Gadkari to grace Transporters Meet final event on March 11

The grand finale of the second edition of Transporters Meet, an event for the transporter sector, organised by BusinessLine in association with Indian Oil Corporation Ltd (IOC) and Mahindra Small Commercial Vehicles, will be held at New Delhi on March 11.

Nitin Gadkari, Union Minister of Road Transport, Highways & Micro, Small and Medium Enterprises, will be the chief guest at the event.

The second edition of the highly-successful Transporters Meet commenced in Navi Mumbai on January 10. The second event was held at Bengaluru on January 30; the third was at Guwahati on February 14 and the fourth at Visakhapatnam on February 21. Nearly 200 fleet-owners were in attendance at each event.

This one-of-its-kind event that brings together various stakeholders involved in the transport sector to discuss issues, share best practices and suggest solutions to the problems faced by them. The discussion on issues varied at each location.

For instance, at the Mumbai event, panellists strongly advocated freight rates on per km, per tonne basis, and also for more educated people to enter the business. In Bengaluru, the discussion was on the new mechanism for revising fuel prices. In Guwahati, the issues were around poor infrastructure.

Lack of parking lots

In the port city of Visakhapatnam, the discussion was on lack of specified parking lots; issues in finance, surge in mandatory motor third-party insurance price and shortage of drivers are top concerns for road transporters.

In Delhi, Gadkari’s special address will be followed by a panel discussion on ‘The Road Ahead’ as the industry faces challenges related to demand, regulation, shift to BS-VI fuels and local issues. The discussion assumes significance considering the slowdown in the market, and truckers woes of cargo finding. This, in turn, has forced many trucks to remain idle.

The panelists in the discussion are: SK Mittal, Chairman, All India Motor Transport Congress; Ramesh Agarwal, Chairman, Agarwal Packers and Movers Ltd, and Patron, All India Transporters Welfare Association and Shyam Bohra, Executive Director and State Head, Delhi State Office, Indian Oil Corporation Ltd.