Highway Dhabas – A Trucker’s Delight

India has highways broadening across 3.314 million kilometers, making it the 3rd biggest road network around the globe. The highway is full of trucks carrying consignments as well as the commuters who travel from one part of the country to another.

 One common cord between all of them is the need for food & rest while traveling on the road. The highway dhaba satisfy the appetite of all those who traverse on the highway.

The Dhabas range along the Indian Highways from the extreme stretches of the North, to the warm coasts of the South. Small and Large Dhabas have sprung up along the highways, providing cheap & tasty traditional Indian food. They offer the best choices when it comes to lip-smacking variety of Indian culinary delights.

 For truck drivers, it is the resting place which serves enjoyable Indian food in addition to the cozy air on ethnic bamboo-cots. Be it breakfast, lunch or dinner, the entire meal is available almost 24 hours. They serve from chief Punjabi meals to Chinese food items.

In addition to the development of highways, the authorities are working towards the progress of highway Dhabas to increase the cleanliness and hygiene to make them more satisfactory.

Muggings of Trucks on Highway – No Longer Ok

The occurrence of burglaries on National Highways has increased in the past few months, with trucks pursuing on the highway at night-time being embattled the most. The National Highways Authority of India (NHAI) has requested highway patrol on all the major expressways to diminish such incidents in future.

In some of the recent occurrences that happened in Gurgaon sector – the burglars robbed a truck full with copper wires. The officials say that there are 2-3 burglars’ gangs who are active on the National Highway 8 stretch in Gurgaon. Till date 26 complaints have been filed on highway robbery on NH-8.
In most of the cases, the gang operations have been the same. Robbers come in car, overtaking the directed truck and then block its lane. Then they forcefully enter the driver's cabin & hold the driver and the helper hostage.

The thieves then take the truck to an isolated place and toss the driver and the cleaner out of the truck before escaping with the truck. in some circumstances, the burglars have even abandoned the vehicles after cleaning the cargo from the truck.

The State Police are working along with NHAI authorities to eliminate the problem and ensure safety for all the commuters on the National Highways.

Mahindra Navistar on its Way to Merit

Mahindra Navistar trucks are manufactured by Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd. (MNAL). The corporation is a joint project between two global business leaders - Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd. (M&M) and Navistar Inc. USA. 

After inaugurating its entire range of high performance HCV trucks at the Auto Expo 2010, and stating start of assembly of their first two trucks giving MN25 & MN31 last year, Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd. have come a long way up by making its mark in the Indian Trucking industry. Recently, Mahindra Navistar has won the 2 Apollo Tyres-CV magazine awards and majority of truck fleet owners are happy for the innovative trucks of Mahindra Navistar and are willing to obtain the HCVs.

Progressively the trucks are being appreciated by majority of the fleet owners across the country. They, also, are enthusiastic to buy the “Outperformance Machines” from Mahindra Navistar. The company believes that this is the creation of a new era for the trucking industry. State-of-the-art technology and pioneering vehicles can help the trucking industry rise in the country.

The aim of Mahindra Navistar is to provide high performance solutions to all its consumers through Mahindra’s technology and support. More and More trucks are running on the roads of India to aid logistics along with high revenue to their establishment. This proves that the fleet owners are inspired to change Indian trucking & believe that ‘Ok is no longer Ok’!

Mahindra Navistar supplies 20 MN 40 Tractor Trailers to DARCL Logistics Ltd.

New Delhi: After announcing start of sales of the new HCV range consisting of the MN25, MN31, MN 40 & MN 25 Tipper and winning the Commercial Vehicle of the Year award at the Apollo CV Commercial Vehicle Awards 2011, Mahindra Navistar Automotives Ltd. has delivered 20 MN 40 Tractor Trailers (210 HP Engine, 2S Cabin with factory fitted Ac) to DARCL Logistics Limited.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr. Pawan Goenka, President, Automotive and Farm Equipment Sectors, Mahindra & Mahindra Ltd., said “We are now a full range Commercial Vehicle player. With our new HCVs like MN 25, MN 31, MN 40 Tractor Trailer, MN 25 Tipper already plying on roads across India and the existing range of LCVs, we have kept the promise that we made during Auto Expo 2010 to become a full range Commercial Vehicle player. These products are manufactured in Chakan where we have set up a manufacturing facility for trucks at a cost of Rs. 950 crore. I am glad that our superior product performance coupled with sound value proposition is already helping customers across India outperform, earn higher profits and get better ROI.”

Handing over the vehicles to DARCL earlier in the day, Mr. Nalin Mehta, Managing Director, , Mahindra Navistar Automotives Limited, said, “It is a moment of great pride for us to be associated with DARCL, winner of the Transporter of the Year at the Apollo CV Awards 2011 and one of the leading logistics companies in India. We have already sold more than 1300 trucks across the country within a short span of time, and gained tremendous confidence and appreciation from our customers. We are getting a large number of bulk and repeat orders and are also expanding our modern distribution network to cater to the growing needs of our customers. Our state-of-the-art dealerships across the country feature a well-equipped covered workshop, prompt spare parts availability, mobile service vans and highly trained staff to enable our customers to get a hassle free and delightful experience. In a short span of a year, we have already added 751 service touch points to our network”.

Also speaking at the key handover ceremony, Mr. Darshan Kumar Agarwal, Director, DARCL Logistics Ltd, said, “We are glad to be associated with the new sensation in Indian trucking, Mahindra Navistar, and are looking forward to seeing their outperforming trucks further enhance DARCL’s leadership position in the transport industry. I am sure that together we will help our customers outperform.

Extensive Sales & Service Network: The company has came up with the unique concept of a mobile service workshop, yet another first in the Indian trucking industry, with the objective of providing ‘anywhere, anytime’, on-road assistance to customers. Coupled with the multi-lingual, 24x7 call centre branded as ‘NOW’, which is manned by trained service experts, Mahindra Navistar is all set to unleash a new paradigm in customer service in the Indian trucking industry. To add to this, nearly 474 Roadside Assistance centres are also in place to provide service.

Besides this, Mahindra Navistar will also draw on the vast pool of auto and tractor channel partners to use as an extended network for servicing customers’ needs. At this stage, 220 such Authorized Service Points are already in place.

The company aims to create a channel which will be passionate about surpassing customer expectations and willing to go that extra mile. The dealer network aims to set new benchmarks in delivering requisite services and spares to customers in the HCV segment in India.

Diminish the stress on truckers

A size-able amount of people these days are taking up trucking as a profession. Be it their family trade or a fresh start; numerous individuals are opting to continue in the truck industry. But there are few occupational hazards like staying away from their household, responsive tension involved in traveling and lastly the tall budget required to sustain while on the roads.

The main concern which results in stress is fewer hours to rest which is experienced by most truckers. Several drivers feel lethargic and drowsy while driving due to inadequate rest. The authorities are making necessary modifications in driver guidelines to benefit the driver easiness and decrease exhaustion.   

Another major worry for truckers is rash car drivers. Many of the motorists drive in a discourteous way like needless overtaking and lane cutting. The highway authorities are profound on implementation of serious rules to halt rash & neglectful driving by motorists which will also help the truckers to drive in responsible manner. Most of the truck drivers are also battling with health problems such as issues on HIV/Aids & mental illness due to excessive working hours. The enactment of firm guidelines is required to benefit the truckers as well as other motorists on the highway.

WIth all the difficulties faced by the truck drivers which include less pay and heavy working hours, it is hard to focus on long distance trips.

Physical exercises on a regular basis, for a minimum of half an hour, help reduce the mental stress. Physical exercise is regarded as the best stress reliever and walking for little distance will help to decrease the stress. Mahindra Navistar limited has also taken initiative to revolutionize the trucking industry for development of truckers.

Read More - Safety First – Keep the drivers Safe – Mahindra Navistar

India's Superhighways – Building the Future

India has highways broadening across 3.314 million kilometers, making it the 3rd biggest road system around the globe. The development of expressways has made highway transport well-organized and speedy.

13 Expressways are already functioning accurately and 15 more are getting the structure. The 13 super highways in India cover a distance of 683.36 kilometers.

Here’s a look at some of the expressways –

Ahmedabad - Vadodara Expressway – This 95 Km expressway on NH 8 lessens the travel time between the two cities from about 2.5 hours to about an hour. NH 8 is amongst the busiest national highways in the country. Built in 2004, the highway has 2 lanes on both sides. It is a fragment of the Golden Quadrilateral Project by NHAI. It was one of the chief progresses of “India Shining” movement directed by Atal Bihari Vajpayee.

Mumbai-Pune Expressway – With the Total distance of 93 Kms, The Yashwantrao Chavan Superhighway is India's first six-lane concrete superhighway. Connecting Mumbai & Pune – The highway reduces the travel time by 2 hours. The Mumbai Pune expressway removed the travel difficulty between the two major cities. It’s extended and curving road starts from Mumbai & passes through the some scenic locations before it ends in Pune.

Allahabad Bypass Expressway –Covering a distance of 86 kms, the Allahabad Bypass is an admission controlled freeway and forms a part of Golden Quadrilateral project by NHAI, linking four metropolitan cities New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai in India. The superhighway includes construction of rigid asphalt for the main traffic lane and flexible concrete for the service roads.

Delhi-Gurgaon Expressway – It covers a total distance of 28 kms linking Delhi and Gurgaon.  This expressway is a part of the Golden Quadrilateral project by NHAI. There are only two over bridges along the entire section to gratify to the societies living on either side of profoundly inhabited areas through which the superhighway runs.

A gigantic project is in progress to magnify the road network and the government plans to increase a surplus 18,637 kilometers of expressways to the network by 2022. Further projects include creation of access-controlled roads and will provide four to six lanes with 3,530 kms in the next three years.

Truckers – Fight against HIV-AIDS

Truck drivers are very much on travel and devote long hours on the road away from their relatives.  Their need for amusement and female company makes them thinkable to use the services of sex workers in stop-over settlements near major transport routes. 

Consequently it explains high occurrence of HIV rates in truck drivers and the successive spread of the disease through the country.  In addition of this, most truckers have spouses at home who are possible to become sick with HIV by their partners.

The role of truck drivers in the conduction of HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases is deep-rooted in the routine that comes with their occupation.

Even though truck drivers have certain consciousness of HIV/AIDS, this understanding is not regular or complete. Moreover that information and exercise normally do not go hand in hand.

Regardless of common awareness of HIV/AIDS and its hazards, truck drivers do not report a constant decrease in risky behaviors, such as the use of sex workers and unplanned sex with several partners. 

The country including government workers, business owners and truck industry representatives should put efforts in spreading the alertness of HIV/AIDS. 

Health Camps & Awareness Campaigns can help spread the knowledge among the drivers to keep them away from HIV/AIDS virus.

If proper education & awareness is given to truck drivers, it will confidently reduce the rate of HIV-AIDS in truckers in our country.