Over the last two years, every fleet operator that we have caught up with has heaped praise on JK Tyre’s suite of products, solutions and after-sales services. This time, we visited Kolkata, which was bedecked with Durga Puja pandals at every nook and corner of the city. Seconding the thoughts of its peers in other parts of the country, the East Indian fleet operator too regards himself as an extended family of JK. We met Mr. Dilip Kumar Shaw from D.K. Enterprise who runs a fleet of 200 trailers and trucks. Starting from scratch in the early 50s, the company has now become one of the big league fleet operators in that city.
Sharing details about the genesis of the company, Mr. Shaw stated: “My grandfather, Late Ram Prasad Shaw, who hails from Meherpur in UP’s Sultanpur District, came over to Calcutta. He initially started from Bullock Carts and then switched over to a single trailer in 1953. My father, Late Shyam Sundar Sahu, took over the business in 1962. I got into the business in 1980 when we had only 25 trailers and trucks. Later on, my father and his brothers went for a separation in 1994-95 and we (my father and I) were left with 5 trailers and trucks. But we kept on increasing at a rate of 8 to 10 vehicles per year and today we have a fleet of 200-odd vehicles.”
It is to be mentioned that D.K. Enterprise is primarily into transporting steel and is working with Jindal India, Bansal Group, Utkarsh Tubes and Pipes, Calcutta Port, etc. Among other prominent routes, it has allocated a dedicated fleet of vehicles for TESCO in Jamshedpur. Since the vehicles are generally run during the day, the average distance covered by them is 2-2.5 lakh km per vehicle on a yearly basis. While 60 per cent of its vehicles are sourced from Tata Motors, the remaining ones are from MAN. When asked about its nature of business, Mr. Shaw said: “We have and will only stick to movement of steel in Eastern India which involves heavy duty transportation. Since it’s a short route, it is easy to monitor and efficient to run.”
Talking about the criticality of tyres as a component of its business, he maintained: “Tyres as a cost, account for 20 per cent of our overall cost of operations. In fact, 90 per cent of the business is dependent on the efficiency of tyres. We reward our drivers for maintaining the tyres well and since there is direct communication between the driver and us, we make sure the vehicles are well maintained.” D.K. Enterprise’s average tyre consumption is around 1,000 tyres per annum (600 at Kolkata and 400 at Jamshedpur). With nearly 1 lakh km covered in 3-4 years, the company utilizes 22 tyres per vehicle and is also into radialization for the last six years with 100 radials running in its current fleet.
Talking about its association with JK and the experience that it had with the Indian tyre maker, the fleet owner asserted: “Since the time we joined hands with JK four years back, things have turned very favorable for us. We have developed a very good relation with them as the majority of our fleet is fitted with JK Tyre and even tell OEMs like Tata Motors to fit JK tyres on their vehicles. The reasons for this are many. While we have been getting excellent offers from JK, their service quality is also above par. Their product prices are reasonable and their technicians visit our workshop on a regular basis. Furthermore, we have a direct contact with the Area Head or Country Manager to discuss issues. Solutions are offered by their highly skilled and cooperative Fleet Management Team even before it becomes a problem for us. We are also benefitted by the regular training programmes offered by them and my drivers are also very happy with JK, to the extent that they recommend JK tyres to be used.”
Around 18 km away from its Kidderpore office, D.K. Enterprise is running a mega stockyard of 60,000 square feet at Junglepur near Alampur, where around 250 people are currently employed. It is now planning to open a godown at Dankuni where it will be running a spare parts business.
As for its future course of action, D.K. Enterprise would be setting up a wheel alignment centre at Junglepur for which it has already held talks with JK. Mr. Shaw pointed out: “We would be having a wheel alignment centre as it is very important for improving the vehicle mileage and tyre life which ultimately improve our overall operational efficiency. We are already having our workshop at Junglepur and having this centre at the same location would be an added advantage.”
While D.K, as a group, clocks an annual turnover of Rs. 75 crores, the transportation entity contributes a major chunk of around 80 per cent to the figure.