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!