MAHINDRA SAARTHI ABHIYAAN

Mahindra’s Truck and Bus Division has launched various initiatives to better the transport ecosystem. The underlying philosophy driving these initiatives is to enable & better the lives & businesses of various stakeholders, contributing to the overall growth of the business environment.  All of these initiatives are structured around key consumer insights, ensuring that the platforms are filling critical gaps.

While many of our initiatives have been industry firsts, the latest one is truly the closest to our hearts. Christened the ‘SaarthiAbhiyaan’, the initiative aims at MTB providing scholarship of Rs. 10,000 to truck driver’s daughters who have completed their education till the 10th standard for their higher education. In today’s time we believe that women empowerment and girl child education is of primary importance not only for the safety & development of women, but for the cause of nation building at large. The drivers have challenges of their own and education of the girl child doesn’t seem to feature in the priority list. With this initiative we intend to applaud and appreciate their foresight in getting their daughters educated. As a pilot the scholarship was launched in Maharashtra, Tamil Nadu, Bihar, Rajasthan and Haryana.  The first felicitation ceremony was held recently in Pune.

Speaking at the felicitation ceremony, Mr. Nalin Mehta MD and CEO – Mahindra Truck and Bus, who is also the Chairman of MAHINDRA SAARTHI ABHIYAAN Governing Board said, “True to its philosophy of driving a positive change within the transport ecosystem, through this pioneering effort we are striving to improve the life of drivers at a grass root level as they are one of the most important stakeholders in our business. There are more than 70,00,000 truck drivers in India today and I look forward to that day when every truck driver’s daughter is highly educated and self-sufficient. Mahindra SaarthiAbhiyaan, is a salute to these drivers who inspite of all odds, have shown great mettle in educating their children, especially daughters. Through this initiative we salute these heroes who have ensured their daughters become the next engineers, IT professionals, Teachers etc. This is our way of thanking them, showing a sense of gratitude for this exemplary effort!”

Mahindra and Mahindra is one of the first OEM to have thought of this unique way of applauding the efforts put in by the drivers. Before embarking on this project the Mahindra SaarthiAbhiyaan’s Operating Committee undertook a need assessment within the Driver Communities across India, to understand what would be the most necessary improvement that MTB could offer. A survey was undertaken in various parts of India revealed that the average age of a driver in India is about 38 years with an average monthly salary of Rs. 12,000. His family consists of 2 children who go to private schools. He bears an average annual spends of Rs. 10,000 to 12,000 per year on education. Hence the amount of Rs.10,000 was decided upon. But as one dives deep, you can see the drastic drop in the ratio of females pursuing their further education. In India, it is endemic to dissuade girl child from achieving further education due to many socio economic reasons. Within the driver community only 20% attain their secondary education and 10% make it to higher secondary. In such an environment, motivating the drivers to send their daughters for higher education becomes a strong need gap.

The pilot project garnered many hundreds of applications from across India and the program touched the lives of thousands of drivers. The reach and response both were extremely overwhelming. A series of felicitation events have been lined up post the Pune event to recognise the other shortlisted applicants.

MTB’s constant effort to better the transport ecosystem, with each program targeted sharply at improving specific beneficiary has been lauded by the industry. We are extremely confident of the ‘SaarthiAbhiyaan’ ensuring that not only the drivers but their daughters too will travel that extra mile.

The story behind Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards.

Outperform: a philosophy that drives the Mahindra Truck and Bus Division, which has a commitment to the ecosystem to take the transport industry to the next level.  Amongst the various initiatives taken to drive this philosophy, the division has instituted the Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards. These awards recognise and reward the various stakeholders in the trucking industry for factors like Outperformance, Excellence, Innovation and Change Leadership. The event with its inclusive behaviour has set the standard that is driving the entire industry.

The award has set objectives around efforts of the industry that drives it towards certain key factors. For example: with the ethos of accepting no limits, the award recognises those who think big and look beyond the conventional boundaries and are adaptable and agile. Their work is benchmarked beyond the global best in class. It’s an effort to appreciate those who take well reasoned risks to deliver breakthrough products and services.

In criteria like alternative thinking, a sharp eye is kept out for those who define new approaches in everyday work.  A special effort is made to identify those who seek out fresh diverse perspectives & for those who direct intellect towards customer focused innovation.

Driving positive change also forms an important part of the evaluation. The award looks out for those who understand the needs of their customers and offer quality products and services to not only delight them but also to improve and transform their lives. It’s a search for those who put their customers at the centre of their business and build strong relationships with them while acting with the highest standards of integrity.

Entries open now. Log on to www.mahindratransportawards.com for more.

Paving the future of the industry.

Mahindra’s MPOWER, the successful management development program developed in association with the prestigious IIM-Ahmedabad is aimed at empowering the next generation of India’s transporters/ fleet owners to ‘Take forward their family business with their OWN vision’.  Launched on the 9th of January, 2013 the program today has completed 4 successful batches. On Monday, the 14th of July, 2014, the fourth batch of Mahindra MPOWER was launched at the Indian Institute of Management, Ahmedabad (IIMA), with 24 young transporters participating.

The inaugural session was graced by IIMA faculty (Prof. Raghuram and Prof. Debjit Roy, Program Coordinator), the MTBD team and members of Anantara Solutions, our consultants for transport sector initiatives. The program concluded on the 26th of July, 2014.

The mix of the 24 participants was interesting. With an average age of 27 years and coming in from 13 cities, representing 18 different load segments & with a cumulative turnover of 1350 crores the classroom was pot-boiler of opportunities. Owning close to 4900 trucks between themselves and providing employment to 2400 people and with an average company turnover of 57 crores, the batch had enough insights to share.

The participants went through interactive and informative workshops which helped them define solutions to challenges and evolve value propositions vis-a-vis their strengths. They also went through important facets in modern day management like the use of MIS, understanding logistics network, organisational behaviour, market segmentation, online marketing, web based integration in Logistics and Supply Chain management & Strategy formation.

The participants also got to interact with guest speakers like Mr. Ramesh Kumar, a transport journalist & ‘Editor at Large’ who has covered more than 21,000 KMs by truck on Indian roads. Mr. Kumar gave his perspective on driver related challenges. His session went beyond the realms of pure business as he spoke about relationship management with drivers and owners being an integral part of their personal upliftment. The participants also engaged in team building workshops with Prof. Kirti Sharda. Mr. Deepak Jain, AVP-HR at TCI Ltd. shared the HR practices followed by the company. The participants also got to experience the TRACO 35 in person with Mr. Rajat Proothi, as he took an interesting truck familiarisation session. The guest session on RTO Laws and Regulations by Mr. J P Gupta, IAS, Transport Commissioner, Gujarat State was a one of kind experience for these young entrepreneurs. Their visit to Darpana and activities building the right side of the brain was much appreciated by the participants. Several interactive workshops and the opportunity to be amongst renowned celebrity Mallika Sarabhai was something the participants cherished at Darpana.

The participants also had industry visits to the Havmor’s Ice Cream Factory & other cold chain facilities to witness their production process & cold chain facilities. The students froze (literally) in awe as they walked through the -40 degree centigrade cooling chambers.

The participants had their bit of fun between all the lessons too. From a grand Gujarati dinner at Vishala to their visit to the Vintage village, the participants embraced the culture of Gujarat.

The last day saw presentations from 2 groups presenting their integrated case study on what they learnt during the program and how they envisage implementing those when they go back. 

The programme was attended by Mr. Rajeev Malik, who congratulated all the participants on completing this 13 day course successfully. He spoke about how the programme would have transformed the participants beyond professional boundaries. “Those who were just competitors on day 1 are now co-learners of transport’s best practices. You would have become buddies and some of you may even forge partnerships as delegates in the previous batches have done.” Mr. Malik also informed the young entrepreneurs of Mahindra’s commitment towards the trucking business. “We are fully committed to making substantial investments, Rs. 300 crores to explore new product lines in the LCV, ICV and MCV segments besides another Rs. 200 crores investments in strengthening current product line-up of trucks and buses including refurbishing existing LCVs.”

Mr. Rajan Wadhera congratulated all the participants of MPOWER Batch IV. Mr. Wadhera explained the purpose behind MPOWER, & other initiatives like Outperformers’ League and MPOWER War Room as one of Mahindra RISE initiatives. He spoke passionately about how these initiatives are beyond the realms of commercial interests. “I want to emphasize and reassure you, that we want to ‘add value’ to all who support our industry, not just sell trucks, and in the process gain friends. We want to be the most trusted CV brand in India. This can happen only when, we share and connect at a level which transcends commercial interests.”

Mr. Rajan Wadhera announced and launched Mahindra MPOWER Club – a common platform where all the Youth Transporter of previous and future MPOWER batches will be integrated with each other to enable them to connect, network and share information, and be connected with Mahindra’s Truck and Bus Division on a regular basis.

MPOWER, along with other MTBD brand initiatives like Outperformers’ League, Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards and MPOWER War Room itself have emerged as strong and popular initiatives which are driving positive change in the transport community by imparting knowledge, creating platforms for sharing knowledge and initiating dialogue and also providing avenues for celebrating and recognizing excellence and outperformance. We are confident that these initiatives, which honor the brand promise of RISE in letter and spirit, will help make MTBD a strong force in Indian CV industry and eventually, help in our journey to be the most trusted CV brand of India.