While driving down a highway do not be surprised if you notice a small, yellow cube-shaped container behind larger cargo such as machinery or steel pipes.

This is the jugaad that Agarwal Packers and Movers Ltd (APML), a household name in re-location services, has come up with to make use of the empty space on its trailers.

The importance of this innovation is such that if adopted across the sector, the additional revenue that it could potentially add is as much as ₹42,000 crore — without adding a single trailer to the existing fleet.

Usually, trailers carry cables, earth movers, pipes, steel plates, construction and agricultural equipment, as well as pharma and agricultural equipment. This business is annually pegged at around ₹1.75 lakh crore. In a 40-ft trailer, the equipment will typically occupy three fourth of the space and leave 10-12 ft unused.

“This empty space is a national loss. We are using it to carry smaller cube-shaped containers available in sizes between 4 ft and 20 ft in the empty space. We don’t leave even one foot empty in our trailers,” said Ramesh Agarwal, Chairman, APML.

In order to ensure that the client transporting the larger freight has no objections to the cubes (that is what the company calls the smaller containers), APML offers a discount, giving up some of the additional revenue it earns from this exercise.

“It’s a win-win situation for both of us. We reduce the transportation cost for them, and, in turn, get additional revenue by using the empty space,” he said. “This is the best way to utilise the waste space.”

Innovation patent

APML, which has got a patent for its innovation (called truckingcubes), follows the same method while transporting large containers. Locks hold these cubes in place, he told BusinessLine . The solution was launched a year ago.

APML has a fleet strength of 1,000 trailers of which 700 can carry these cubes. It has 2,000 cubes. In 7-8 years, “we plan to have about 1 lakh cubes and turnover from this business will be around ₹10,000 crore,” he said.

The company has so far invested around ₹18 crore to manufacture the trucking cubes. Each cube costs a shade less than ₹1 lakh.

The cube eliminates multiple handling of cargo at transshipment centres, and is moved from end-to-end without any disturbance to the cargo inside. “We are giving a new shape to the logistics industry. There is no mix up in cargo and wastage of space in trailers is reduced,” he said.

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