Visitor's Diary: LTC Logistics-6

(Devinder Kohli explaining the Tire Management Data Sheet while Tire Doctor Vikrant Lal Srivastav looks on)

Ramesh Kumar

"Vikrant Lal Shrivastav, mera naam. Tire Doctor!"

That's how this mid-twenties professional with a stethoscope kind of stuff round his neck introduces himself at the open workshop yard.

Tire Doctor? Never heard of such a designation till this moment. Basically he is a mechanic whose specialization is in tire management. I like his confidence. His zest. His pride. Hum kissi se kam nahi, bindaas attitude and posture. No hesitation in interacting with a stranger. Looking straight into the eyes.

With a fleet strength of 250 and a tight delivery schedule or commitment across pan-India, LTC Logistics has to have a robust tire management system in place. And it has. Vikrant is the witness to that process. The system put in place is meticulous. After every round trip, at the base camp of Sikri workshop, every single truck undergoes a microscopic examination under the watchful eyes of Tire Doctor. However, en route any complaint from drivers about tire issues, they are directed to the nearest dealer network for quick remedial action.

(Watch the video of Vikrant Lal Srivastav & Devinder Kohli here and here)

LTC Logistics' choice of tire appears to be Apollo. No idea why. Even the vernier caliper that the Tire Doctor wearing snake like round his neck is from Apollo: gifted may be. Nonetheless, Vikrant rates Continental highly for his own reasons. Radial tire, he believes, gives higher mileage though expensive.

Early this year, I ran into Heera Lal, owner cum driver at Rattanpur, the border town of Gujarat and Rajasthan outside a highway dhaba. Our discussion veered around tire management.

Hear him out here...

All said and done, tire is a huge cost for any transport company, constituting next only to fuel. Fleet managers go mad trying to extract the maximum out of tire because it is a huge investment. Non-radials cost a little over Rs.25,000 a piece at the lower end. MRF is believed to be the costliest. Almost double. Radials, on the outer ridge! No wonder, fleet owners are reluctant to embrace radials in the commercial vehicle segment. Tire sellers invariably harp on a macro angle. Better tire leads to higher mileage, possibly better payload and less maintenance. Logical.

Big fleet owners get into a contract with tire makers with option of the same company even undertaking retreading when the tire wears out. A routine stuff and therefore a regular money-spinner!  A bulk deal. If my memory serves right, VRL Logistics (owning 4,500 plus trucks) has such an arrangement with Michelin. Complete outsourcing. In the process, the transporter gets the best deal.   Even the tire maker.

Tire management is a big business, certainly.  Two years ago, I had the opportunity to visit Bridgestone exclusive workshop at Sankakiri, near Salem, owned by 350-fleet strength SSPL. The kind of research study this company has done on tire management is stupendous. In fact, its meticulousness enabled SSPL to walk away with an award at Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards function a few years ago.

Not Bridgestone alone. Every tire company has got into this segment. Had a chance to visit Michelin facility as well in Jaipur three years ago on the highway.

Tire management, confesses Devinder, is critical for two reasons. One in this age of rising input costs of every item and the reluctance of end users to revise freight rates, margins shrink. So to float and survive, maintenance cost has to be squeezed as much as possible. Secondly, invariably fleet owners resort to overloading to fight the escalating operational cost with poor implementation of overloading norms. Overloading means extra pressure on tire because ultimately, it is tire that bears the beastly burden of the entire load.

It is not out of place to point out that the prevalence of tire theft on highways mostly at night when drivers halt on highway dhabas for a few hours food and sleep. Regional and transport-focused vernacular magazines are full of stories how trucks are parked on stones after dacoits decamp with tires!

Similarly drivers clandestinely disposing off stepney (tire) is again normal happening in the Indian trucking scenario. Another pain point for fleet owners/supervisors is the tire puncture issue. Given the status of Indian highways (both national and state), not the entire stretch is like Hema Malini's cheeks as the ex-Chief Minister of Lalu Prasad Yadav wished. It sports several patches of bad roads due to poor highway design and or engineering for kilometres together. This certainly impacts the health of  tire and puncture is a common occurrence. Taking advantage of this situation, long haul drivers create fake scenarios and fake receipts of tire bursts and therefore puncture costs! Some smart fleet manager/supervisors randomly get the repaired tire opened up to verify the truth! Not always.

From the corner of my eyes, I notice Tire Doctor is back in action with his  tools: stethoscope and vernier caliper, measuring the amount of wear and tear of a parked truck that has come for maintenance check up. 

With lunch break over, I notice people in greasy pants and shirts moving around and under the vehicles. At a corner, see the bluish flame of gas cutter. Welding section.

But where are the saratis?

Devinder leads me to the men - or is it boys? - who enable Inder to make profits and Devinder, Lakhani saab and Tire Doctor to earn their daily roti, dal, sabzi, chicken/mutton, eggs waghera, waghera.What did I see?


Ciao



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