The Hindu Business Line : The trucker makeover

This is how most Indians would describe truck drivers: Expletive-spouting, rage-honking bulls in a china shop, dim-witted adventurers, and drunken, brash speedsters. "O Highway," Walt Whitman would say of them, "you express me better than I can express myself." For long, India's 3.3 million truckers, like the three million km of asphalt they ply, were pictures of neglect.

Now, it seems, the sheen of the Golden Quadrilateral and spanking expressways is rubbing off on them. So here come truckers whose English vocabulary goes beyond `Horn Please', who rave about power steering and dashboard computers in the same breath as their pet dhaba and its chicken curry, who mind their electronic defect-diagnostic alerts as ably as the pup streaking across the road, and who, like Dennis Hopper of Space Truckers, tend their cargo with a strong sense of ownership. Pressed by the demands of a global economy, the Indian trucker is slowly reinventing himself to handle evolved technologies, business and customers.

"Until recently, the trucker's job was nobody's envy," says Amarjit Singh from Kharoudi, Punjab. "We used to spend most of our waking hours putting up with rugged roads, staying away from home, doubling up as supervisors and labourers, wheeling and dealing for the operator with officials, rustling up loads for return journeys, and compromising personal safety by overloading vehicles. Besides, we were always at risk of being hijacked or waylaid."

Relaxing on Mumbai's outskirts, he describes how a trucker's job profile and income have improved in the last year or two, as the other truckers around him, most of them graduates, nod vigorously in agreement. The accessories they so proudly flaunt, from shiny watches to trendy mobile phones, bear testimony. Eyeing jobs abroad, some are even attending communication workshops.

Rewards getting better

Right from those driving for the sunset to others genetically configured to be commercial drivers, starting off as khalasis (conductor-cleaners) and following in the tyre-tracks of their driver colleagues was the accepted de rigueur. Of late, the rewards of getting behind the wheel have become more compelling. Just-about-literate drivers of heavy trucks now start with salaries of Rs 4,500-6,000, as against Rs 2,000-2,500 for salesmen in retail outlets, who are required to be at least matriculate. Drivers can vault within five years to Rs 12,000-18,000 a month, comparable to the pay packet of junior executives. It isn't unusual for truckers with around 8-10 years of experience to buy their own vehicles.

Take 32-year-old Mandeep Singh from Haryana's Chochi village. After SSC, he started assisting his uncle, then a truck driver. At 24, he drove for the first time on the Gohana-Sonepat highway. Eight years and a few thousand kilometres later, he now earns Rs 14,000 a month astride a multi-axle truck and can't wait to buy his own. His role model obviously is his uncle, who currently owns four trucks. With the likes of Amarjit and Mandeep now ferrying 70 per cent of the country's freight, thanks to their affordable, flexible and personalised service with fewer intermediate handlings, Mandeep may not be far from realising his dream.

On the `hi-tech' lane

Four-lane highways, says the Central Road Research Institute, have doubled the efficiency of road transport. Modern trucks, capable of hauling extra loads to boost profits, are drawing more buyers. With easy finance, existing operators are upgrading to newer trucks and new operators are emerging. Ask leading truck makers. Volvo grew by 100 per cent in 2004 and already has three customers with over 100-truck fleets. Sales at Ashok Leyland has doubled in the last three years.

Integrated trucking solutions from logistics and specialised transport majors like Gati, TVS Logistics, XPS Global, Safexpress and Om Logistics have lent trucking a higher profile. India produced 2.97 lakh trucks and LCVs in 2004-05 and the industry continues to grow annually at 20 per cent. The country needs 2.5 lakh new drivers every year and there aren't enough because, besides driving skills, essential attributes now include tech savvy, communication skills and business sense.

By reducing human intervention, technologies have made trucking more driver-friendly and unveiled more avenues for the trucker to take on high-end responsibilities. Technologically, Indian trucks are as contemporary as they can get. Volvo's state-of-the-art systems, for instance, could be straight out of a James Bond roadster: sleep warning, lane departure warning, emergency braking, adaptive cruise control (locking speed with vehicles ahead), radar and camera-based visibility.

"More IT has been integrated into the truck," says Mansoor Ahmed, Vice-President - Marketing, Volvo India. Says K.N. Krishnamurthy, Technical Advisor to the Managing Director, Ashok Leyland: "Our technologies have scaled up and Indianised."

What also mandate more responsible drivers are technologies that enable fleet owners to track their vehicles. Says Ahmed, "Drivers have become more important in trucks with high performance potential." Adds V.V. Ganesan of Andavar and Company, Namakkal, Tamil Nadu, "Unlike our fathers who went through the grind of mechanic-cleaner-driver-owner, we've had it easier. But many do lack hands-on experience." Which is where structured training gains importance.

Training for truckers

The emphasis on trained drivers has a statutory side too. In Delhi, for instance, at least two day's training and evaluation is mandatory for drivers obtaining or renewing licences. Similar rules apply in Tamil Nadu to owners and drivers of trucks hauling hazardous materials.

Volvo and Ashok Leyland have already taken the lead in training truckers. For every truck delivered, Volvo provides three- to seven-day training to two customer drivers, who must have driven heavy vehicles for at least three years. "Many of them take jobs abroad," says Ahmed. At Volvo's Bangalore driver-training centre, 35 per cent of the trainees come from the open market looking for better opportunities. Supported by a competence development centre and a 2.2-km-long driving track, the training programme includes theory and practical classes on economical and safe driving, dynamic loading and unloading, driver behaviour and driving technicalities. "The pass rate is around 80 per cent. We have trained nearly 9,000 drivers," he says.

Ashok Leyland's 10-year-old, 25-acre driver-training centre at Namakkal, Tamil Nadu's trucking hub, has a 2,000-sq-metre building, housing classrooms, library and model room. They complement a driving range complete with electronic signals, signboards, road markings, streetlights for night driving and all conceivable road configurations, S/8 hair-pin bends, humps-and-dips with varying gradients, etc. Certification comes after a 90 per cent score.

"We ready a driver for life on and off the road, and make them socially acceptable," says Krishnamurthy. "We've already trained 1.2 lakh drivers." With a trainer-trainee ratio of 1:8, the curriculum covers everything from driving techniques, maintenance and emergency responses to self-defence and meditation to keep this high-risk community from addictions and other misdemeanours. "Around 50 per cent of the trainees coming here have over 15 years of experience. With training, they've been able to improve fuel efficiency by 10 per cent and reduce the wear and tear of parts by 15 per cent," he says.

A case in point is M. Narayanamurthy. As a driver with Sankagiri-based Simon Roadlines, in 2004, he used to haul iron ore from the Hospet-Bellary belt to western ports. Like others, while plying downhill in the ghat section, he would encounter huge momentum generated by the high-density load and the rear axle would start driving the engine, upping its revolutions-per-minute to unanticipated levels. Training taught him "not to over-raise the engine while coming down and to change gears before the engine started straining while climbing."

At one time, K. Nallusamy of Thenpandiyan Transport reported 15 accidents a year in his 100-strong fleet of tankers. After his drivers were trained at Namakkal, the incidence dipped to an odd accident a year. "Training has also aided longer vehicle life," he says.

Pandian, a 36-year-old trucker from Oyalikuppam village, Tamil Nadu says: "I want to start my own driver-training institute after I finish my training."

Opportunities galore

C. Ramachandran, a fresh commerce graduate from Erode, is all set to follow the footsteps of his father, a self-trained truck driver employed in Dubai. "Training gives you self-confidence and adaptability," he says, and has also joined English-speaking classes. Notably, in Dubai, transport operators advise drivers to finish a course at the Namakkal centre when they come down on vacation. A similar initiative has now struck roots in the north. Spread over eight acres and sporting a 1.8-km driving track, another driver-training institute, jointly developed by Ashok Leyland and the Delhi NCT government, recently came up at Burari. "Schools like these create a new breed of drivers," says P. Sengodan, former president of All India Motor Transport Congress. "Fathers no longer balk at marrying their daughters to truck drivers," smiles Ganesan.

The trucker is in for a makeover. "The future driver will be an integral part of the decision-making process in the overall supply chain function and will enhance value to customers," says Praveen Gupta, CEO, TACO MobiApps Telematics. Adds Ahmed: "With higher performing vehicles, the driver's industry status will grow. He may take up a larger role, including customer interaction, invoicing and other commercial transactions. We're bound to see more educated people choose this profession."

Picture by A. Roy Chowdhury

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