When Transport Titans Meet

With the Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards just around the corner, the heavy-weights of the industry came together to discuss the future of the transport industry in Delhi on October 12th and 13th 2012.

This meeting highlighted several issues and milestones of the transport industry. Industry big wigs like Mr. Tej Nirmal Singh (Head Logistics, Ericsson, India), Mr. Ranganathan (CEO, DCM, Retail), Mr. Pradeep Saxena (ED, TNS Automotive), Mr. Siddharth Patankar (Editor, NDTV Profit) and Ms. Shobha Subramanian (MD, Market Vistas, Ex-ED, TNS India) were part of the esteemed jury.

They discussed the growing influence of the younger generation in crucial decision making roles; the increasing levels of professionalism in the industry and the positive impact of competition in helping the transport industry grow.

This year the jury saw an even greater number of passionate candidates taking part. They believed that candidates recognized the Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards as the ideal platform to showcase their best practices to likeminded and reputed people in the industry. These candidates displayed an increased level of enthusiasm to highlight the nuances of their individual cases showing their respect for the entire judging process.

Daily troubles and serious issues faced by truck drivers were also addressed in the meeting. A plan was etched out to solve these problems with the help of the OEM.

This was the first successful meet of the transport aficionados who got to see a glimpse of the talent that would take center stage at the forth-coming Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards.

Young Truckers shying away from driving trucks.

The trucking profession keeps the economy of the country going.

On an average 10% of the total trucks do not take off from the stands because the driver to truck ratio is painfully low. To understand and solve this issue ZEE News and Mahindra Navistar together conducted a survey of the Indian National highways.

The results of the survey were distressful. In India, about 19 people die every hour in road accidents. Young truckers are on the verge of giving up the trucking profession owing to the hazards of trucking and the lack of pay, facilities, perks and recognition in this profession. The dip in the number of truckers has been about 5-10% and the survey predicts a higher drop in the future. Zee News and Mahindra Navistar turned to a few experts for an opinion.

Delhi Joint Commissioner of Police, Satyendra Garg, “It is difficult to get a good driver is a general feeling in transporters.”

Haryana Transport Commissioner, Amit Jha, “The entire nation faces this situation, that the drivers of transport vehicles need training and counseling. The condition of the drivers needs to be improved.”

Scientific Traffic Management and Traffic Education expert, Rohit Baluja, “The wages of the truckers should be minimum 15000 rupees to incentivize the truckers to be responsible drivers.”

The question arises, “How can the face of Indian Trucking change?” 

The truckers ought to get a World-Class trucking experience and World-class trucks. The truckers ought to be acknowledged and felicitated for their contribution to trucking and the country’s economy on the whole.

The initiative taken by Mahindra Navistar and the Mahindra Navistar Excellence Awards is a rising sun to change the current scenario of Indian Trucking.

Jam at Highways

Transport is the basis of the Sustainable development of any country. Traffic jams hamper smooth transport.

With great improvements in the road infrastructure and highways in India, speed and time has become a big part of the bargain for everyone. While countries have an average speed limit of 100kmp, Indian highways are still keeping a speed limit of 50kmph. Though we have world class highways and trucks on the road, we are still facing problems of speed, time and distance when it comes to commuting on our roads. Why is this issue rising?

The main reason for all the problems on the roads are traffic jams. According to a report presented by Ministry of Road, Transport and Highways, the lack of speed, delays at the toll plaza, road accidents cause close to 4000 Crores of loss of in Truck Operating hours. The most shocking revelation was the speed limit on the major highways in the country i.e. 20 Kmph.

Scientific Traffic Management and Traffic Education expert, Rohit Baluja quotes, “Despite progress in cities and transport, jams are prevalent due to lack of planning.” It also means that the rate at which volume of transport runs on highway is much higher than the amount of development that need to happen on the highways.

Road designing and traffic management plays a crucial role in solving this problem. Indian government has introduced a scheme where they have developed peripheral express highways to aid the transport speed, where these vehicles do not need to enter the internal arterial roads of a certain city.

Chakan: The Birthplace of Outperformance

With a strong belief in the brand philosophy that Ok is no longer OK, Mahindra paved the way for a breakthrough in the trucking industry. The Mahindra Vehicles Manufacturing Plant Ltd. is a state of the art plant in Chakan, home to the Mahindra Navistar truck. With its cutting edge technology the Chakan plant at Pune is recognized as the future of manufacturing and the birthplace of outperformance.

Packed with world class equipment, this revolutionary factory is a sprawling 27,000 square meters. Made in India, for the Indian roads it has 92 assembly stages and truck variants ranging from 16 to 49 tons. The 5 stage End of Line Vehicle Quality Verification, In- Process Quality Checks and Buy Offs and safety assured through the use of an Electric DC Nut Runner all contribute to the rigorous quality control that Mahindra Navistar ensures before their trucks hit the road. Fuelled by solar power the entire plant is Eco friendly and energy efficient.

Assuring quality through precision machinery and minute attention to detail for every truck, the Chakan plant is truly a factory of the future. Mahindra Navistar has imported technology from Schuler, Germany; a technology so advanced it’s the first of its kind in India, with only 2 counterparts across the globe. Built with the best technology and machinery for a country rearing to outperform, the Mahindra Vehicles Manufacturing Plant Ltd. at Chakan is the epicentre of India’s trucking revolution.

Come experience cutting edge technology at our state of the art plant in Chakan. 

Click here to visit the Chakan plant: http://www.mahindranavistar.com/contact-us.asp