Warehouse on Wheels - Wow!

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

The latest directive from the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) President Kultaran Atwal on the detention issue triggered my memory. First, the directive. Then, the rewind...

We have been approached by many trucker brethren with the issue of delayed loading,  unloading of goods by the Party. The idle/detention time is resulting in huge losses to them.

In order to help them survive Team AIMTC is initiating positive reforms aiming at reducing losses that accrue on account of regressive business practices.

In this context, we request your suggestions on the following:

1) How many days/hours leverage be given to Consignor / Consignee for loading/unloading of the vehicle.

2) What rate of detention should be charged per day for 6 wheeler, 10 wheeler, 12 wheeler, and 14 wheeler trucks.

Kindly give your suggestions and on the basis of that, we will issue a circular to this effect.

It was an unusual call from an official from East India Transport Agency from Ballabgarh, Haryana mid-June 2017. His request was to remove a video I had posted on Youtube carrying an interview with his company drivers. In that post, conducted outside the manufacturing plant of TAFE, the makers of Massey-Ferguson farm tractors near Trichy and Madurai, Tamilnadu drivers were sharing their experience of waiting outside the factory to unload the tractor tires they had ferried from Goodyear India, Faridabad/Ballabgarh, Haryana. 

 They had been waiting for a few days without   unloading for no fault of theirs. TAFE officials     have told them to "wait" because they did not   have  adequate space to store inside the plant.   East  India Transport Agency drivers had been   detained. How long they have to wait, they had no   clue. Unsurprisingly, there were no restroom   amenities for these waiting truck drivers nearby. 

"Why do you want the Youtube video to be removed?" I asked the caller. He was not forthcoming except hinting that there was pressure. From where? I demanded. Again, he preferred silence. East India Transport Agency, as the name reflects, is an outsourced service provider to Goodyear India - an OEM supplier to TAFE. 

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WATCH the Video interview with drivers outside TAFE plant, Tamilnadu

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It was no rocket science to decipher that TAFE ought to have pulled up Goodyear India for its transporter's drivers talking negatively about the tire maker. Hence, the transporter in turn was chastised for its drivers' frank talk pointing to the unscheduled halt or detention. Can a transporter punish drivers for talking frankly? Unlikely given the driver shortage scenario. Therefore, the next best option for the transporter was to approach me who had posted the allegedly "objectionable" video in the public domain. I did not oblige is another matter. 

The bone of contention was about "detention"; the ultimate sufferer was the transport company as its asset was lying idle outside the TAFE plant for no fault of its action. Notwithstanding the much-hyped Service Level Agreement (SLA) talks between logistics service seekers and logistics service providers, detaining trucks for days together outside plants for want of space inside is universal. No penalty for such unwarranted inefficient logistic practice. Yet, everyone talks about the logistics cost in India is around 14%. No transporter would be eager to take up cudgels against the business provider - more so when the client is a multinational.  Chalta hai! 

"Warehouse On Wheels" it is. In the pursuit of improving operational efficiency, big businesses have embraced the Japanese concept of "Just In Time" (JIT): no inventory buildup, thus trimming the cost of capital. Laudable! While appreciating the big boys' focus on cost-cutting - what else it is! -  they paid no attention to safeguarding the interest of their service providers. The worst-hit is the voiceless transporters. Until the material is unloaded and the Proof of Delivery (POD) obtained, they cannot raise an invoice thus affecting their cash flow. 

Freight Transportation is not a cash-on-delivery business but with a 90-120 days credit cycle. Any delay through detention outside factory gates by the end-user impacts transporters' top and bottom lines. There is a huge cost involved and it is a national waste, directly or indirectly. 

Frequently transporters voice their concerns about the bad practice of detention, but seldom could they succeed in "disciplining" the end-user and the intermediary viz., 3PLs. The fear of losing business is the primary reason for transporters not going beyond raising the issue and leave it there. They have to come to accept detention as an unavoidable malaise and incurable and unfortunately learn to live with it. 

One does not have to go to prestigious management institutes to study the impact of detention. Even the lowly and weakest supply chain link viz.,   truck drivers grasp the enormity of the malady. It is a routine affair and they are the frontline victims. Nobody knows and understands the agony of waiting for no rhyme or reason; it is time the thoughtless and inconsiderate white-collar logistics czars act justly to disprove that they are incapable of changing for the better. Simply put, better human beings. 

Will AIMTC succeed in stopping this anomaly in the near future? Keeping my fingers crossed. 

EDITED today (5 August 2021) to rectify a wrong information. The company was Goodyear and not Wheels India. Error Regretted.