A recent major fillip given to India’s infrastructure has translated into the market looking up and preparing to reap a slew of benefits. Late last month, the Union Government gave its go-ahead to the mega Rs. 7-lakh crore investment plan to build 83,000 km of highway roads by 2022, of which 28,400 km will be part of the Bharat Mala Highway program aimed at improving international, port and coastal connectivity, and developing and connecting key commercial hubs. This will generate a minimum of 32 crore man-days across the country in the next five years.
This is welcome news for the Indian logistics industry as it spells seamless transportation between rural and urban parts of the country. With strategic planning and ready-to-roll-out vehicles, VECV launches five new variants of ‘smart’ trucks, Eicher Pro Biz, specially designed for its e-commerce customers.
Mr. Shyam Maller, Executive Vice President – Sales & Marketing, VECV, proudly showcases them: “We are launching for the first time Eicher Pro Biz smart solutions in five variants on the 24-foot cargo body length on GVW ratings from 12 to 16 tonnes. These are uniquely targeted at e-commerce customers because they need longer cargo body platform. These variants offer more space and the best payload in this category. And we are offering two variants in the cabins – the Pro 1000 which has 2m cabin and the Pro 3000 with 2.1m cabin. Most Pro 3000 have sleeper cabs suited for long haul transportation.”
Pro 3000 offers top-end comfort with double-walled front panel and cockpit design as compared to Pro 1000 cabins.
The new solutions from Eicher are poised to ride on the positive outcomes of the recent tax reforms like the GST implementation. Mr. Maller agrees: “We already are witnessing people moving to higher gross vehicle weight, say, from a 31 tonner to 37, and a 37-tonner would at some point become a 40-ton tractor, and we know that a 49-tonner is already here and the reason for this is that overloading is not allowed anymore. With FMCG companies re-jigging their distribution points and tapping rural markets, we are ready with a wide range of solutions, and we will leverage on whichever segments are growing the fastest.”
And he is optimistic for the growth to happen from the beginning of the new year. Eicher Pro Biz solutions are predominantly for B2B, they believe in going the extra mile by ‘co-creating’ solutions for their customers, as has happened in the past. He shares: “We have a 32-foot container which was co-created for an e-com player who wanted a particular length. On our part, this is to tell our customers that this is doable because it will meet with their requirements of volume that they require on this particular truck chassis.”
Flying the flag high
Talking about their flagship solutions, Mr. Maller observes: “Pro 3016 and 3015 relatively belong to the mid-premium range, but the 3016 has the telematics built into the truck which is unique. Typically, telematics conveys the message that the fleet owner needs to know where the truck is moving and what is the mileage that it is offering. We are going a little beyond that by enabling signalling to both the driver and the nearest service station if there is a malfunction and that signal goes to the call centre as well. We help them with pre-emptive maintenance. And today we are the only ones who offer this in India.”
SMART solutions
It is a well-known fact that India ranks high in logistics cost globally. The e-commerce companies expend a whopping 53 per cent of their logistics cost on the last mile and hence the need for smart solutions.
Mr. Maller explains: “Earlier the customers bought smaller vehicles, say, in the range of 20-22 feet, and then they would build extensions to it using the local body builders. Now, with increasing regulations, such modifications are not allowed. So here we have a factory provided 24-foot truck ready to use from day one, which translates into value addition looking at this particular segment.”
But he also agrees that his customers need more than SMART. They need to be more ORGANIZED in the way they work. Slowly but steadily, with new reformations and regulations have come more educated and discerning customers who know how to reap benefits by being on the straight and the narrow.
Mr. Maller agrees: “It is only a matter of time and the initial moves are already in. We show our customers the reports of how their vehicle is being driven, driver performance and his habits, the mileage that his truck is giving him. We believe that this will educate our customers tremendously on why they should choose our smart solutions. Our 3016 was introduced in December 2016, and we probably have 200-300 vehicles on the road and this segment will gain further traction.”
He is confident of the ‘legacy products’ that Eicher is offering and believes that, “since we have added the newer range larger cargo bodies, we will further grow our share in this segment.”
As the delivery points increase for the e-commerce companies with more and more customers located in deep pockets of the country, Mr. Maller realizes that there would be an urgent need for a different range of vehicles catering to their unique and differing requirement in size and payload.
Throwing light on it, he says: “We have a wide range of offerings to take care of the various delivery points areas – be it between hubs, hub-to-distribution centres, or final delivery points.”
Reaping Reefer Biz
With the Government turning focus on encouraging cold chain by subsidizing it to attract more transporters in a bid to reduce wastage of resources, VECV is looking to reap the benefits. It makes business sense for the manufacturers because a fully-built reefer will attract only 18 per cent GST as compared to a fully-built regular truck attracting 28 per cent GST.
Mr. Maller explains: “The complexity about reefer is that there is no one size which fits all, so we are trying to look at which segment we can zero in on. The way we see is if we have decided on one particular commodity, say, ice creams, where the typical temperature required is -25°C and we know the client’s typical load, which is why we have 1110xp. Going forward, we will build the same on the 3015 in 24-foot length which right now is 20 feet to increase the payload with a higher GVW.”
It is still in the offing, but Mr. Maller is sweet on making it happen already.
Autonomous Smart?
With its parent, Volvo, aggressive on autonomous vehicles, VECV cannot be too far behind in its solutions. Reacting to it, Mr. Maller shares: “For us, it is easy to plug in and look at the relevant modernization because there is much work that goes on with Volvo in product development that happens in India. While this is not a big issue for us right now, what is happening in the immediate disruption context is electrification of vehicles.” That is probably where VECV’s next smart solutions for e-commerce business lie.
And Eicher proves its motto ‘Mileage ka Badshah’ true by offering smart solutions for its customer’s operating economics to remain on top.