Autoload, a year-old start-up that claims to be India’s most versatile digital platform for finding loads and hiring trucks, is taking major initiatives for revolutionizing the trucking industry through information technology. Floated by Mr. Navin Gupta (an HSBC veteran) and Mr. Yogesh Aggarwal, the company serves as an online platform to connect transporters and truck owners all together with the aim of secure & convenient transportation. Furthermore, it has brought in the digital revolution within the entire ecosystem that will enable transporters across the country to hire truck(s) with a mobile/web app on one side and on other side empowers truck owners to conveniently find onward and return loads. The Gurgaon-based company has already established nationwide operation within a short span of time and is taking rapid strides to do away with local brokers who charge abnormally high rates from the transporters within their vicinity.
In an exclusive interaction with MOTORINDIA, Mr. Navin Gupta, Co-Founder and CEO of the company, stated: “Autoload is automating the whole process of truck hiring with use of technology and making it more efficient. It promises remarkable experience for both transporters and truck owners. It is the first online truck booking platform that brings technology and innovation to the industry by making truck hiring transparent and efficient for both transporters and truck owners. Moreover, transparency through Autoload’s platform results in better freight rates because we charge a very nominal fee as commission for online broking. We are not only helping a transporter increase availability, i.e., the number of trucks he was targeting earlier, but are also able to help the fleet owner who is looking for return load and is stuck on the way to be able to go back to his original destination. To put it the other way, we are connecting all the dots. This is the fundamental about the sharing economy.”
He further added: “This is an idea whose time has come. In two to three years’ time, the trucking industry will witness a drastic change vis-à-vis the way it exists today in terms of bookings. It will go on the lines of ‘Smart Transportation’ whereby people will use app to make the bookings because the benefits are just absolutely clear. Something that takes many hours today will take a few minutes. Something that is non transparent today where the money is being siphoned off will not happen in the future. Today, when somebody thinks that he needs to have offices all over India to serve his clients will not be necessary. You can just have one office at a central location and still be able to fulfil the need of the clients. Wouldn’t it be revolutionary? It would definitely be so. In my heart, that is the first and biggest reason I came back to India (from HK) to start this company.”
Some of Autoload’s key initiatives that are driving change in the freight industry are:
- Mobile solutions for Transporters and Fleet owners
- Making it easier to find loads for back-hauls
- Freight Payment Processed Efficiently & Securely
- Automated Information Flow
- Real Time Load Tracking
When queried about some governing factors that will help the company witness an unprecedented boom, Mr. Gupta mentioned: “The Road network across the length and breadth of the country is improving. Secondly, the Make-in-India campaign is getting a major thrust from the Prime Minister. The third important reason is the impending GST which will do away with warehouses at multiple locations in different cities. A new hub and spoke model will emerge in road transportation sector and we would like to leverage on that. Whenever the industry goes under a dramatic change, new leaders and opportunities will emerge and Autoload is capitalizing on those emerging opportunities. The icing on the cake is that a lot of transporters are embracing smartphones.”
It is to be mentioned that Autoload has already done the groundwork by tying up with over 200 large and mid-sized transporters. Being asset light, it has over 35,000 registered trailers and trucks on its roster. Usually, it deals with truckers/transporters running HCVs with a payload capacity of 14, 15, 16-tonne with the maximum at 25 GVW along with 10, 12, 14 wheelers in the haulage segment, 35 tonner to 40 tonner in the tractor trailer segment.
Talking about the response, Mr. Gupta affirmed: “We are truly overwhelmed by the acceptance that we have received so far. Our platform delivers extensive reach that is valued by both the stakeholders, i.e., transporters and truck owners. We are quite confident that our initiatives will make logistics industry more efficient. We believe that we will be able to reduce costs of shipment, cut down fuel consumption, makes the lives of truck drivers better and even the common man will experience benefits in terms of reduced prices.”
It may be recalled that the homegrown start-up conducted a truck registration fair in early September 2015, in a bid to connect with the truck owners at the transport hub of the country. The event was a big hit with more than 700 trucks with verified truck documents (both large and small fleet of trucks) registering their fleet with Autoload. Since then Autoload has conducted number of such drives to register trucks on its platform. As a result, registered transporters can now simply download its app and book trucks directly from its end with fleet owners getting to know the multiple load options.
When asked to share details about its client base, Mr. Yogesh Aggarwal, CTO and Co-Founder, Autoload, stated: “We would look like to join hands with forward looking fleet owners who own trucks and trailers. The fleet count could vary from 1 to 50, but the thought process should be similar. We have already tied up with Maple Logistics, Prem Cargo, Instant Transport Solutions, etc. The top 10 transporters of the country are already working with us. The idea is not to tap just the large fleet operators but the smaller ones as well. In fact the single truck owner has lesser networking with brokers. Having said that, fleet owners are verified through multiple ways before being registered with us. We also look at the fitness of the vehicles and work with the transporters to ensure that both the paperwork is proper and the vehicle is also physically inspected before the goods are loaded on to it. If there is a flaw in any one of them, then we don’t load the vehicles.”
When asked to shed some light on some of the key USPs of its business model, Mr. Aggarwal highlighted: “The technology being used by Autoload is so advanced that it generally takes only a couple of minutes for a transporter to find verified trucks. The entire system is designed to facilitate the aggregation of loads and vehicles in a fast, transparent and efficient manner.”
When asked about the positives of this change considering that there are too many challenges involved, he added: “There are multiple benefits for a transporter such as automated truck hiring process, transparency in prices, reduced non-placement of trucks and nationwide availability of verified trucks. It would be equally beneficial for truck/fleet owners when it comes to Automatic Load Suggestions, based on the location of the truck, load availability across the country, higher probability of return load, price visibility and profitable route suggestions.”
Spelling out the vision of the company, Mr. Gupta stated: “We aspire to be something like ‘Uber’ for Trucks although the market dynamics are very different (from buses and cabs). It was floated with the aim to make the whole process seamless for both the transporter and the fleet owners. We already have access to 100,000 fleet owners and are converting them into our vintage app users. The kind of revolution that Autoload will bring to the country is something what Flipkart did in the online retail space or Ola is being doing in the taxi market. We think we are in the best position to make this happen. We are way ahead of the rest of the people who are acting as offline brokers. But we are also open to working with them who have a similar thought process. Out of 80 lakh trucks and trailers, 50% take load through brokers. The equations will change completely in the next decade when a majority of them will resort to the digital space to book their trucks.”