What did Eicher Volvo Vinod Aggarwal Tell Bajrang Sharma?

(Left to Right): Freight Tiger Sakshi Hingorani, CTA Bajrang Sharma, self & Freight Tiger Madhusudhan Nair

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

Honestly, it was our maiden mulaqat, though we have known each other for over a decade. Forty-eight hours before the face-to-face interaction, Chandigarh Transport Association Secretary-General Bajrang Sharma tweeted: "Welcome to Chandigarh for new suggestions for welfare of industry/trade." Actually, he identified challenges and offered possible solutions. Not me!

"Over the next ten years, my son will be running his business in a much better India," thus spake Sharma. We are seated in the well-lit lobby with Chattisgarh tribals hand-built non-ferrous Dhokra art figurines kept vigil from five feet away. 

His confidence was unmistakable. There was that special glow on his face signaling a truckload of optimism. You rarely come across a non-sulking transporter.  Not today. Never in the past. Sulking is part of their DNA, even when milking clueless shippers with incredible and usurious freight rates. 

Not that the fifty-ish second generation Punjabi fleet owning transporter has no laundry list. He, too, has. His major grouse is the corruption on highways. "Mind you, it has come down," he addresses *Freight Tiger's Sakshi Hingorani and Madhusudhan Nair,* and self as we listen with rapt attention in the reception area of The Lemon Tree in Mohali industrial area phase 1. 

The hotel staff at the counter and the men, women, and children exiting the elevator for the dining hall are unconcerned with our activities. 

Madhu, a professional who had learned his logistics funda at the corridors of DHL and Varuna, among others, is all ears. In his new avatar at the Mumbai-based start-up Freight Tiger's Business Development in charge for the northern region, the hardcore Delhiite is on a whistle-stop tour to Chandigarh and nearby Baddi (Himachal Pradesh) to assess the ground. His mission is to push his company's services to "improve the operational efficiency and thus reduce the logistics cost" among the transport fraternity. Indeed, the upcoming National Logistics Policy's unambiguous goal. Young and sprightly Sakshi, the US-educated marketing and communication specialist, flew in from Mumbai to give company to Madhu on his whirlwind tour.

"My wish list is short and simple: Primarily, I desire the corruption on highways has to be eliminated," says the cherubic Sharma and hastens to admit that it is a "tall task." He believes the government has made efforts in that direction to a certain extent, but a lot more is possible. 

"How about creating a National Highway Security Force  - something on the lines of CISF?" asks the CTA boss. 

Highway patrolling? Is it possible to police the entire stretch of national and state highways that connect the entire country, feeding, clothing, and sheltering 1.3billion populace 24x7x365? Madhu and I exchange glances disbelievingly. Sharma catches the nuances and smiles to assuage that he is "not hallucinating." 

"I am confident such a force would reduce harassment on highways by hooligans as well as other rent-seekers," adds he. Total elimination of corruption on highways, Sharma concedes, is impossible. "Bring it down to 20%. That would be wonderful," says he, like a child whose wish to buy a stick of ice cream got parent's approval. 

Sharma desires that his eldest son, running his cold chain trucking business, should not get disheartened and shut the family business started by his father decades ago. That can only happen if the business environment improves with less corruption on highways because their business literally "runs" on the roads. His other son moved into the legal profession along with his lawyer-wife. 

Sharma has solid legal support to fight any legal dispute in his business without paying a penny!

What next, Sharmaji? "The biggest pain point is the driver shortage." What's his solution? "Truck makers like Tata, Leyland, Eicher Volvo, Daimler should set up driver training schools and gift a trained and certified driver along with every vehicle they sell," says he. 

Sakshi and Madhu are clueless as to how to react to this Sharma proposal. I break the ice.

"Sharmaji, you mean like "dowry"? So these truck makers will train and gift buyers with drivers?" 

We laugh loudly, drawing the attention of the passers-by in the hotel lobby. Sharma presents a cool cucumber look.

"Recently, I met Eicher Managing Director Vinod Aggarwalji in Punjab and put forward this proposal to him," adds he.

What was his response?  I ask. 

Vinodji said, "Let's see" to Sharma.

Honestly, I never expected anything beyond "Let's see" from Eicher bossman. Just not him. For that matter, anyone from the trucking segment. If these truck makers were serious, the topic of driver shortage would have never arisen today. 

Sharma is hopeful his wishes will bear fruit in his son's lifetime, if not his own.

The clock is ticking. Sharma has an appointment with Chandi Mata at 9.10 for 10 minutes. Yes, you cannot "darshan" even the Akhilandeswari without an appointment in the Covid times. Plus, it is Navaratri, and he is fasting. So he has to "darshan" Mata before rushing home for dinner. 

We shake hands and promise to meet again, possibly on a Punjab road trip. 

"Sharmaji, please include these two items for submission to Chandi Mata. Only she can find a solution. Not Nitin Gadkari. Nor Channi," I add, as the elevator door shuts, swallowing him into its cavity to take him vertically to the ground floor.

Pilgrimage to Baddi - Once Again!

Baddi truck drivers assembled in the hall to celebrate the Drivers Day Utsav, 2014

 

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

Unless one is in the freight movement business, especially in the northern belt, they may be unaware of Baddi in Himachal Pradesh. Yet, it enjoys a "special mention" among the logistics fraternity! Baddi is situated at the foothills of the Himalayas and on the way to Simla. Many would convey that this town, known as a tax shelter to promote industrial development by the central government in 2003 with a ten-year tax holiday, originally belonged to Punjab state. Still, state reorganization pushed it into the lap of Himachal Pradesh. 

Baddi saw large-scale industrialization from 2007. According to Baddi-BarotiwalaNalagarh Industries Association, over 2000 factories set up at an estimated cost of 15,300 cr employs 75000 workers. Several MNCs have their manufacturing plants in this tiny town, 60km from Chandigarh, the nearest airport.

Such industrialization warrants logistics support largely. Therefore, transportation is a crucial element to ensure the smooth functioning of manufacturing by bringing in raw materials/components from outside and ferrying finished goods to the rest of the country. Sensing the business opportunity, particularly in the transportation segment, the locals have formed an association to "control" the fleet deployment by the companies in Baddi. 

Simply put, the Association fixes the freight rates. All local transporters are members of it. Manufacturers have to route their transport requirements through the Association and are barred from entering into any direct contract with transporters/fleet owners individually. The Association daily allot loads to transporters in a unique system. Cartelisation, one may call it. Expectedly, shippers are displeased with this "unionization" but helpless because they are "overcharged" due to the absence of competition. 

The control is so total that the Association, it is believed, does not provide loads to those transporters unregistered with it. Hence, none wants to buy trucks without the Association's blessings. As a result, the supply of vehicles is kept on a leash. Truck manufacturers throng the Association office in Nallagarh seeking their "blessings" to push their wares. 

I was drawn to Baddi because of this "cartelization" tag. Since 2014, I have been visiting this attractive transport hub to understand the pulse and the mood of service seekers and providers. One thing is clear: the Association has prospered beyond belief. Today, they operate from a modern office building with a vast auction hall vis-a-vis what it used to be years ago. Transporters have prospered. At whose cost? Shippers, of course. A competitive environment, like anywhere else, would have slashed the logistics cost of Baddi manufacturers by half, if not more. 

Transporters vie with one another through undercutting freight rates across India. Not in Baddi. Disallowed by the all-powerful Association. But, like in any other segment, the politics-business nexus in Baddi cannot be dismissed. Plus, the vote bank angle. 

So far, transporters have the upper hand over the big boys of manufacturers in Baddi. Not to their liking, of course. With the GST rollout, the tax holiday status was cut short, thus pushing companies into a tight spot. 

Many keep asking: is the Baddi model scalable? Yes and no. It is possible in the industrial estates provided there is unanimity among the transporters. It is possible, provided there is a solid political connection with "vested interest."  The second element can be manageable and readily available. But the transporters' unity is an arduous task. Almost unachievable. Want proof? Look at the shoddy treatment meted out to the transport segment by the government at the federal and state levels. The government is exploiting this "lack of unity" among transporters. 

Precisely, this battle of wits between the two takes me to Baddi regularly. One more time this weekend. 

Are all drivers equal?

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

"Career progression is the new minimum wage,"  the Wall Street Journal quoted Ardine Williams, Vice President of Workforce  Development at Amazon some time ago. Like several other  HR honchos of the American corporate world, he has emphasized the importance of enabling the existing workforce to pursue education while working with free funding and helping them explore moving vertically or horizontally in the same company. William's sole objective was to retain talent or ensure job stickiness. Covid19 and the labor shortage must have weighed heavily on the likes of Williams.  

Career progression is a  universal theme. Nothing America-specific. In the Indian trucking context, one could hear a feeble echo of this theme in some corners. "(A) person with 20 years experience is a driver. So is five or 10 years experienced (driver). Ironical. No weightage for experience" says Selvan Dasaraj of ex-Mahindra Logistics honcho. True, there is no formal differentiation of drivers by fleet owners. 

Are all drivers equal? Yes. One joins the trucking profession as a driver and remains one till he takes his hands off the steering and feet off the accelerator and brake. Some, no doubt, graduate into supervisor provided the owner wills and wants to reward for the loyalty to his company. This number is nothing to write to boast of.

Drivers' stickiness with fleet owners is weak. There is no formal employer-employee relationship with a proper appointment letter with perks such as provident fund, medical and accident insurance. Above all, drivers' compensation is based on per kilometer driven. Therefore, more or less equal pay, irrespective of experience. When a better compensation offer materializes, drivers jump "trucks" from one owner to another. The question of loyalty to the owner does not arise. Their loyalty is to their earning potential. Having said that, some drivers stick with the same company for decades; actually, they induct their sons/nephews also into the same company since the recruitment process in trucking is through referral only. 

"Does it matter what they call us?" asks Punit Verma sipping his extra-sugary tea at a highway dhaba in Sikar, Rajasthan - one of the key truck driver sourcing belts in north India. One can hear the same sentiment among the driver community across the length and breadth of Indian highways.

Ahmednagar-based Gorak Maruti Anna, my man-to-go-to for any highway challenges in the state of Maharashtra involving truck drivers, pooh-poohs at the idea of renaming drives as pilots. "Our Rajas and maharajas called them "saratis". British began calling them "drivers". Pilots are for airplanes, argues the office bearer of a truck drivers association with pan India reach. 

Telangana-based Nijum Riyaz, Principal of the Driver Training Institute jointly promoted by the State government and Ashok Leyland is keen to usher in changes in the way drivers are trained and inducted into the trade. "First, let us stop calling them truck drivers. Why not Vehicle Pilots?," Riyaz poses rhetorically. 

After spending more than 18 years in Afghanistan and West Africa selling Leyland vehicles, he opted to manage  Leyland's driver training institute on his return to his home base: Hyderabad. With a decade in store before he superannuates, he is keen to address the driver shortage challenge in India. 

The stigma attached to the truck driving profession is acting as a dampener. "I plan to remove this stigma in whatever way possible and make this a career choice. That's where the change of nomenclature from truck driver to vehicle pilot is necessary," elaborates Riyaz. 

As part of his dream to make the truck driver a "sexy" career option, he is keen on working out a career progression plan. "Why not?" asks he and hastens to add that such a plan is not unachievable. Riyaz is not alone in his dream realized. Mumbai-based Mohan Subramaniam of Transmitr Sewa Foundation, a registered NGO, utilizes his educational institution visits to impress upon the school finalists of the potential job as truck drivers. 

"Watching the economy, you cannot run away from the fact that a degree is no passport to jobs. That era is over. Jobless growth is the reality. Companies - big or small or medium - prefer the automation route to avoid human labor challenges. Gradual, but inevitable. So, fewer openings for freshers. Post-Covid19, MSMEs, one of the biggest job generators, are in a coma. There again, no job opportunity," explained Mohan.

Still, it is not doomsday ahead projections for Mohan. According to him, India's growth trajectory with a US$5tn goal combined with the Make In India campaign offers a glimmer of hope on the job front, particularly on the logistics front. "Make in India, simply put, means producing tangible goods. India has successfully embraced the globalization route; that is we have gone into for outsourcing path. Big companies assemble components or parts brought from vendors from different locations. Tatas, Birlas, Ambanis, Adanis, Mahindras, etc produce a lot of tangible goods with outsourced items. They and their white-collar crew don't carry headloads from vendors to their assembly points. Agarwals, Nandas, Kotwals, Sharmas, Singhs, lend their fleet for inbound operations and also help them to move their finished products to the market shelves," adds Mohan.

So, there will be a huge demand for transportation and trucking especially. Today, both Mohan and Riyaz concede that the trucks coming out of HCV OEMs are getting hitech: BSVI with onboard digital or electronic items. "A better understanding of gadgets on board opens up jobs for better educated fresh job seekers," says Riyaz. 

Cabin comfort is also gathering momentum. If one adds a well-designed career progression chart, two challenges get addressed: primarily, employment opportunity and simultaneously the 22% driver shortage. 

Ramesh Venkat, Vice President-Business Relations of the Logistics Skill Development Council, draws attention to the government creating a new course in the Industrial Training Institutes (ITIs) where the curriculum includes maintenance, materials, and operation for students, "who can be absorbed by the automotive industry, the biggest job generator". 

Yes, over time these new entrants with better education can impact several aspects of trucking. It's a long haul, but worth pursuing. 

However, the chances of such ITI-certified diploma holders would look for jobs with a proper appointment letter and other social benefits and certainly NOT the "detached attachment" of Indian motor maliks. Are they the true followers of the traditional Indian philosophy espoused by the scriptures?

No entry to toilets. Go away, drivers!

 Driver Kush Singh with the author

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

You've no reason to know Senator Glenn Sterle of Labor Party in Down Under. Australia, I mean. He is a truck driver-turned-parliamentarian in the land of Kangaroos. Like our own VRL Chairman Vijay Sankeshwar, who served the 13th Lok Sabha (1999-2004) during the Atal Behari Vajpayee-led National Democratic Alliance regime, representing Hubli parliamentary constituency in Karnataka. I have no idea nor checked if he had raised transport-related issues in the House during his tenure. 

But Senator Sterle is focused because he is the Shadow Assistant Minister for Road Safety in Western Australia. Mind you, the "Shadow Assistant Minister"  means he is not a member of Treasury benches but in the Opposition. Early September, he pulled up the government for not providing toilet facilities for truckers on the highways. 

He wrote: "Heavy vehicle decoupling facilities are workplaces for our truck drivers. This facility has 30 bays for decoupling and no time limits for trailer parking. Do you not understand that truck drivers are going to be there at all times? How do you think a driver would feel when they find that there isn't a toilet for them to use once they've finally found a park? 

When asked further about accessing toilet facilities... your department suggested that if drivers needed to use a bathroom, they could use the facilities at a different service station a further 8.5 km down the road. ... I wonder how public servants in your department would feel if they were told that there were no toilets at their work and that if they needed to use the bathroom, they would have to drive down the road to find some facilities?"

I, for one, believed that Indian authorities are heartless in their dealings with transport vertical in general and truck drivers in particular. Senator Sterle opened my eyes amply demonstrating the government-truckers equation is no different. Heartless and unsympathetic, equally. 

On the evening of 24 June 2016, when I boarded MH 15 EG 5534 Mahindra Traco tractor-trailer with the split load of Renault Kwid for Agra and Gurugram from the Oragadam plant, I did not bargain for the drama that would unfold before the nightfall same day. It was the pre-GST era and hence the Japanese-French joint venture automaker was transferring its finished vehicles to the neighboring Andhra Pradesh state to avail of tax benefits before dispatch. 

This arrangement entailed the cargo moves into Renault-owned yard at Chitoor in the undivided Andhra Pradesh before billed. Around eight we docked at this yard awaiting the invoice preparation formalities. This is where the drama began. I got out, informing driver Kush Singh that I need to empty my bowels.  He handed over an Aquafina bottle filled with water. 

"What for?" I asked. 

He explained. 

I was shocked. A few months ago, I had visited the same yard soon after its inauguration at the invitation of Wallenius Wilhelmson Logistics, which was managing the yard for Renault. I was taken around the facility including the Driver Rest Room with attached toilets etc. Yes, I was impressed with the company's interest to address one of the basic needs of drivers. 

Therefore, I was shocked when the Aquafina bottle was thrust into my hands. What happened to the toilets? Has it been demolished or under repair? I was told that it is operational but drivers are barred; drivers have to exit the yard and go into the bushes outside to complete the task of emptying the bowel. 

I ignored the bottle and moved to the admin complex where the toilet was situated. I was halted by a WWL executive saying that the toilet is for office staff use and not for driver and kalasis. By the way, I was in my knickers and T-shirt resembling a driver's assistant. His superior was pulled out of his home and he recognized me because he was the one who toured me the previous time. Rules are rules and he cannot alter, he argued. Sensing trouble, our truck paperwork got completed swiftly and we were out. Of course, I completed the bowel task in the driver's room premises only! 

On the completion of the trip a week later, I wrote to Renault Nissan management about this toilet tussle. How can you deny this basic facility at a time when Prime Minister Narendra Modi was canvassing the Swatch Bharat Abhiyaan? was my line of argument.

Nothing happened. Then mails flew to the Member of Legislative Assembly representing Chittoor. Silence again. Next a letter to the then Andhra Pradesh Chief Minister Chandrababu Naidu. No progress. Then to the Prime Minister's Office and to the Joint Secretary Parameshwaran Iyer. All copies were marked to Renault Nissan management. In fact, I wrote to then Renault chief Carlos Ghosn also, asking him whether he would deny French drivers access to toilets at his yards. Pas de reponse!

Almost after a month's time, I found a mail with photo attachments of the Chittoor yard driver rest room being used by drivers from Renault Nissan. Meanwhile, the logistics team of this Japanese-French joint venture send feelers that I should desist from raking up this toilet issue. I did not listen but remained focused. 

Highway amenities were never a priority for the government. Though a lot of lip service is done. State-owned retail fuel outlets dotting the highways denied access to truck drivers despite a major chunk of their revenue came from selling diesel to the trucking segment. I had the misfortune of hearing a mandarin in the transport ministry in Delhi jokingly remarking that drivers suffer from claustrophobia and they prefer "dumping" in the open! The less said about the National Highway Authority of India's Highway Nests - Mini or Macro - the better! No takers and not adequately promoted. Non-functional as well. 

The "chilling" reality

 

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

Airconditioned driver cabin in trucks is quite common overseas. Not in India. Even reefer trucks ferrying perishable items on the Indian roads, "cool" the cargo, not the drivers! 

Around 2014, I noticed a Volvo truck with a windmill mast and blades as payload waiting at Athibelle on the Tamilnadu-Karnataka border. Volvo, it was claimed, refused to transact the sale of trucks if the potential buyers disagree with airconditioned cabins.

So, on spotting the Volvo long trailer, I halted to chat up the fairly large crew busy cooking food and washing clothes on the roadside.  

"How is the air conditioner working?" I asked. 

"What airconditioner? It does not work," responded the man whom I presumed to be the driver. 

Why? 

Once the gas got over, the company decided not to go for refills. Airconditioner is an unnecessary spend. Moreover recurring. Drivers are used to the hot and humid working atmosphere and therefore, why infuse a new habit. Put it mildly, they don't deserve it. That is the mindset of fleet owners. It has not changed much. There are always a few exceptions whose heart beats for the weakest supply chainers: truck drivers.

It is no joke to sit and steer on long hauls. Take a look at the weather pattern of India. It's summer, summer, and summer. A bit of monsoon. Winter, very little, unless one drives in higher reaches of northern India for a few months. By and large, truck chassis are bought and body-built on roadsides mostly by unregulated fabricators who pay no taxes and therefore charge less than a regular, licensed fabricator. The price difference is substantial thereby making it easier for fleet owners to opt for roadside sloppy body-builders. Many of them are of the wooden body because the metal body is costlier. 

In Indian weather conditions, long-haul truck drivers have to tackle heat from twin elements: external (atmospheric) and internal from running engines. At the peak of summer (45 degrees Celsius plus), the driver has to be ready for an additional five degrees Celsius at least. It is akin to sitting atop a burning tinplate. In the Persian Gulf, it is mandated that all outdoor activities have to be halted when the mercury touches 50 degrees Celsius. There, mostly construction activities come to a halt while trucks continue to ply because they are airconditioned. 

Recall the image of one's own mother/sister/fire at the chullah or oven in the good old days of wood-fed or coal-fed cooking in unventilated homes (that is, without exhaust fans in kitchen walls). The suffocation and sweat cannot be wiped away. Now visualize the driver at the wheels on Indian highways in a wooden/steel body with no concern for heat reduction driving at the speed of 50 km/hour during daytime. It's horrible and unbearable. 

It brought back memories of what happened at Reliance textile mills in Ahmedabad in the 1980s when assembly lines were air-cooled to make the working environment better for mill workers. Textile Mill Association babus laughed away at this novelty, little realizing how the Ambanis scripted a massive turnaround with huge productivity gains, thanks to the air-cooled workspace. I had a chance of visiting a similar facility in the south in 2018 and the cool loom room did not surprise me. Good industrial practices, huh? Surprisingly, I was told that the special air-cooling system was to "safeguard" the costly equipment installed in that facility! Machines score over men! Chalta hai!

One need not have to be a rocket scientist or a transport economist to decode the government psyche to talk of cabin comfort. Simply put, its objective was twofold: reduce the incidence of accidents on highways due to driver fatigue and secondly, make long haul trucking a desirable career option for the less or underprivileged. 

Why these twin goals were important? Today, even a high school student would disgorge the unhealthy data of India topping the global accidents table: 150,000 every year. Though commercial vehicles involved in such accidents are approx. 11 percent, the impact was not lost. Lack of structured driver training and certification in the absence of driver training schools (whatever we can spot can be counted on one's fingertips. Only, that many!) and therefore, the untrained men behind steering wheels of heavy commercial vehicles is one of the key issues. Besides lack of training, driver cabin comfort led to the much accepted but ignored concept of driver fatigue - one of the major accident-causing factors.  

Perhaps, the question that was bugging the mandarins in Parivahan Bhawan would have been how to address the looming driver shortage - 22 percent? How to bring in a certain amount of "sex appeal" to the truck driving profession? With someone like the hardnosed Nitin Gadkari as Transport Minister breathing down their necks, the mandarins perhaps have seen an ideal tool in airconditioning of truck cabins in addressing this issue.

It is not out of place to share two personal experiences: August 2012, I traveled in an airconditioned Tata Prima truck from Jamshedpur to Chennai with Tata Steel load, courtesy Toll Global Logistics. With two drivers and a running time of 20 hours out of every 24 hours (with a four-hour halt between 12 midnight and four next morning for rest for both drivers), it was a pleasant and smooth drive. 

No sweat, literally speaking. The dashboard and cabin comfort were stupendous. The driver could tilt his seat whichever way he wanted. So, no stiffness of the neck. The second experience was an interaction with a driver of a chemical tanker from Ahmedabad to Lucknow. The wannabe driver students of IL&FS Driver Training School at Ajmer gatecrashed into the Scania driver cabin and refused to climb down. Such was the look and feel and comfort. 

Yes, of course, it was air-conditioned. Do you know that at the height of summer, driving between 12 noon and 5 or 6 in the evening is abhorred by long haul drivers? They argue that it is "uncomfortable" to drive in that searing heat; not to be missed is the impact on tires when they ply on the hot highways. 

Yes, the key question is whether fleet owners would like to shell out extra for airconditioning? Will they ensure gas refill as and when required? Wise fleet owners would not and should not hesitate to introduce this revolutionary move. After all, the ultimate beneficiaries would be themselves via longer km coverage per day which would result in quicker turnaround time. So, less idling of vehicle. More money in their kitty. Drivers too would be happy to drive in such comforts. OEMs - the end-users - should be ready to relook at the freight rates in the overall interest of the most vital supply chain link: transportation and truck drivers. 

Arun Lakshman, a veteran transport consultant with the Automotive Skill Development Council, offers a different perspective on the fleet owners' hesitation to "cool" driver cabins. "Primarily, running the cooling system adds load to the engine and slows down. Remember, our trucks always overload to offset low freight offered by shippers; as it is the engine is overworking," says he. Nonetheless, creating a comfortable cabin ambiance is a necessity to improve efficiency, he adds. "Mental fatigue precedes his (driver) physical one. The misbehavior or ill-treatment by his immediate superiors even before the trip starts increases his discomfort," elaborates the ex-Maruti Suzuki senior officer who had spent over three decades dealing with inbound and outbound logistics.

A south-based second generation, tech-savvy fleet owner, reasons his decision to do away with airconditioning in his fleet: "They (drivers) keep the vehicle switched on even in waiting or idling to enjoy the comfort. It is an additional, unwanted burden on us. So we dismantled after some time."  Tsk. Tsk.

It is pertinent to point out that the manufacturers have come together under the banner of SIAM. Transporters have not one, but three bodies: one big boy viz., All India and Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) and two junior siblings: All India Transporters' Welfare Association (AITWA) and All India Confederation of Goods Vehicle Owners Association (ACOGOA). These lobby bodies have a huge presence in the political capital of India viz., New Delhi to submit their wish list to the powers that be.  Unfortunately, drivers have no such body to represent their interests. Trade Unions such as INTUC, AITUC, CITU, BMS mostly represent organized labor's interest. Not the unorganized or non-unionized truck drivers. 

So, they are orphans, with none to voice their grievances. Therefore, it is an uneven equation: with truck makers and transporters/fleet owners on one side and truck drivers on the other. The latter realized that their interests are not looked after. Hence, their numbers are dwindling, leading to a classic supply-demand mismatch. That's where we are talking about a 22% shortage of drivers, not of trucks. High time, a benevolent view is taken regarding making the driver cabin a comfy zone to move freight with less discomfort. Yes, it will add to the final price tag. A few thousand rupees more? In the interest of saving human life from potential disaster, no amount is unbearable. 

Until the government made Corporate Social Responsibility mandatory, CSR spend was nothing to write home about. Today, the scenario is marginally different in the sense that while allocation is mandatory, not the actual spending with no penalty for not spending. Here again, the government diktat played a role which India Inc should have done on its own, with no pressure from the government via legislation. 

Driver cabin airconditioning will act as a charmer or a chalice to the wannabe long-haul truck drivers. Why not give it a  try? The sustainability of any business (not only HCV manufacturers) hinges on transportation. Almost 70 of freight movement is via surface or road transport. Rail and coastal shipping are still in infancy. Even when they take off in a big way, still they cannot eat into road transport. 

Remember, this is the age of outsourcing. Hence, components or raw materials have to be ferried to the manufacturing site from afar and wide, and, again, the finished goods have to be moved out to nooks and corners of a vast nation like India. Again, road transport. Today, the Indian economy is growing at 7 percent, and touching double-digit is not too far away. Add the government thrust on Make In India drive. We are talking about pushing the contribution of manufacturing from 16 to 25 percent. A massive leap. Manufacturing is not something like the service sector with no physical production. So transportation is mission-critical. 

India's first Special Secretary (Logistics) in the Ministry of Commerce and Industry N Sivasailam, speaking at the 2019 SIAM Annual Conclave asked the delegates: What would be the additional cost of air-conditioning trucks? Roughly Rs.50,000, someone responded. Then the second question: Is it tough to absorb this cost? Pindrop silence is how the automobile czars present in the auditorium responded. Are they not offering a hefty discount on the chassis they sell to buyers: anywhere between Rs.200,000 and Rs.500,000? Of course, depending on the order volume. Cold-hearted? am wondering. 

Graduate drivers? No jokes. Leyland on course

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

"Dad, he was an MBA," exclaimed daughter the day after she cabbed from Gurugram to Greater Noida recently past midnight. The "he" was the Uber driver. An MBA opting to drive a cab was a novelty to her. Not to me. I have met and traveled with several over the years. Why a cab? I ran into an engineering graduate - a Bengali - at a highway dhaba near Ongole in the undivided Andhra Pradesh in 2012 while on a truck trip from Jamshedpur to Chennai in an airconditioned Tata Prima with Tata Steel load for Toll Global Logistics with two drivers. 

The Bengali graduate driver's practical but pain-filled comment, "The only job readily available for me was this job. I tried many places and was ready to locate anywhere in India but there was no job offer. If something was available, the pay was around Rs.10,000," painted the sorry state of affairs with India. As a truck driver, he was making at least thrice the amount he was offered as a white-collar candidate when I met him. 

The job statistics are grim and alarming too. The latest Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) reports that the total number of employed individuals fell from 399.38 million in July 2021 to 397.78 million in August. That is, 15 lakh people lost jobs in August, accounting for job loss in both the formal and informal sectors. It is distressing to note that the national unemployment rate jumped to 8.32% in August after falling to 6.95% in July. 

Not to be missed is the growing gross domestic product (GDP) figures. The latest Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE) reports that the total number of employed individuals fell from 399.38 million in July 2021 to 397.78 million in August. That is, 15 lakh people lost jobs in August, accounting for job loss in both the formal and informal sectors. It is distressing to note that the national unemployment rate jumped to 8.32% in August after falling to 6.95% in July. 

The 20.1% 2021-22 first-quarter growth is nothing to sing and dance. Why? Because of the low base on which it was based. India is yet to regain the 2019-20 first-quarter levels. Yes, it was better than the previous benchmark, warranting caution. 

Where did the growth happen? Construction grew by 69%, trade, hotel, transport, and communication were up by 34.5%. What is more significant, however, is the growth in manufacturing and mining: 50% and 19% respectively. The last two elements are of significance because it involves a big boost for the transport sector. 

Yet, the future is uncertain and unpredictable. Job loss has to be halted and the growth of job opportunities has to be jacked up. Whatever growth posted came definitely from good consumption spend. More unemployment translates into less spending power. With no money in pocket, consumption takes a hit and this automatically affects production and investment. It is a vicious circle.

Here, it is pertinent to draw attention to the fact that there is a 22% shortage of truck drivers in India especially. Commercial vehicles are going hi-tech. More electronic gadgets in driver cabins and more digital monitoring to improve operational efficiency.

Yes, there is a huge job opportunity in the transportation section per se. Am talking about the job of truck drivers, not the holistic logistic vertical. Despite the government lowering the educational qualification to become eligible for obtaining a driving license, better-educated candidates would be welcome. 

Perhaps the entry of better-educated candidates may lead to improved behavior from the highway authorities - the corrupt RTOs across the country - since they may have to deal with a better informed and knowledgeable workforce. Sure, it is a high hope. 

Commercial vehicle manufacturers can facilitate this by promoting truck driving as a viable career option for graduates. Remember the most-celebrated female truck driver Yogita Raghuvanshi is a graduate! Besides being a female, her education stands her in good stead when dealing with highway vultures. "Not that there are no challenges, but can handle them better," she concedes. 

Assuming HCV OEMs consider promoting truck driving as a career option for graduates, what about fleet owners? Will they be ready to absorb them? A moot question. Young and third-generation Gaurav Vyas, Director-owner of Indore-based fleet owning Delhi-Faridabad Roadlines, greenlights the idea of graduate drivers. 

Himself an MBA, he succinctly points out, "my drivers (not graduates) make nothing less than Rs.25,000 plying between Indore and NCR whereas a graduate can never imagine earning beyond Rs.10,000 per month. The only hitch is that driving is looked down upon." 

Ramesh Venkat of Logistics Sector Skill Development Council echoes Vyas sentiment. "Until and unless the dignity of labor change, nothing else would," opines he. All talk about drivers being the backbone of the economy and Drivers Day celebrations, Venkat adds, is a "mere lip service". Vyas is optimistic about the level of highway corruption coming down with the induction of graduate drivers. "Education is the key. The educated drivers will herald a positive change," says Vyas. 

Nijum Riyaz, Principal of Telangana-based Leyland Driver Training Insitute, has set a target of roping in graduates for driver training. "By 2025, I am hopeful of realizing this," says he. He admits the task is challenging. "Catch them young is my route. I have been tapping youngsters in remote villages, unemployed in the age group of 20 and 28 years and confident of local support," adds he. 

Simultaneously, the Kollam/Kerala-born Leyland Riyaz is knocking on the doors of fleet owners in Telengana appraising them of the advantages of hiring better-educated truck drivers. Everything takes time but he is super uber of trucks on Indian highways plying with graduate drivers at the wheels.

Adds Chennai-based Mohammed Ali, Head-Driver Training Institutes, Ashok Leyland: "Out of every 50 member batch training course at Kaithal, Haryana, at least 10 will be graduates. They have been appraised of truck driver job opportunities in Canada mostly where a huge payout is promised. Therefore, they flock to our Kaithal Institute." Wow! Ashok Leyland runs almost a dozen DTIs in various states of India in association with respective state governments. According to Ali, 1-2% of wannabe truck drivers across his institutes are graduates. 

Y P Jain, founder president of All India Transporters Welfare Association and a lawyer-turned-transporter, welcomes the idea of roping in graduates into trucking. "Look at the job prospects in India. But we have a huge opening in trucking. They can walk in anytime to take up the job (after the proper certification)," elaborates he. Jain is positive that these better-educated drivers would lead to lesser corruption on highways because they "can tackle them by asking pertinent questions and if necessary take it up with the higher authorities on their own". 

On the surface, it appears there is a total buy-in of this concept of graduate drivers among fleet owners and driver trainers. Yes, the stigma attached to the truck driving profession has to be addressed with all seriousness it deserves. The shortage of drivers can be bridgeable with the job-seeking youth. A pure vanilla degree is NOT going to get any decent job with decent remuneration. Truck driving is a viable and sustainable career option. Money is good. Freeride to see a vast nation such as India. And, last but not the least, freedom. Yes, the big elephant in the room is the stigma angle, which calls for a societal transformation. Time is ripe and it calls for collective action.  With automation slowly creeping in removing a lot of low-hanging jobs for which the Indian education system is preparing with less focus on skilling and more on rote method, the future job scenario is bleak. Luckily, the truck driving career option is on tap. Worth selling to undergraduates. 

Yes, there is some reservation about graduate drivers. Will they stick with truck driving? Is it going to be a temporary perch till they get a white-collar desk job, even with a low salary? For instance, the job of a cook was never considered a preferred career option once upon a time. Today there is a mushrooming growth of catering colleges. My nephew came out with a catering degree, worked at several top-notch five-star and deluxe joints before settling down in Norway as Chief Chef of an Indian restaurant. Today, he is the pride of our family! Several such jobs undergo such a slow evolutionary process. One day truck driving may achieve that status, hopefully. Leyland Riyaz is at the forefront of this goal. 

Leyland Riyaz dreams of Circa 2025 for graduate drivers at the wheels on the Indian highways. Worth pursuing. Good luck, Riyaz!

The Unique Pair @ VRL

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

Five feet, six inches tall. Or short? Thin, reed-like. White hair, almost. Few strands of black hair spottable on his bushy mustache. Checked, half-sleeve shirt tucked inside muddy color pair of pants. Radiant and smiling face. Twinkling eyes. Seated behind the large 8x3 feet glass-topped table, Ramananda Bhatt appears like a pygmy in the spacious – 20 x 10 feet? – Chief Technology Officer’s (CTO) den.

CTO in a transport company sounds bizarre. He must be an important functionary in Chairman Vijay Sankeswar’s scheme of things. Otherwise, why should he keep reminding me that my visit to the Varur complex would be incomplete until I interact with Bhatt? The Varur complex, situated on the National Highway 4 linking Bangaluru with Mumbai, houses a massive administrative block, an equally huge workshop for trucks and luxury buses, a transshipment yard of several thousand sq. ft, a driver training institute, a brand new printing press for printing dailies, a record room on the top floor,  a large tire storage yard, a washing bay for luxury bus linen, a fumigation center to kill bugs embedded in luxury bus seats, multi-tiered driver restrooms, canteen for the workforce, etc, constructed several years ago. It’s the nerve center of the mammoth Rs.1,500 crore VRL Logistics empire. 

Again, Sankeswar reminds General Manager Panchaxarayya Gangayya Kallimath – my designated escort on my maiden visit to Hubli in August 2014 – to fix an appointment with Bhatt and ensure that it happens. On day one, we bumped into each other, but no conversations except a mutual ‘hello’. The same night, I was queried about the Bhatt rendezvous. My ‘negative’ response did not go down well with VRL Chief. “What’s so great about him? Why this insistence?”, I wonder. Nevertheless, I did not have to wait too long to find an answer to that intriguing question as we docked inside his cabin the next morning sharp 9.30 a.m.  His disarming smile and warmth are contagious. Kalmatti, am sure, was relieved that he could sleep well that night!

Over several cups of hot kapi, the Chennai-educated, banker’s son with a Diploma in Mechanical Engineering and ex-Leyland hotshot, unveils clues as to why his boss rates him so high. Then it dawns that he is the only CXO rank honcho operating from this huge complex while there are half a dozen Vice President rank officials straddle the same edifice. A very high ranking and the most valued and trusted lieutenant of Vijay Sankeswar, certainly. 

The so-called Vijay Sankeswar-Ramanand Bhatt alliance came into existence on 11 March 1995 with the former entrusting the responsibility of handling all technical and driver, mechanic affairs of VRL Logistics. If it was hardly 15 vehicles when Bhatt was first exposed to Vijay Anand Roadlines way back in 1986 in his capacity as a service engineer, he noticed that the vehicle population had grown multifold – close to 400. His two conditions for joining VRL did pose no challenge to Sankeswar senior: primarily, he would report to none other than the Chairman and his son, Anand Sankeswar only; secondly, he needed to be trusted wholeheartedly. 

One of the major challenges he had to face was the long line of a queue  - 100 out of 400 - at the pitstop waiting for repair and made roadworthy. It does not need any Harvard Business School education to realize that commercial vehicles had to be on the road running all the time and not idling for want of load or mechanical challenge. 

The smart, intelligent and alert Chief Technology Officer noticed that the critical issue was spare parts management. Procurement of genuine and original parts was expensive and it was bleeding. In the absence of a well laid out plan, workshop hands were resorting to ‘cannibalization’ – removing working parts from vehicles waiting for other repairs, and fixing them into other vehicles needing those parts. It was no way to fix problems, strongly felt the 195 9 born service-focused Mangalorean.

His strategy to set right the challenge was basic and simple. First, no cannibalization. Get the part and fix it. Stop the practice of forcing the company to ‘scrap’ the reparable vehicle, taking advantage of the fact that the chairman has no technical know-how to understand the severity of the pitstop halt of the vehicle under the scanner. 

The big step was to go for preventive maintenance.  In double-quick time, the stranded vehicles were put back on the road by the 25-strong technical and non-technical workforce. Of course, there were some murmurs within criticizing the Bhatt route of preventive maintenance, but Sankeswar senior refused to intervene declaring that he would abide by CTO’s judgment. 

CTO’s daily expense budget was Rs.20,000 while the workforce got payment directly from Chairman’s office. One day, Bhatt approached him with a request to buy a sophisticated welding machine costing Rs.85,000 against the current one being used costing Rs.7,000. He was asked to get a quote and finalize it. A concerned Bhatt told him that he could postpone the purchase if company finances were not in shape. Sankeswar nodded his head. 

“How long, will it take for the company’s financial conditions to improve?” asked Bhatt with genuine concern written on his face.

“100 years!” pat came the reply.

Without batting an eyelid, Bhatt went ahead and bought his welding machine. Money was not a consideration at all provided such spends would enhance productivity and efficiency and help improve the top and bottom lines. “You never get into my shoes and I will never get into your shoes. Demand what you want boldly. Your job is to raise the technical excellence of VRL continuously. My job is to raise money. Pistons are meant to move up and down. Cranks are expected to rotate. If they interchange their responsibility, it will be a disaster,” Sankeswar told him subsequently. Bhatt seldom forgot that initial management lesson.

A year before Bhatt joined VRL, Sankeswar discussed his plans to computerize operations and told him that he was unsure when that rollout would transpire. When pressed for an explanation, Bhatt was told that he (Sankeswar) was not sure whether the person he wants to lead the computerization drive at VRL would join or not. Soon after Bhatt came into the VRL fold, one day Sankeswar walked into his office and told him that he was ready for computerization because he had that person already in his company – pointing to Bhatt himself. 

Quickly Rs.7 lakhs was sanctioned to proceed with the project. All under the supervision of CTO, who incidentally is an automotive genius, but passionate about computers. After a short arrangement with a professional coding team to execute VRL’s computerization drive, he found the company was not getting what it wanted. So, Bhatt learned to code, and 20 years down the line he is keeping abreast of the latest in information technology. There is total freedom to experiment, so long there is no misuse. That’s the reigning philosophy under the Bhatt regime at VRL.

Today, VRL fabricates it requirement inhouse. Chassis are bought, but bodies are built at home. It works out much cheaper because the actual cost incurred is towards the cost of acquiring materials for building bodies. There is no labor cost since the well-trained workshop handles all that more efficiently with tight delivery deadlines. 

When VRL Logistics entered the luxury passenger bus segment in 1996. Once again, Bhatt and the team tried their hands in fabricating passenger buses. This maiden experiment failed miserably. However, a few tinkering later they regained their confidence, and subsequently, more than 100 buses were body-built houses garnering all-around applause. 

Experimentation is part of Bhatt’s DNA. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Of late, they have abandoned building passenger bus bodies since the cost difference between inhouse and outsiders was marginal due to stiff competition. Still, Bhatt and the company give the design specifications and want fabrications to execute their plans. His team assists fabrications to get what they want. 

All computerized operations across VRL spectrum are the handiwork of Bhatt and his team. Because he believes computerization eliminates human error and brings in greater transparency. ... And his boss Vijay Sankeswar subscribes to that theory wholeheartedly. Can anybody dispute that statement or sentiment? Nope.  Why? Because the boss is always right!

You're nuts ... You're crazy!

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

"You're nuts... You're crazy," blurted out Ulhas Ambegaonkar, CEO of www.truckbussale.com, when I asked him to step out on the Solapur-Pune Expressway and make a call to the control room, managed by the concessionaire - a Tata group company on a sunny August afternoon in 2014 from the roadside SOS emergency phone booth. 

He was unconvinced by my plea that many SOS boxes in emergencies erected on highways to help hapless victims - need not be only truck drivers, but anyone like you and I - are just empty boxes. There may be nothing inside. 

"Are you saying, these companies that have won multi-crore contracts to build, operate and transfer (BOT) will be stingy enough to save a few thousand rupees by bluffing the general public and putting up empty SOS (Save Our Soul) boxes on highways?"  asked Ulhas.

I re-requested: What's your problem? Why can't you just get out of the car and check out? Proof of the pudding is in the eating. Reluctantly, Ulhas stepped out on the Poona-Solapur Expressway and bingo! - this SOS box turned out to be an empty one. Nothing inside. He was aghast.

"Hey, what the hell is this? Nothing inside!" he shouted while our driver Nitin and I laughed out loud from inside the Innova, we were riding on a road trip from Nagpur to Pune covering a distance of 700 km via Latur over three days. His ire and outburst did not surprise me. I am used to such displays of indifference by fellow Indians. 

Road safety? Haha! "Tata company? Such lapses?" - once again this Puneikar screamed. In anger or glee, I could not figure out. "How did you guess this is one is empty?" Ulhas demanded. 

There are no answers. But this is not the first time, I had halted on highways and checked out across India over the past five years - since 2010- during my sojourn in trucks on Indian highways - such supposed to be emergency boxes erected on highways to assist the aam janata plying these expressways/tollways. 

No, I do not halt every single such Emergency Assistance boxes, but randomly step out to pick up phones and check whether such phones really exist and if so, do they actually work and if so, does someone at the other end respond quickly. "Don't the National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) giving out such contracts conduct period checks?" asked my fellow traveler. 

They do. Am sure they also come across such blunders. Before one jumps to conclusions, let it be said that concessionaires do not check the operability of these emergency kits regularly. That's the crux.

Once on such a mission, plying on the National Highway 44 (Hyderabad to Bangaluru) in 2011 I got out and found the box working fine and the response at the control room was quick. The operator quickly alerted the emergency team on wheels which reached me in double-quick time. It was much before sunrise and it was still dark. When they understood my motive in calling, they were perplexed. 

I was taken a tour of their control room facilities and treated to a hot cuppa. Returning to the 'Ulhas' episode, we decided to confront the plaza manager of Pune-Solapur Expressway and drove to his office. The man in charge, who joined hardly a week before, called in the systems and maintenance officer to check the veracity of our complaint. 

Yes, they knew the SOS box pointed out by Ulhas indeed was empty due to theft by some unknown elements and such non-functional emergency boxes do exist across tollways due to a variety of reasons. We were promised that this would be set right as early as possible. 

"Did you check out the other ones before you hit this one?" asked the maintenance official politely. Yes, we did and shared that they were functional. He flashed a 2000 watt smile, convinced that he was doing his duty.

A fortnight later, I was returning from Hubli to Pune to catch my flight back home to Delhi on a rainy morning. This time, it was Kubera, my Kannada driver, who was chosen for this task. This stretch of National Highway No.4 was manned by an equally reputed Ashoka group. 

We halted, Kubera stepped out and opened the yellow SOS box mounted on a pole on the roadside. He did find a couple of colored buttons with instructions written on how to use them. When he tried calling, there was no response. I was watching from a distance. 

"Maybe, I am hard on hearing. Possibly someone is talking, but I can't hear. Sir, why don't you come and try?" Kubera requested. 

I walked up to the SOS box. Pressed the relevant key for the control room. For a few seconds, the buzz went on and on. Then it switched to a pre-recorded voice message. I disconnected and tried again. None picked up the phone at the Control Room of Ashoka, the concessionaire. Next, I tried the Emergency Ambulance button. No response again.

This kind of experience is nothing new. Am sure there are hundreds of such Expressway SOS Emergency phones are just empty boxes or they are not being attended to. But who is going to monitor and ensure they are attended to? The government? NHAI? They have to, but will they? I doubt. 

I was not in any emergency seeking their assistance either on the Pune Solapur Expressway, managed by the Tata group, or on the National Highway 4, manned by Ashoka. 

What if, I was needing quick assistance and this was the status of such emergency boxes? I leave it there. 

"I believe you but when you say the emergency boxes don't function on national highways, I wish to check for myself," said Mumbai-based Sudhir Badami, an IITian and a prominent activist focused on urban planning on a cool January 2016 afternoon as we motored on National Highway 48 linking Delhi with Mumbai. 

So, we drove with the bearded Badami and Charoti Naka-based road safety activist Harbans Singh for a spot inspection. He was shocked on verifying the non-functionality of these boxes. "Incredible. How can the authorities allow such things?" he blurted out. Singh, whose late father used to provide emergency crane services for decades on the Mumbai-Surat stretch before the Golden Quadrilateral became a reality, rebutted the argument that there is no need for these emergency boxes "because everyone carries mobile phones. Really? Try your mobile phone in this stretch. There will be no signal. So, no mobile network, and these emergency boxes don't work. You're in a soup." Messy affair. 

Road safety is attracting a lot of attention of late. Let's move beyond just legislating. What India needs - in any sphere - is an actionable plan. Not empty postings on Facebook or any social media but a hardcore focused and dedicated approach to ensure that lives are indeed precious - drivers and passengers - and such valuable resources are well taken care of. The annual ritual of the nationwide social drama of "Road Safety Week or Fortnight or Month" is just that. Seminars, workshops, webinars cannot replace genuine ground-level work. 

Further down on the same highway towards Pune, Kubera asked: "Sir, there is another box. Can we try?" I smiled and requested him not to halt and check. What if..... you know the rest!

Poor truck drivers? Are you joking?

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

"If you don't mind, tell me for whom you are buying sarees in bulk?" asked the salesperson seated at one of the busiest saree shops in the Bazaar near Barhi, Bihar on a steamy June 2015 afternoon. Akib Mohammed, representing Darcl from Delhi, responded: "For our truck driver parivar. We are visiting them for the first time. We want to give ladies nice saree."  

Good God, the sales guy asked a pertinent question. Otherwise, what was originally planned to keep the budget in mind, our gift would have been used as a cleaning mop instead of adorning Darcl drivers' wives. We were told that these ladies do not wear cheap items. Why? Because they are wives of truck drivers, not agricultural or construction workers - signaling their sartorial tastes are way up and above all, they can afford!

It was not the typical shopkeeper sales pitch. The village we were about to visit was hardly 10 km away from the bazaar and the villagers frequent this bazaar for their purchases. After the inevitable bargaining on account of bulk order, we settled around Rs.325 per saree and took delivery of 100 pieces.

Yes, there were murmurs and debates in the accompanying team about the cost of gifting! At the school ground, we came face to face with the huge gathering of Darcl drivers' parivar under the massive shade of benign peepul trees. After a short speech from the company representatives about the purpose of this "driver parivar connect" event, we began distributing gifts. 

We noticed the women folk running their fingers over the sarees to get the feel of the fabric and debating quality aspects. By the way, the sarees they were wearing amply demonstrated their taste and their approximate pricing! The same story repeated at other bastis (villages) of Darcl drivers as we transited to Faridabad over the next six days. Visits to their home proved there was not much of a difference in terms of gadgets and other amenities they enjoyed in those remotest parts of India. The point is that it is a misconception to claim that Indian truck drivers are poor. They roil in dire poverty. Definitely not. Utter nonsense and total misjudgment. 

Over years, I had traveled to several pockets of villages that supply long-haul truck drivers to serve the 1.3billion populace - from north, south, or west. I have never come across any driver living in poor, thatched roof dwelling units. All brick and cement houses. With refrigerator, TV sets, sound system, at least one motorcycle. Curtained windows. Not to be missed is the branded apparel: fake or genuine is secondary. The families are tasting a nice lifestyle. Above all, their children studying in private educational institutions which levy hefty fees vis-a-vis almost free education in government-run ones.  Truck drivers can afford it. Got it? 

In Jhumritalaiya, Jharkhand on a visit to a driver's house, the father shows me around the huge house: ground plus first floor with several rooms to accommodate the 10-member parivar of two brothers each occupying one entire floor. The previous house, opposite the new home, is still in use: as cattle shed! There are goats, chickens, ducks and a garden where vegetable grows for captive consumption. Not to be forgotten is the piece of land where they grow paddy, corn, millets, etc. 

Another time, in Bhim, Rajasthan, another driver hosts me for two days and nights, too. I was traveling with him with vehicles from Rudrapur to Bangalore. We halt on the highway, five km away from his home at a shop cum parking space belonging to his uncle. A lot of items collated by the driver during his journey get unloaded onto a jeep and I pillion-ride with him on a motorcycle. Here again, it is a huge space with five brothers living together in the same complex but in different houses. 

I get royal treatment during my stay. The only hitch was: no toilets, thus compelling me to "fertilize" in open space! There is no concern over the lack of privacy. They got used to it. Wherever I have visited driver clusters and stayed overnight, this was a challenge and I always told them about the Swatch Bharat Abhiyan. 

Road safety expert Pradipto Bhattacharya, who was with me at Jhunjhunu, almost ran away one night due to this hitch! He could not and would not visualize the open space bowel movement, having got used to performing the daily act behind closed doors. Since the driver's house was in the midst of a huge tract of farmland with tall stalks obstructing visibility at night and no proper road to lead him to the hotel we had booked on the highway, he had no option but to stay put. Two years later, the same driver invited us again and pompously declared that he has built a toilet on his premises. 

Such stories are endless. What is the secret behind such prosperity? I ask my host. "We have everything in our village. House. Farm, however big or small, does not matter. Our food is taken care of. Cows, buffaloes, and goats give milk. Chicken gives eggs and they are eaten also. The goat provides milk and then becomes mutton. No shortage of firewood. We are self-sufficient. Possibly, we may have to buy matches and masala!," explain the lady of the house in Jalna, Maharashtra. 

I am tempted to ask: what do you do with the money your driver-husband earns? But I don't, out of politeness. Long haul truck drivers are truly rich, provided they do not have negative attributes such as drinking, drugs, extra-marital affairs, etc. Actually, their earnings go towards children's education and meeting the health needs of their elderly parents. 

There is another solid evidence to support my theory that they are not poor but well-off. For instance, unlike the white-collar types, their job is more or less like a mini business. Why? Because they are not on the payroll of any fleet owner. More or less like a verbal contractual obligation. Their earning is based on the number of kilometers they drive. The more kilometers they drive, the more they earn. That simple, it is. 

It is no secret that long-haul truck drivers don't work for 11 months without a break and take a month off - away from work. They don't have perks such as privilege leave, sick leave, and casual leave. Not even weekends. Their calendars have no Saturdays and Sundays. They work all day. Either driving with or without load or waiting outside factory gates or distribution centers either for load/unload - away from home, always.  Their trucks are also home for them and hence these vehicles are maintained well: their kamadhenu (milch cow) that bestows riches perpetually. (This kind of kinship with trucks is also the reason for drivers unwilling to be part of rest and relay formats. Multiple handling of a single vehicle, they compare to polygamy! So possessive. 

When they decide to go home, there is no fixed date when he would return. Come harvest time, there will be a sudden shortage of drivers as they go home to help to harvest on their farms. Their leave of absence from the steering wheel may run into two or three months also.  So the key question: when they are not earning, how do they manage? They stay away at home by digging into their nest egg built over the previous months. Ought to be substantial. They use this time for harvest or conduct or attend marriages and other family functions or to celebrate festivals: holi, diwali, bakrid, ramzaan, etc. Or they simply loiter around. 

Unless their financial health is robust, they cannot exhibit such behavior. I have never heard of a driver taking the family out on a vacation. The family enjoys his presence at home. That itself is a celebration for the parivar. With no tax compliance burden - most of them earning is in cash - a big convenience for the fleet owner and him as well. Significantly, they know nothing about financial planning as the city-bred folks understand. Most of their earnings/savings are kept in gold and land; not in the form of fixed deposits or mutual funds and other securities. 

Yet, their appearance may distort reality. They may look ugly, shabby, uncouth, etc. They may crib a lot - like their owners - as if the entire world is pitted against them. It is all farce. So long as they remain as drivers, they will be on a roll. However, the moment they get ambitious and want to become truck owners, the matrix will change, bringing into play various challenges that they are not adequately equipped to handle. That's the reason why the much-talked-about chalak-se-malak campaign has not succeeded. 

The wealth effect (or prosperity) of the driver clan becomes apparent when one catches up with others in the same neighborhood. Involved in farming, a seasonal work, they have more free time, idling. Little disposable income and the consequent lower living standards vis a vis his driver neighbor. One big boast of them is that they have more time for their family, unlike driver parivar. Well, there is always a trade-off. Like the indifference curve: more work, less leisure, or vice versa. That's the life of a driver careerist. Long home-aways, yes. 

All said and done, a driver is definitely well off comparatively speaking. Had he not taken up this career, his existence would have been at par with his non-driver neighbor with more leisure, less work, and therefore less income and the consequent lower living standard. 

I have never come across any truck driver paying income tax! Whereas those who make fun of him or ill-treat him at head office, branch office, loading/unloading centers, factory or warehouse security guards, or on highway babus all pay income tax! 

It is no exaggeration to say it is better to be a driver than a driver-owner. On average, a long-haul truck driver earns approx. Rs.45,000/- a month. Most of it, in hard cash with no tax compliance hassles. Like any other job, driving has its own challenges. No sensible driver will kick his job and go away because the opportunity cost is pretty huge. Barring truck driving which does not demand any paper qualification, honestly, he has no desire to opt for any other career option. Where else, he can earn good money, plan his daily routine and be a king and see the country free of cost and ensure prosperity for his parivar? And the cynosure of his neighbors. Poor driver? No way. It's an oxymoron. 

Had it not been for truck driving for the past two decades, Sultanpur-born Anil Pandey could not have educated three of his younger brothers up to post-graduation, helped them settle down in good jobs, and also ensuring his children's college education and marriage. Even today, he is at the steering of the truck ferrying steel items - not as an owner but as a driver - across the Indian highways. So also, fiftyish long haul truck driver Shaheed Khan of Mewat with a huge tract of fertile land, like Pandey. He does not take driving assignments unless he is assured of Rs.50,000 a month. 

On a November 2016 afternoon, I met a lean and emaciated Bikha Singh outside Garware Synethic factory in Aurangabad, Maharashtra. Asked about his monthly salary, he mentioned, "one thousand rupees". He has been driving for the same Kolkota company for more than a decade. His parting shot was his fourth daughter is ready for betrothal and he is equally ready with cash! Three daughters already married off even while his declared monthly income of Rs.1,000. How did he manage this magic is a mystery. On second thought, it is no mystery! The untold or hidden wealth effect, huh! 

Truck drivers are poor financially is an anomaly. An oxymoron. Such a species does not exist in the world you and I co-habit with them. 

Assault @ Palanpur Crossing

(Left to Right): Deepak Varshney, self, Nitin Rathod & Anikhet outside Dadri ICD, Uttar Pradesh

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

I was three feet away when the sound of a tight slap unsettled me. Aman was the receiver and the deliverer: Nitin Rathod. The pencil-thin Aman was rubbing his left cheek and left earlobes vigorously. His ear has already turned red. No tears yet. Nitin's volley of bad words in Hindi was reverberating. Aman was Buddha-like, maintained a stoic silence. 

The traffic on the road from Ahmedabad to Gandhidham was thin on the 2020 January afternoon where we were heading. Not a harsh sun. No breeze at all. 

What was this drama on the highway all about? A few minutes ago I was inside the Innova watching a T20 match on Deepak Varshney's laptop. 

Noticing Nitin shaking Aman on the roadside, I stepped out. Deepak copied. 

"Stop it," I shouted at Nitin. I could not stomach a truck driver being hit. Investigating the rationale for such a violent act would follow later. 

"Only one, Sir! No more," blurted out Nitin, his eyes bulging red with anger. 

This was what happened. 

Post lunch, we were heading for Mundhra in Innova with Nitin at the steering. Next to him sat Anikhet, the second driver. Deepak and self just behind Nitin, engrossed in the India vs New Zealand cricket match.

Five days ago, we left Dadri Inland Container Depot for a  study of ICD functionality at various spots between Dadri near Delhi and Mundhra on the Gujarat coast. The study was for Cogoport, a start-up in freight forwarding with a focus on export-import. Ships anchored at ports wait for loads brought in by trucks from ICDs across the country. Mundhra port on the west coast, owned by the Adani group, is one of the busiest water gateways to the external world. Delhi-born Deepak Varshney, working for Cogoport in Mumbai, flew into Delhi for the 1,200 km road trip. 

"Will we reach Mundhra by half-past five, Nitin?" I asked 150 km before the desired destination. He affirmed. Both Deepak and I were getting bored. It is almost a week since we left home. Eating at highway hotels and sleeping at hotels was tiresome. 

Once we reach Mundhra and spend two days of interaction for the Cogoport project, we can fly back home. Deepak to Mumbai, me to Delhi. 

Then, all of a sudden, this fracas unfolded on the highway with chief driver Nitin slapping truck driver Aman, 150 km before Mundhra. 

At a fork, Nitin said: "If we take the overbridge, we will go to Palanpur. If we don't, then to Mundhra". 

That's where fate played its dirty hand.

A Tata truck, speeding at 60 km/hour speed hit our Innova on the driver's side. Innova's right rear indicator came off along the bumper.

Deepak's Apple laptop slipped from his hands and fell on the seat next to him. I was equally pushed and noticed I was leaning against Deepak. Unsettled, but no injury. No blood. 

Nitin quickly parked Innova on the roadside, got out, rushed to the truck, pulled out the driver, and slapped him hard. This all happened in a jiffy.

"Do you know why I hit you?" demanded Nitin at the young truck driver Aman. "Not for damaging my car but for using your mobile phone while driving, you idiot!"

Aman was silent and he understood that the mishap was his fault. While at the wheels, Aman suddenly noticed a big hole on the highway and tried to avoid it. In the process, he moved left and hit our car. Since Innova was in a blind spot, it was invisible and Aman hit us. 

Meanwhile, Anikhet inspected the damage and said something to Nitin in hushed tones. They estimated the repair would cost Rs.40,000. Nitin was adamant that the empty truck of Aman would not be released until the repair cost is settled on the spot. 

Aman was on the phone, conveying the demand with his owner in Mumbai. He returned to say that he would pay Rs.2,000. Nothing more, nothing less. 

Nitin got wild again. Short of hitting him, he verbally abused Aman's owner, who luckily was in the earshot. 

He quickly shot a video of the damage to Innova and shared it with Aman's owner via WhatsApp. 

Now the damage cost moved up to Rs.5,000 from Rs.2,000 offered earlier.

Nitin was ready to settle at Rs.15,000 - a deep discount, he told Aman's boss over the phone.

No agreement was in sight. 

Then the Mumbai offer was upped to Rs.7,000. Nitin gave the final take-it-or-leave-it offer of Rs.9000.

"Go to the nearest police station and complain. I don't care," shouted Aman's boss. 

A stalemate. Nitin was furious. What next? 

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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.

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This kind of scenario is nothing new to me. After an accident, the owners or their staff stationed at remote offices act to wriggle themselves out of the crisis through negotiations with the affected party with the least possible financial implication. Drivers are at the mercy of the others. They are alone and in a remote location where no support would be available. In many incidents, the gathered public beat up drivers mercilessly, warranting hospitalization even after the police intervention. Sad state of affairs. 

Who is Aman? He hails from Sultanpur, Uttar Pradesh. This was his maiden trip. He was coming from Mumbai for a load to pick up from Gandhidham, one of the business transport hubs in Gujarat, near Kandla/Mundhra ports. His salary: Rs..4,000 a month. 

My wristwatch showed 17:45. We were supposed to have reached Mundhra by this time. Yet, we were still here. Man proposes God disposes of! 

Finally, Aman's boss agreed to pay Rs.9000 on one condition: Rs.7,000 online payment and the balance of Rs.2,000 once Aman reaches Gandhidham. This Rs..2,000 has to be arranged by Aman on his own.

Nitin climbed into the Tata truck with Aman at the wheels and Anikhet took charge of our car. 

After reaching Gandhidham, Aman could not manage beyond Rs.1,000. He said, "sorry". 

Nitin erupted into a volcano again. "You promised. Pay up," he shouted at Aman. 

A big crowd collected around us. Driver parivar it was. "Young kid. Show mercy. He has no money," they argued in favor of Aman. 

Nitin was unmoved. He connected with Aman's boss and argued. Somehow, the balance of Rs1,000 was arranged. 

Where was the original demand of Rs.40000 and what is the final settlement of Rs.9000? 

Drivers getting beaten up in an accident is inevitable. Irrespective of whose fault it is. Second, the dispute resolution mechanism of owners or their representatives. 

I began to wonder how Aman would be repaying the debt of Rs.9000 to his motormalik. Is his owner, a heartless man? I am clueless. 

Good god, Aman escaped with one tight slap. That itself is a violent act. Later I would reprimand Nitin. 

By the by, at the Palanpur crossing accident site, several trucks passed by. Unsurprisingly, none stopped to intervene and save their brethren. 

Driver unity? What's that?