Category Archives: Rail/Road

GEODIS has expanded its road network in Southeast Asia to Vietnam; another step towards its ambition to develop a scheduled road service connecting Singapore to China. GEODIS’ own fleet of vehicles and expanded network of partners enables full and partial loads to be carried by road along the Singapore, Malaysia, Thailand axis, and now Vietnam. The addition of the service to Vietnam will serve businesses driving the manufacturing boom in that country over recent years, helping the region become a vital supply chain node for many high-tech, retail, and FMCG businesses. Launched in November 2019, the Road Transport service of GEODIS in Southeast Asia was created to meet the needs of companies looking for a day-definite road transportation solution for their cargo, in the range of 30 to 1000 kilos per shipment. The expanded road network for Full Truck Load (FTL) and Less than Truck Load (LTL) service provide freight management from first to last mile and offers additional options for existing GEODIS customers, in addition to air and ocean transport modes. The door-to-door road option has the advantage of loading space flexibility, with benefits of lower rates than air freight, shorter transit times than ocean freight, and on-the-ground expertise for customs clearance.

COGOS has ramped up its fleet by more than 1000 vehicles to meet the festive demand. This new addition of fleet will address the surge in demand during the festive season which is expected to be high till the end of Q3, FY 2021- 22 According to reports, this festive season has seen a 100% spike in demand from Tier 2 & Tier 3 markets. With the additional fleet, COGOS also expands to 30 new towns and improves reach. COGOS has seen a huge hike in demand for E-Commerce and FMCG Retail. However, this year segments like pantry products, beverage and pharma have also seen an uptick. There is an increase in demand observed for Mini Trucks 1 tonne & 2 tonne and medium trucks above 4 tonne. During this season, driver fleets are ensured higher earnings. Every driver on the COGOS platform enjoys the season perks, and payouts are increased by 15% during the festive peak. In the foreseeable future, COGOS plans to continue to work with the newly added driver fleet for the quarter. Prasad Sreeram, Co – founder & CEO, COGOS said, “This festive season we are observing about a 100 % increase in demand from last year. With the COVID subsiding, consumers are willing to spend. Tier 2 and Tier 3 cities have witnessed good demand which has led to the spike in demand for inter and intra-city logistic services. We have massively improved driver onboarding making it easier, simpler, faster and thorough at the same time to ensure a faster response in the festive season.”

Emphasising on the need of the multi modal trasnportation in order to be more efficient,Yuvraj Sharma, Cluster Head, Sales and Marketing, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Kuhene+Nagel, said, “Today’s enviornment does not just demand to get into a multi modal option for servicing our customer but, it is the need since we have capacity issues, congestions happening, time definite deliveries. All of this require multi modal as a cost effective and time efficient mode of moving goods from one place to another. From logistics performance index point of view, India is today ranked at 44. Multi modal is definitely one way that can not only help in avoiding the challenges we face in today’s time we are working in and improve from the transit point perspective also. And see India becoming a leader not only in the export supply chain but also in the import supply chain.”

Explaining on how the country’s economy will be benefitted with the multi modal way of transportation, Chander Agarwal, MD, TCI Express said, “India is on the cusp of becoming a $5 trillion economy meaning that the logistics cost is going to be $1 trillion approximately. This is a great opportunity for the logistics companies to enhance their capabilities and become leading service providers in the country. Multi modal will benefit the Indian economy in a big way because of a vast coastline and land area. Multi modal may help in bringing down the cost for the logistics sector, moreover, the overall efficiency and the transfer of goods from manufacturer to consumer will be at a much faster pace.”

Showing way forward on multi modal transportation of logistics, Xerrxes Master, President, AMTOI, said, “Multi Modal is the only optimal logistic solution where the best mode of transport is chosen with the most cost effective and time efficient manner. Finally, the Indian government has recognized the importance of multi modalism by renewing the old Multi Modal Transportation of Goods Act 1993. AMTOI has been actively involved with the Government in policy formulation, also to become a self regulating organisation for the benefit of it’s members. Multi modalism is carried out by all the three modes of transportation where a contract can be executed by different modes of transport under one single document which is the essence and the basis of multi modalism.”

CargoTalk’s virtual conclave on Multi Modal Logistics was a big success. With a lot insightful information from our expert speakers, the discussion on the said topic were informative as to how multi modal logistics is revolutionising the supply chain by transporting the logistics faster and more efficiently. With the focus on Multi Modal in the new normal world, the summit also discussed the significant role played by it in the transportation of logistics globally. Also how technology is supporting the movement of logistics in a more efficient manner. The industries across have well adopted to the changing dynamics of different modes of transportation in the supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations. Esteemed speakers included Xerrxex Master, President, AMTOI, Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCI EXPRESS Ltd. and Yuvraj Sharma, Cluster Head Sales and Marketing, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Kuhene+Nagel.

CargoTalk is organising a digital conclave today from 11.00-12.00 pm. The virtual conclave is about Multi Modal Logistics and how it is revolutionising the supply chain by transporting the logistics faster and more efficiently. The conclave will have eminent speakers from across the industry. With the focus on Multi Modal in the new normal world, the summit will discuss the significant role played by it in the transportation of logistics globally. The industries across have well adopted to the changing dynamics of different modes of transportation in the supply-chain interactions and of their internal operations. Esteemed speakers will include Xerrxex Master, President, AMTOI, Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCI EXPRESS Ltd. and Yuvraj Sharma, Cluster Head Sales and Marketing, India, Sri Lanka and Maldives, Kuhene+Nagel. For further details please contact Jaspreet Kaur: +91-9650196532, jaspreet.kaur@ddppl.com

Express distribution leader Gati has ramped up its network capacity by 25% by adding 100 line haul trucks to its innovative flexi network to connect the demand locations. Thus, Gati aims to cut down the dwell time further in view of the huge spike in demand during the festival season, billed as the stress-test time for supply chain players. The additional trucks in the special flexible network based on the market and route dynamics, will connect the key locations to ease the pressure of servicing the demands. The network will reduce dwell time from existing 9% to 5%. As many as 19 such grid locations including Delhi/NCR, Mumbai, Bangalore, Ahmedabad, Hyderabad, Chennai, Pune, Indore and Kolkata have been identified for the purpose. “We are ready for the festival ride and meet the increased demand during the upcoming season. The network capacity will be enhanced by 20-25% while the workforce will be strengthened by at least15%. We are planning to leverage at least 20% of existing facilities further to manage the peak season load. Overall, we expect a 15% increase in productivity per person. We are tech enabled, especially in the area of artificial intelligence, to meet the purpose. We have set up a monitoring system already in place to ensure a better transit time for the customers. Our aim is to ensure a delivery efficiency of 95%+,” said Charles Devlin D’Costa, Chief of Supply Chain Operations, Gati KWE

With the ongoing festive season, the new-age logistics companies expect multi-fold growth in shipments and are fully geared to meet the challenge with measures such as capacity expansion and additional hiring. With aggressive demands during festive seasons over the last few years, COVID-19 has further accelerated e-commerce adoption in all segments, be it business-to-consumer (B2C), direct-to-consumer (D2C) or business-to-business (B2B). Xpressbees Chief Business Officer for B2C, Harsha Bhoi, said, “the overall volume in the festive season goes to two-three times for the overall e-commerce markets”. “This year, we are expecting even more higher peaks considering the economy getting (back) on track. Moreover, increased adoption in tier 2 and 3 cities as well as in remote cities and COVID-19 further accelerate the overall adoption for e-commerce deliveries,” he added. Bhoi added that the company expects a peak of up to 1.5 million shipments for Xpressbees on peak days during the festive rush.

Container Company of Bangladesh Limited (CCBL) is going to build a rail Inland Container Depot (ICD) in Chittagong to boost the transportation of containers by trains. Local terminal operator Saif Powertec Limited will build and operate the ICD on behalf of CCBL for 20 years before handing it over to CCBL, according to a deal that will be signed on 19 October. The new ICD will have a capacity of 100,000TEU a year and will be built in more than 86,150m² of railway-owned land in the Halishahar area on the outskirts of the port city of Chittagong. Currently, there are 19 ICDs in the country which handle 1.6 million TEU a year. CCBL invited bids from the interested local and global operators in February for the construction and operation of the ICD. Fourteen companies, including four foreign players, submitted bids from where Saif Powertec has been selected.