Category Archives: Rail/Road

Talking about the challenges faced by industry when the lockdown was announced, Aditya Shah, Executive Director, V-Trans India, says that the period of end of March and mid of April which was filled with uncertain times, at the CargoTalk’s third digital conclave. He continues, “Business came to a standstill, trucks were stranded, and cargo was held up whether it is road, airport or seaport. However, logistics being such an essential industry for the backbone of the country, it had to bounce back very fast. The government has ensured the delivery of essentials, right from the beginning, and slowly and steadily also enabled the entire ecosystem around essentials. Things have started moving pretty fast for the industry, however, it was filled with challenges; from obtaining local permissions to ensuring the safety of people and also if people are in place to operate. The challenges which we as an industry have faced have been immense but still the resilience and hard work with which each one of us stood up deserves some acknowledgement.”

“Covid-19 has brought a new change in our lives,” says, Ashok Goyal, Managing Director, BLR Logistiks at the third edition of CargoTalk’s digital conclave. He informs, “When the lockdown started in March, industry got into a very bad shape and everyone was worried about the future. However, we have gone through it well. If we look at last three months, the progress is phenomenal in terms of how economy has picked up and businesses are back to 75 per cent level. Hence, I see no reason why are not we going to grow the way we were growing earlier as we can also see the younger generation taking over the business, especially road transport which is even considered to be a tough one.” “The crisis has taught us collaboration and has brought everyone closer. We never used to have this kind of unity which we have now and big players are taking help of smaller players in the area where they are not strong” he adds.

The third edition of CargoTalk digital conclave will begin today at 10 am till 12:15 pm. There will be two sessions each of one-hour duration, which will lay emphasis on re-engineering the future. Experts from air cargo and road logistics will share their views. Panelists for first session titled ‘Digitalisation: Building and Enabling Confidence’ (10am-11am) will be Saurabh Kumar, CEO, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo, Amar More, Director, Kale Logistics Solutions and Keku Gazder, CEO, AAICLAS. For the second session, titled ‘The Road ahead – Driving to Success’ (11:15am-12:15pm), there will be Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCI Express, Aditya Shah, Executive Director, V-Trans India and Ashok Goyal, Managing Director, BLR Logistiks.

Indian Railways has created a record by operating a longest Indian goods train ever, named SheshNaag. The rake had a total of 251 wagons pulled by four electric locomotives which were fitted in between. The train had four empty BOXN rakes. At the moment, Indian Railways is prioritising the movement of freight trains in its network by moving multiple freight rakes together as it helps in saving the transportation time and also help in the decongestion of the rail route. “The experiment of attaching multiple rakes of freight trains together and transporting them from one place to another has been successful,” tweets, Piyush Goyal, Railway Minister

The third edition of CargoTalk digital conclave is all set to be held tomorrow, Tuesday, July 7 with a focus on impact of COVID-19 on road logistics. Speakers will include Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCI Express, Aditya Shah, Executive Director, V-Trans India and Ashok Goyal, Managing Director, BLR Logistics. The session between 11:15 am to 12:15 pm will discuss how the industry has managed in these challenging times when the world’s biggest lockdown has brought road freight movement to nearly a standstill.

“In order to streamline the logistics eco-system in the country, a National Logistics Efficiency and Advancement Predictability & Safety Act (NLEAPS) is under consideration,” informs, Pawan Agarwal, Special Secretary (Logistics), Ministry of Commerce & Industry at a webinar organized by the PHD Chambers of Commerce. Stressing on defining the various elements in the logistics sector, he says, “What the logistics sector is all about is not very clear to us as of now. The government is considering replacing the multimodal transportation of goods law with national logistics law to promote growth of the sector.” “The high logistics cost of country is impacting the competitiveness of domestic goods in the international market. India’s logistics sector is highly fragmented and the government aims to reduce the logistics cost from the present 14 per cent of the Gross Domestic Product to less than 10 per cent,” tells Agarwal. He continues, “During the times of COVID-19, there has been a disruption in the supply chain and movement of truck with many of the supplies diverting to the rail; making it a reliable and cost effective mode of transportation. In these indispensable times, we have realised the importance of essential services with their regular supply chains,” he adds. According to Agarwal, digitisation of logistics is the need of the hour which will increase the efficiency in movement of goods. He also informs that the government is working on creating digital platforms and mobiles apps for logistics such as warehouse information tracking and trading yard (WITTY), among others to mapping of warehouses. Agarwal believes that logistics is a sector that needs to realise the vision of ‘Aatma Nirbhar Bharat’.

In India 60 per cent transportation was by road where as it is much more by waterways in other countries. At the webinar held by Domestic Air Cargo Agents Association of India (DACAAI), Suman P Singh, Joint Secretary – Logistics, MoRTH informs, “We are working on 35 Multimodal Logistic Parks with connectivity of rail, road, air and sea to reduce freight charges and handling charges.” He continues, “Our warehouses have to be bigger and mechanised in order to attain economies of scale. On procedural part, ministry is working on fully automated multimodal logistic parks in paperless mode.” “The multimodal parks at Chennai, Nagpur & Aizwal are getting operational,” Singh informs.

Emphasising on high logistics cost in India as compared to US and China, Nitin Gadkari, Minister of Road Transport, Highways and MSME, Government of India points to all stakeholders, at the webinar held by Domestic Air Cargo Agents Association of India (DACAAI) , “Unless we reduce this logistics cost, we cannot be competitive in the world. We are working in road sector by creating Delhi-Mumbai express highway wherein work has already started in 32 out of 62 pockets. When ready, the trucks can reach Delhi-Mumbai in just 28 hours instead of 48 hours earlier and they would be able to make 9 trips instead of 4 trips which will bring down the cost. “Movement of agri-horticulture, fruit vegetables, lichees from Bihar, pineapple from Nagaland, oranges from Nagpur, grapes from Nashik, fish, prawns and other perishables is important to increase domestic air cargo volumes. However, it won’t be viable by air unless the airfreight cost and other related handling costs get lowered,” he states. According to him, “Cargo operators should work out full cargo flights for fruit and vegetables to get the best rates from airlines. Even old disused aircraft with defence and can be converted to freighters. By using domestic air carriage of perishables farmers can get the all India market and fair value for his produce as well as operators can get profits.”

After receiving an overwhelming response in its first two digital conclave, CargoTalk is back with its third conclave on July 7, 2020 from 10 am to 12:15 pm. The virtual summit is divided into two one-hour sessions and will have eminent speakers from trade. The summit will focus on the how digitsation has helped air cargo industry to sustain in the business during the Covid-19 pandemic in these grim times. And, Covid-19 impact on road logistics, especially with the rise in freight rate as most of the trucks still stranded. Speakers will include Saurabh Kumar, CEO, GMR Hyderabad Air Cargo, Amar More, Director, Kale Logistics Solutions, Keku Gazder, CEO, AAICLAS, Chander Agarwal, Managing Director, TCI Express, Ashok Goyal, Managing Director, BLR Logistics and Aditya Shah, Executive Director, V-Trans India.

The Telangana State Road Transport Corporation (TSRTC) has launched its parcel, courier and cargo services (PCC) to increase its revenue and bail itself out of the existing losses. The services will be made available at all bus stations and in the first phase will begin with 104 buses and 140 stations. An app will also soon be developed to enable the booking and delivery of parcels and cargo. Puvvada Ajay Kumar, Transport Minister, Telangana, says, “During the pandemic, the revenues of TSRTC fell sharply. We plan to overcome those losses by generating additional revenue. TSRTC has generated an income of Rs 4 crore per day as against the sum of Rs 12 crore which is used to be generated before the lockdown.. Through PCC, TSRTC is expecting a revenue of Rs180 to Rs200 crore.” “There will be three to five people, depending on the need, at each station,” informs Minister.