LETTER TO BALA...1

 

Dear Bala, 

Thanks for responding to the request for the resumption of delivery of physical copies of MOTOR INDIA which is in its 66th Year. Significantly, I and your publishing baby share a bond: Both came into existence in 1956. Plus, I have had a long association with your publishing group.

Covid disturbed every business, including the publishing. Being a publisher-editor myself, I felt the pain and am still unable to recover and recoup. The niche segment is a peculiar baby - particularly in the B2B segment. Chalo, life is like that.

The June 2022 Cover Story: Eicher-MR Shah Logistics: A delightful partnership drew my attention. No specific reason. Usually, I usually avoid cover stories because they are long and boring, and more PR-ish. Actually, I read the piece after flipping through the magazine over lunch much before realizing it was the Cover Story! 

Chemical transportation is an area of interest. Your Cover Story is about this segment with a focus on this company. Shankar Kuppuswamy of the Indian Chemical Council is also a reason for this chemical transportation segment. So is Mohan, a certified hazardous chemical movement driver training. We talk regularly about his activities in this segment.

Seen and heard stories of disasters involving chemical movement. Harbans Singh of Charoti Naka, a friend, and activist on highways, has taken me and Ulhas Ambegaonkar almost a decade ago to the spot at Mendhan, on the Mumbai Surat segment of NH48 where a chemical tanker met with an accident, and the nearby villagers rushed to "steal" whatever was leaking and met with gory death. He saw it. I can understand his mental frame. I felt for the victims. 

What interested me in this story was the driver comfort portion towards the end. The piece spends a few hundred words - instead of cursory lip service on this aspect. Eicher has done good work, going by what your magazine writes.  

"Another element that led MR Shah Logistics to choose the Eicher brand is driver comfort and brand acceptance. Eicher understands how to make the transportation business more comfortable and appealing to drivers," to quote one of the directors. 

He adds: "The corporation has made a concerted effort to put driver comfort up front and center as a primary buying factor for clients. This is a win-win situation for both the transporter and the driver, who benefit from a more productive investment and a more comfortable driving experience. Finally, this is an important factor that will attract aspiring drivers to the profession."

"Driver comfort is of utmost importance for any transporter. Eicher understands this well and hence emphasizes focuses on drivers through its vehicle's design, be it the driver-friendly cabins or the industry-first features like fuel coaching and cruise control in its trucks."

 Hang on...

Bala, I did not understand fuel coaching? Do they mean fuel monitoring? Explain. 

Industry-first? Does it mean, the Tatas and Leyland who were in India for decades before the advent of Eicher did not even think and try such features? No idea. 

The concept of driver comfort is new to India. No jokes, please. Until the arrival of foreign truck makers into India, the Tatas and Leyland paid little attention to this aspect. For whatever reasons. I still recall the driver's seat resting on a few bricks! I also recall sleeping on the cramped wooden plank behind the driver seat in 2010-11. Things began to improve post-2012 because my truck sleeping on long journeys was a bit more comfortable. Rexin beds. 

Ventilation was unheard of in driver's cabins. Unless the drivers themselves spent money to fix it at their expense! So generous were motormaliks. Why blame them? The big boys of HCV makers never thought of fixing an electric fan inside the truck cabin. At times, their argument was that such "additional features" made trucks expensive! Bunkum!

Well, we can keep on talking about the absence of driver comfort till birds come home! 

Even seat belts were not mandatory for ages in India! So much for the HCV makers' road safety concerns. 

Anyhow, Bala, thank you again for resuming the supply of MOTOR INDIA!

I shall revert after reading other pieces of interest to me.

Till then, Ciao.

Ramesh

Rendezvous with Hella India boss Ramashankar Pandey

 

Ramesh Kumar from Greater Noida

Out of the blue, Hella India Managing Director Ramashankar Pandey called over the weekend to ask: "How can we help truck drivers to gain respectability in the society?"

What happened to Ram? I know his passion for road safety. But drivers' respectability? I was flummoxed truly. 

An issue close to my heart. As we say in my mother tongue: karumbu thinna cooliya? (Nobody asks for a fee to enjoy sugarcane). 

The telephonic conversation dragged on for 15 minutes. 

I realized that the Madhubani-born, mid-forties German lighting giant supremo in India, is not bullshitting but has something in mind. At a time when Bihar, among other cow belt states, is burning over the Agnipath Recruitment Scheme of the government, this engineering-cum-management practitioner from the same Bihar, is helping me to focus on something serious. Even trucks are torched by the so-called educated lumpen elements. 

Such critical issues need face-to-face interaction and no zoom meeting would do justice. The hitch was we were separated by 70km one way: Ram in Dwarka and me in Greater Noida. Nothing less than a two-hour journey one way for this physical handshake and meeting of minds. 

"It does not matter. Let us meet. Share your location," he cooed over the Graham Bell invention.

Will the Hella India boss drive on a Sunday to discuss "what should be done to help truck drivers to gain respectability"? 

Sheer coincidence that a friend from Kolkota with logistics background called up a few hours before Ram's phone call to ask: have you read the "researched, well-documented piece by an IAS babu in the Hindu Business Line." I did and nothing new he said. Research on truck driving in India is a regular feature. How do I know? Over the past 13 years, most of the researchers on this "interesting topic" have knocked on my doors seeking my "inputs". 

A month ago, a reputed research agency funded by global financial institutions, sought my inputs on the driver angle. A week ago, another logistics domain expert requested a meeting with a friend of his - a pharma MNC logistics honcho - who is preparing for a PhD on, yes, you got it! - truck driver issue. 

Back to Hella Ram. Ten minutes before Rahukal on Sunday (the 90-minute inauspicious period to begin or commence anything: 1630 to 1800 hours), he pinged: "Left Dwarka" and shared his live location via WA. 

Still, I was not sure. Maybe he has some other engagement in my part of town and possibly he is clubbing a visit to my home to discuss the topic we interacted with earlier. 

Every half an hour, I checked the live location and convinced he was on the "right track". 

Half-past six, he alighted from his chauffeur-driven SUV outside my housing society. 

"Oh my God! Now I understand why I refuse invites for physical meeting in Gurgaon!" 

True. Unless the invitee/host is ready to cough up Rs.2000 towards petrol (just a few rupees below Rs.100/litre), I decline such invites. 

Over the next hour and a half, we were in "chai pe charcha".

Yes, Ram was serious. Otherwise, he would not have driven from one end of NCR to another on a Sunday. 

What we discussed? Await. 

(To be continued)