Category Archives: Rail/Road

On account of the nationwide lockdown, the Indian logistics sector has witnessed a significant sequential recovery after experiencing severe disruption in Q1 FY2021. This had created demand-side and supply-side challenges which eased in subsequent months as economic activity recovered. As per ICRA note, as lockdown-related restrictions eased and economic activity revived, the freight availability for logistics players also improved. Accordingly, many of the logistics companies reverted to pre-pandemic levels by end of Q2 FY2021 and started reporting Y-o-Y growth from Q3 FY2021, the same has continued into Q4 FY2021 as well. Freight rates also remained firm during this period. According to Rohan Kanwar Gupta, Assistant Vice President & Sector Head, ICRA Ratings, “As the economy opened up and industrial, manufacturing, construction and consumption activities picked up pace, freight availability also improved, aiding recovery in the sector. Freight rates also held up in this period. As such, the pace of revenue contraction mellowed down significantly in Q2 FY2021, and reverted to growth trajectory in Q3 FY2021. This trend was also visible in E-way bill volumes, which reached pre-pandemic levels in September 2020 and posted Y-o-Y growth in all subsequent months. While freight volumes in Q3 FY2021 were supported by the historically strong festive period, the sector sustained its volume growth even after the season ended, giving comfort regarding the sustainability of the recovery.” The recovery has also been visible across other modes of transportation as well. The rail freight traffic reported similar trends, reporting Y-o-Y growth of 5% and 10% in Q2 FY2021 and Q3 FY2021 respectively. The volumes thereafter have also held up, touching peak freight volumes in January 2021, resulting in 7% Y-o-Y growth during the fourth quarter so …

Aggressively expanding its network to extend the reach in every nook and corner of India, Shree Maruti Courier Services is planning to add 2,000 cities and towns of the country in their network and aiming to achieve Rs 1,000 crore turnover in the next five years. At present, the company has a nationwide network of over 2,650 outlets and round the clock working at 89 regional offices across India. The company has a presence in 868 cities & towns and serving to 4,600 pincodes. Elaborating the details on the plan, Ajay Mokariya, Managing Director, Shree Maruti Courier Services, said, “Despite challenging business environment, we are witnessing an increasingly strong demand across the markets. With the aggressive expansion plan, we are aiming to add additional 7,500 unique pin codes across the country. The company has added new products/verticals of surface cargo and upgraded international segment by opening up six new gateways recently. The same will ensure to achieve a target of Rs 1,000 crore turnover in next five years. Keeping in mind Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ mission, we are proud to contribute to India’s growth story and aiming to generate 10,000 employment opportunities with this expansion”.

In view of tremendous potential of cross border trade between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) Shankar Shinde, Chairman Elect, the Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in India (FFFAI) has recommended for seamless multimodal connectivity and strong logistics infrastructure in each of the above countries. Speaking at a webinar on ‘UN TIR System and its benefits of expansion to Bangladesh and other BBIN countries’, which was organised by FICCI in association with IRU Geneva, ICC Bangladesh and FFFAI, Shinde observed that accession to TIR Carnet would be immensely beneficial for the hassle-free cross border trade in this region. It would be pertinent to mention that FFFAI is one of the associates of TIR Carnet and have been working with the Government of India for International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) project, under TIR Carnet. He also emphasised on well-defined policies to be framed up by the respective governments and well-trained officers including Customs and allied agencies engaged at the border check posts. Based on the INSTC route experience, where FFFAI had launched a trial run of containers, Shinde stated that point to point vehicle movement would be the pragmatic solution instead of re-working of unloading and reloading transshipment, to save cost and reduce dwell time. Accordingly, accession to TIR would expedite the process in this regard. He, however, highlighted various other challenges as regard to cross border cargo transportation, as witnessed in INSTC route. Shinde further suggested that the governments will have to provide more impetus on private logistics companies, NVOCC or multimodal logistics operators’ participation in the BBIN project and also important would be to create a BBIN website portal with complete information for trade participation and addressing issues. …

Zipaworld has announced investing a stake in Radiant X-Ways Logistic; the amount has not been disclosed by either of the parties. This investment comes soon after the launch and implementation of Zipaworld’s Ocean Freight digital platform. The Board of Directors of Radiant X-Ways Logistic has nominated Dr Ambrish Kumar, the founder of Zipaworld, as the Chairman of Radiant. Shares his futuristic views Kumar states, “The investment in Radiant marks another milestone for us as we aimed at encompassing and connecting more than 26000 zip codes across India, to the global gateway digitally through the Zipaworld platform.” He also added that “Radiant will help us resolve the first and last mile connectivity concerns as the user will be able to book a cargo right from their door to the destination door from one single gateway, without having to go to multiple vendors”. Zipaworld is all set to break the stereotypes of the Indian logistics sector which is highly fragmented and disintegrated. Prabhakar Pandey, Managing Director, Radiant X-Ways Logistic, expresses his enthusiasm and thoughts stating, “We are keenly contemplating Zipaworld’s holding and backing in Radiant, mainly for digitizing and automating the whole domestic circuit that forms our expertise. Our valuable clients will be highly benefitted with the automation and the technological advancement. Zipaworld is providing Radiant with a gateway to cater to the international market for our year-old clients and that too from a single window gateway”. The assurance of Dr Ambrish Kumar towards the end of last year to transport goods to and from any part of the country and offering the manufacturers and exporters a global access is turning out to be a reality much ahead of the stipulated time. …

RedSeer and Shadowfax have launched the ‘Delivery Delight Index’ to help brands and platforms assess their relative positioning in terms of delivery experience provided to the end customer and take measures to continually improve their delivery experience score which in turn will help them to drive customer satisfaction and improve their revenue per customers. Commenting on the launch of Delivery Delight Index, Abhishek Bansal, CEO, and Founder, Shadowfax says, “I have said this in the past and continue to foresee that five years down the line, e-commerce will evolve into maximum two-day deliveries. While discounts on products are no longer a key driver for consumers to shop online, speed of delivery, safety and hygiene have become imperative in the past few months. Third-party logistics will emerge as an important driver for bringing consumer delight to the brands offering safer, faster deliveries. We have come together with RedSeer to bring the Delight Delivery Index for brands. The index will enable a deeper understanding of customer behavior and preferences and help the brands better serve their customers. The Index outlines interesting facts about the change in consumer behavior. Delivery Delight Index will also help brands and platforms understand satisfaction levels of their end customers across key parameters like Speed of Delivery and Delivery Experience. Some of the traditional/retail and digitally native brands who have partnered with 3PL companies are leading in better delivery experiences. This reveals that the industry needs an agile supply chain management and warehousing solutions of 3PL players to improve on their delivery experience score leading to better revenue per customer.” ‘Delivery Delight Index’ has been developed after ~9,000 consumer surveys covering 34 players across four types of platforms …

Pickkup is now aiming to expand its services to South’s major metropolitan cities Bengaluru and Chennai, apart from starting operations in Vijaywada and Vishakhapatnam this year. With plans to have operations in 5 cities over the next few months, Pickkup aims to reach a revenue of Rs 10-12 crore by the next financial year 2021-22. The startup plans to raise seed capital in the upcoming financial year to fuel its expansion plans including establishing operations in multiple cities and hiring new fleet. The expansion plans come in the wake of stupendous post COVID growth, with the startup registering a 20-fold rise in delivery volumes over the past 11 months. The demand for Pickkup’s on-demand last-mile delivery services grew tremendously from enterprises particularly from retail and e-commerce players. Apart from Bengaluru, Chennai the tech enabled last mile delivery startup is also ready to expand its operations to other Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. While the operations in Bengaluru are set to start next month, the startup is expected to take off in Chennai and Vijayawada in June and Vishakhapatnam by October this year. Over the next two fiscal years, Pickkup aims to have operations in eight cities with an expected revenue of Rs 50 crore. With a number of its partners having multi city presence, the startup already has order commitments from a series of businesses and e commerce platforms in Bengaluru and Chennai. The startup already has order commitments from businesses, bakery outlets, retail and several e commerce platforms in Bengaluru where operations are set to take off immediately. “With our technology-driven services enabling a highly efficient local delivery model, Pickkup has emerged as the fastest …

In spite of Covid challenges, Indian Railways surpassed last year’s total Cumulative freight loading on March 11, 2021; cumulative freight loading touched 1145.68 million tonnes which is higher than total cumulative loading of last year (1145.61 million tonnes). Freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of loading and speed in the month of March 2021 as well for Indian Railways. On a month to month basis, up to March 11, 2021, Indian Railways loading was 43.43 million tonnes, which is 10 per cent higher compared to last year’ loading for the same period (39.33 million tonnes). On day to day basis, on 11th March, 2021, the freight loading of Indian Railways was 4.07 million tonnes, which is 34 per cent higher compare to last year’s loading for the same date (3.03 million tonnes). The average speed of Freight Trains in the month of March 2021 till March 11 was 45.49 kmph which is almost double compare to last year for the same period (23.29 kmph). A number of concessions/discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make railways freight movement very attractive. Strong emergence of Business Development Units in Zones & Divisions, constant dialogue with the industry & logistics service providers, faster speed etc are adding to the robust growth of freight business for the Railways. COVID 19 has been used by Indian Railways as an opportunity to improve all-round efficiencies and performances.

Shadowfax Technologies has announced the signing up for exclusively managing the Dark Stores for Drums Food International – Epigamia’s newly launched ambient product line for its Ghee Spread and Almond Milk across 7000 + pin codes in India. Shadowfax has integrated its cutting-edge warehouse management and last-mile delivery system with Epigamia’s demand management platform to help track customer orders real-time, which will ensure faster fulfilment and hence faster deliveries. Shadowfax has expanded its warehousing space from 5 lakh square feet to 6 lakh square feet this month in response to increased demand from its customers. With the E2E Rapid service, the company will provide end-to-end logistics and warehousing along with express distribution for effective supply chain management, faster deliveries, flexibility with proximity to consumers, and real-time tracking of Epigamia products. On the new acquisition, Abhishek Bansal, Founder, and CEO, Shadowfax Technologies, said, “Signing up Drum Foods is a big win for us as they are a recognized and loved brand in India. Our micro fulfillment centers or the Dark Stores, will enable faster deliveries along with our unique WMS which will help capture customer orders real time on the client website. We’ll be investing significantly in our WMS which will allow our clients to offer differentiated value offerings to their end customers. Further, we’ll also target on expanding our network to newer markets, in step with rising demand.” Rohan Mirchandani, Co-Founder at Drums Food International said, “The onset of COVID prompted Indian shoppers to go online to shop and discover brands, while brands like us strengthened our online presence via D2C platforms. Though Epigamia is all about innovative offerings, our key focus has always been customer delight. We wanted to …

Tata Motors has unveiled its newest range of intermediate and light commercial trucks (I&LCV), the Ultra Sleek T-Series, designed and engineered to suit contemporary demands of urban transportation. Available in three models – T.6, T.7 and T.9, the Ultra Sleek range is available in varied deck lengths from 10 to 20 feet to adapt to all the required applications. A sleek 1900mm-wide cabin provides superior driver comfort yet swift movement in confined city spaces, and smart features provide for easy manoeuvrability. Launching the Ultra Sleek T-Series range, Girish Wagh, President, Commercial Vehicle Business Unit, Tata Motors said, “Tata Motors has consistently set new benchmarks by introducing smarter, future-ready products and solutions across its various segments. The launch of the Ultra Sleek T-Series range marks a new landmark in urban freight transportation. These trucks are sleeker and smarter enabling faster movement and hence higher utilisation and revenue with more trips. Built on the internationally recognised Ultra platform, the trucks are engineered to cater to a diverse set of applications.” The Ultra Sleek T-Series range combines futuristic styling with comfort, provides significantly lower Noise, Vibration and Harshness (NVH) levels, ease of movement on congested and narrow roads and a fatigue-free driving experience. The walk-through cabin is rigorously crash-tested for superior safety and comes equipped with adjustable seat height, tilt-and-telescopic power steering, and a dashboard-mounted gear lever. The addition of an in-built music system, USB fast charging port and liberal storage space offers enhanced comfort, while air brakes and parabolic leaf suspension provide better safety and control with clear-lens headlamps and LED tail-lamps improving night visibility. Affirming its versatility, Ultra Sleek T-Series has variants available in 4-tyre and 6-tyre combinations and varied deck …

Ecom Express has received additional funding from CDC Group. CDC Group, the UK Government’s development finance institution and impact investor in South Asia and Africa has announced that it has closed a US$ 20 million investment round in Ecom Express. This will be CDC’s second round of investment in Ecom Express after its initial investment in December 2019. CDC’s latest commitment will support Ecom Express in advancing the company’s sustainable development and impact agenda of enhancing skills and boosting job creation in the Indian hinterlands. With the high demands for jobs in India, the country needs to create 8.1 million jobs a year to maintain its employment rate. This investment supports India’s effort as it will enable Ecom Express to create 8,000 new jobs in addition to an initial target of 15,000 roles – prioritising employing women for jobs at delivery centres, fulfilment centres and warehouses across the nation. Additionally, Ecom Express will be utilising the equity infusion by CDC Group investments for strategic initiatives such as growth driven capital expenditure, working capital requirements, new business initiatives, expansions, and potential strategic acquisitions/partnerships. Srini Nagarajan, Managing Director and Head of Asia at CDC, said, “Ecom Express is playing a vital role in enabling e-commerce growth and expanding product reach across India. CDC’s additional investment in the company reflects our support for the company’s pan-India expansion, and a commitment to channelling our patient capital toward a business that aligns with our development, impact, and sustainability goals. Moreover, we are delighted that this investment will further enhance efforts India is making to meet the UN Sustainable Development Goals of achieving gender equality and empowerment, and promoting sustainable growth and decent work for all.’’ …