Indian Trailer Industry Is Undergoing A Revolution
Main Text
The transportation system of a nation plays a significant role in its financial improvement and social development. There are several factors such as ambidexterity, simplicity, reliability and administration, which makes transportation by the road a most favourable one. Due to this, the stake of cargo and truck has been amplified in comparison to other alternative modes. The Trucking Industry has accomplished the need for cargo transportation. The vast layout of the street arrangement (highways and other roads), its quality, and access have a crucial role to play. Around 65% of the nation’s cargo is being shipped on trucks, and this insistently declares the modular movement of load transportation from railways to the road.
Trends Among Major Players
The trucking industry in India is too fragmented. It is dominated by local domestic players who have a large number of fleets and provides competitive prices. Nowadays, we can find truck trailer manufacturers in India, moving towards the asset-light model, subcontracting with local transport vendors and providing value-added services such as kitting, assembling, packing and others.
Reasons for Faster Growth
Increased Government Spending:
Under the budget of 2020-2021, the government has allocated Rs 170,000 crore for transportation. The said figure is 8 % higher than the budgetary allocation of 2019-2020. Various efforts include Bharatmala Pariyojana, Sagarmala Project and Bangalore suburban transport project.
High Seasonal Demand Variation:
The demand for trucking in India is the highest during festive months (Sept, Oct, Nov, and Dec) and harvesting months (February to April) where the occupancy of trucks can rise by 30-40 %
Change In Government Regulations:
The government has taken a big step to maintain transparency into the system by transferring transactions from manual to digital mode with e-way bills and fastags. The amendment in Axle norms has negatively affected the small fleet operators by expanding load capacity.
Improving Cold Transportation:
India is a large exporter of the immense variety of fruits and vegetables that requires cold chain services which are substantially used these days. Our country still faces deficiency in cold transportation services despite huge cold storage capacity. Several food and meat processing companies require cold transportation which is now being served by many cold transporters.
Change Practices in Trailer Industry:
Trailer manufacturing in India has moved from the unorganized to the organized sector today. In the past, merely a decade ago – quality management and safety didn’t play many roles in Indian trailer manufacturing. They are always concerned with the price and the delivery time and safety were not even on their list. Today the industry is very distinct in comparison to those days of production to type approved designs which would be favourable to the end-user and the society at large.
The industrial in-bound and out-bound cargo movements majorly navigate vehicle body designs. To overcome the challenging cargo movements, more than 60 per cent of the vehicles are made with flats or with sideboard. To avoid cargo pilferage, possible branding benefits and to keep the environment clean, the application builders are striving hard to build proper covering solutions for tippers, open trucks and trailers in the form of curtains.
European Design vs Indian Design
Indian trailer industry is likely to adopt the European market in terms of safety and environmental standards from a technology point of view. But there is a difference, of course. Trailer weight is a significant standard in Europe, for example, mostly because of the well -developed local road system. However, in India, our uneven and irregular roads require trailers to be built using heavy material and mechanical suspension. Cost is also a critical factor in India, so the challenge will be to combine the finest features of both countries.
Implementation of Trailer Code
One of the most important decisions taken by the government in 2017 was the implementation of trailer code. This may help the industry to find the right balance, as it will systematize a series of critical components such as tyres, rims, brakes, landing legs and wiring. The trailing code can also do the rear- and side-underrun protection. Before selling any component, manufacturers now need to be officially certified and have their equipment tested for motility and braking performance, which is a crucial step in the right direction.
Conclusion
To conclude, we draw upon a ‘five S’ framework which helps focus on the critical priorities of Indian trailer industry which should be driven by Speed with Sustainability, Safety, Security and Stresslessness.
To develop this sector in an integrated way, it is essential to focus on new technology such as electronic logging devices, trailer tracking, improved investment skilling, removing bottlenecks, improving inter-model transportation, automation and simplifying processes.
