Sustained focus on driver welfare
MOTORINDIA’s exclusive interview with Mr. Ramesh Agarwal
Kumar is a lorry driver who drives an average of 500 km every day without break. His meagre earnings is hardly enough to support his family with his wife and two small children. Today his family is deprived of its livelihood with Kumar being put behind bars allegedly for a road accident caused by him. With utter lack of basic amenities, this is quite common in India. Lorry drivers who cover long distances transporting heavy goods from one place to another don’t get adequate rest for want of timely food, wash-rooms, etc.
The woes of the driver community normally don’t attract the attention needed. However, Agarwal Packers and Movers Ltd. (APM) has come out with an innovative CSR initiative aimed at reducing the number of deaths caused in road accidents due to shortage of basic amenties for drivers.
The CSR initiative, the first of its kind in India, namely, the Driver Seva Kendra, started at Dudu in Rajasthan with the joint support of Eicher and the Rajasthan Government, covers an area of 50 acres, and offers 500 beds and an adequate number of blankets, fans, wash-rooms, hygenic food, free health check-ups, etc. As part of its future plan, APM will start one more Kendra on NH6 between Mumbai and Kolkata, with similar facilities for the drivers.
Core strength:
* Problems identified and rectified immediately.
* Experts in packing
* Doing things differently
* Pre-government, pro-industry and pro-clients
* Proper wastage utilisation
Outlining his journey, Mr. Ramesh Agarwal, Founder, Mentor, Chairman & Managing Worker, Agarwal Movers Group, said started his career as an airman in the Indian Air Force. Later, he wanted to pursue his dream of running a packers and movers unit. He started Agarwal Household Carriers in 1987. In 1990, the company was renamed Agarwal Packers and Movers. Established in 1987, the company has 73 offices and serves 1,264 locations across the country with a fleet of 1,000 vehicles and warehouse space of 25 lakh sq. ft.
Entry into Limca Book of Records
Today it is considered one of the largest logistics and supply chain companies with growth in various verticals. Recently the company has entered the Limca Book of Records for the largest movement of household goods. Basically, the company has transported household goods of 43,335 clients during 2011-12.
Initially the company shifted household goods of Air Force officers with just two trucks and a tempo. Now it is running 10,000 packers all over India, with 800 heavy and medium vehicles. In 2012-13 alone, the company was able to shift 52,000 families to different destinations.
Solution provider
APM is a well-known expert in packing and a complete solutions provider too, undertaking to carry high value consignments, fragile goods for television companies such as Samsung, LG, etc. These companies rely very much on APM’s competence for safe transport of goods.
The new design trucks run by the company have two doors with a partisan. They work on a share basis in which the party is not charged 100% but only 65%, thus benefiting both the company and the customer.
The company’s clientele includes leading firms like Agro Industries, Reliance, Hindustan Lever, Dabur, etc. The company, which had a turnover of Rs. 350 crores last year, has diversified into infrastructure development like air cargo terminal management, relocation transportation, logistics, 3 PL, warehousing and related activities.
Expert logistician
Mr. Ramesh Agarwal is a man of high principles. With strong business acumen, he has proved himself an able administrator and a great leader and has widely travelled. From a defence background, he has, with an innovative bent of mind, transformed the country’s logistics and household goods segment into an established industry today.
Mr. Agarwal is a well-known and respectable figure among logistics and transport industry circles. Having served as the National President of the All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA), he has represented it at various government and non-government as well as national and international agencies. He is the one who has secured its due role for the Indian transport sector in the International Road Union (IRU). He also excels in social, educational and religious activities.
A noble gesture to Uttarkhand victims
Thousands of people are still stranded in inaccessible areas of Uttarkhand without food, water and shelter. With media covering the extensive havoc caused by heavy rainfall, Agarwal Packers & Movers Ltd. has appealed to the transport fraternity to donate generously to support the people of Uttarkhand at this critical juncture.
Mr. Ramesh Agarwal, Chairman, Agarwal Movers Group, was deeply pained by the devastation, destruction and deaths caused by nature’s fury, and was thinking of ways to help the people of the State. Hence he decided that Agarwal Packers & Movers Ltd. would provide logistics services from any part of the country free of cost to all those desiring to send relief material to the affected people.
On June 22, the company’s truck, along with the relief material, was flagged off by the President of BJP Delhi Pradesh, Mr. Vijay Goel, in the presence of a number of local dignitaries.