes information crucial to commercial drivers such as what they need to know to maintain their medical card, what a medical screening is and is not, and links to finding a certified examiner through the National Registry of Certified Medical Examiners.

The site also includes resources for drivers dealing with smoking cessation issues, obstructive sleep apnea, mental health, drinking problems and other conditions. Healthy eating is the focus of yet another section with tips on eating out, how to pack food for road trips and information on serving sizes.

Sleep apnea is a concern for many drivers who maintain irregular sleep schedules. The site addresses the symptoms, tips for managing and resources for addressing sleep apnea.

“There are things in commercial safety that are not out there that can help drivers,” said Chris Hayes, director of transportation safety, Travelers Risk Control, “but at some point, it comes down to healthy drivers.”

VTTI is currently conducting research in this area, led by Dr. Jeff Hickman, group leader, behavioral analysis and applications, Center for Truck and Bus Safety. The research, Worksite Health & Wellness Case Study, seeks to draw conclusions about health and wellness programs. The effort will focus on Schneider National, which launched a driver wellness initiative with Atlas Ergonomics in 2006.

Through phone interviews to garner opinions of those involved in the program, researchers hope to develop a set of recommendations for implementing and maintaining a carrier-implemented health and wellness program for drivers.

The DrivingHealthy.org website is associated with a Twitter feed and Facebook page so drivers on the road can easily get updates and links to resources. Both resources provide daily health and wellness tips.

Courtesy: print | close

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A New Dawn?

Sure you would have read about Yogita Raghuvanshi, the woman truck driver, who drove the 16-tonner potato vehicle into the APMC Navi Mumbai complex in the first week of August. Well, she is not the first or the ONLY woman truck driver in India.  Selvamani from Tamilnadu is there too.

Yogita, by the way, is no uneducated woman behind the truck steering. As of now, the Commerce-cum-LLB degree holder (Yes, she can practice ‘law’ at any court in India!) has 500,000 km mileage to her credit. Add to that a genuine ‘HCV licence’. She is no ordinary personality.

In case, you have not read her saga, here is this gutsy lady’s story: Check out: http://goo.gl/IUBcKU and  http://goo.gl/E5wyNJ ).

Our highway vultures – read RTOs – are ruthless as usual to this lady truck driver. No gender differential!

“There is dearth of truck drivers today, she said. For the last decade there have been hardly any new drivers joining this trade. She attributed the problem to the harassment by policemen and RTO sleuths along every highway”,  says the report.

What about highway amenities? Listen to her:

“I finally took a bath. It was my first after Agra, which was last Sunday," she said beaming, adding that sleeping in the ghats, bathing by the riverside and using open air washrooms were something she had become used to.”

Shame on every single stakeholder: motor maliks, transporters, 3PLs, OEMs, Federal and state governments.

Sixty plus years after the Independence, none bothered to create the basic facility for these unsung heroes/heroines who feed, clothe and shelter us day in day out.

Governments at the Centre – even when the same political party was ruling both at the Federal and state levels – and states have done literally nothing to address the genuine needs of truck driving fraternity. Shameful and disgraceful.

What is the point of legislating laws if there is no will to implement? Sections 135 & 138 of Motor Vehicle Act specifically talk about highway amenities. While the law was enacted by the Parliament years ago, the implementation is left to states.

Like in the case of overload issue which incidentally has been banned by Supreme Court through its landmark 2005 judgment, once again the Federal government points fingers at states for laxity in implementation.

Yogita took to truck driving as she saw the job potential. If she is a lady, so what? she rightly asked that question and answered positively.

Have we not seen women conductors in Delhi Transport Corporation buses? Have we not seen female attendants at petrol pumps in cities? Have we not driven in cabs motored by women? Are we not familiar with women constables (not the sari-clad, but the pant-and-shirt wearing types) at police thanas and traffic intersections? Even National Security Guards – yes, the Black Cats – have women in their ranks. Nurses and teachers are the stereo-type female job dominators.

Have we not seen women truck drivers on the US-Canada belts steering on tougher terrains, courtesy Discovery TV channel? In this age of Youtube, type ‘women truck drivers” and you will be amazed at the volume of entries that pop up. Cathy Sherman, Lauren Galloway, Gili Williams, Vijante Solitaria, Kithic Wheeler are some of the lady drivers who will floor you in these memorable video clips. Or try “Volvo Trucks Ladies Day” and see for yourself.

 

There is nothing male-centric about truck driving. Why not women? Forget the catcalls and the bitching part male drivers may indulge. Women have overcome these obstacles beautifully. Why?

“Anything men do, women perform better,” asserts Jaiveer Johal, the Chennai-based late twenties and London School of Economics-returned managing director of Johal Logistics, who supplies jockey drivers to truck OEMs such as Ashok Leyland and Daimler Commercial Vehicles India.

“Can you question their welfare DNA? Can you question their ability to manage stressful situations? Forget about that. Women score over men in most respects. So, women truck drivers is nothing to be sneered at,” responds Rajan Agarwal, Managing Director of Rinku Commercial Carriers.

But, few questions, says Rajan.

What?

If they are going to be away on highways, who will take care of their children? Will husbands (non-truck drivers) don the mantle of house-keepers?

Rajan is skeptical.

I am not.

What makes me so optimistic on tackling this issue?

With the induction of women truck drivers, I foresee a slew of positive developments, I assure the Rinku Commercial Carriers malik.

There will be a big change, all around. To begin with, women will be empowered. They will have a job of their own. Greater cash flow at home. Better education. Better healthcare for their parivar (family).

Balwadis (childcare centres at villages) can be strengthened at the village level. Today, these state government-funded activities do not function full time. Like schools or Primary healthcare centres (PHCs), they work fixed hours. If more women at village/district levels can be trained properly under the Automotive Skill Development Council (ASDC), it will be begin to address the looming driver shortage problem.

Needless to harp on the greater patience and grasping power of the so-called weaker sex. Maybe these ASDC-certified women drivers may be deployed in the local level. This may translate into two things: those men who concentrate on local trips within a radius of 100 km so that they can handle the same day return trip may lose out opportunities to women drivers and thus compelled to look for better alternatives viz., other local jobs or take to longer duration trips. Additional supply of truck drivers is a bonus, indeed.

Next, assume that these ASDC-certified women truck drivers are put to long trips. Yogita and Selvamani are living examples of long haul truck driving by women. What more endorsement, one needs?

Yes, there are challenges. More women truck drivers on highways will bring a lot more disciplined driving. Why? They will not – repeat NOT – drink and drive. Is safe and timely delivery not what consignors and consignees are looking for? Is accident-less highways not something the government is aspiring for?

“We have no gender bias. ASDC will be interested training women truck drivers also,” says Balasubramaniam, Lead Trainer, based out of Chennai and who is spearheading ASDC’s Training The Trainer portfolio.

  

What about highway amenities? That’s precisely the point. With more women truck drivers, more oil marketing companies (IOC, BPCL, HPCL etc) will spend more of their CSR budget in making their pump-side toilets more user-worthy. Today, they are not.

Women, by nature, are more disciplined and orderly and seldom tolerate dirty surroundings. Maybe the unhygienic roadside dhabas get a facelift.

Men bathe in the open from huge water tanks – rain or shine. With women truck drivers getting inducted, close door bathing and toilet facilities may crop up.

And on the issue of corrupt RTOs and traffic police in every single state. Women truck drivers versus RTOs/TIs will a beautiful battle to watch out. They will be able to tackle such goons in a much better way than their male counterparts.

Let us not forget the highway safety. Every single state will be forced to improve road safety of cargo and drivers – with women at wheels.

Yes, it is a long term dream. Doable by 2020. Or even beyond. It will be a win-win situation. OEMs (both as consignors and consignees) get better delivery schedules. Less accidents on highways with more disciplined women truck drivers.