Mr. Rajinder Singh, Managing Director of the Janta Group of Companies, and President, All India Inter-State Lorry Owners Association, which is celebrating its Golden Jubilee in association with the transport sector, shares his views on the evolution of the sector and his company’s plans to address the unfolding business opportunities.
The transport sector basically depends on the environment, laws of the land and manpower for its prime operations, he points out in his opening remarks about the CV sector’s journey towards 2020. “We have witnessed impressive growth in infrastructure during the last 10 years but need much more, particularly the removal of various hurdles like toll taxes and checkposts/barriers that result in enormous fuel wastage and time loss during movement of goods across the country. GST and the Road Safety Bill now under way will definitely change radically the present transport systems. With increasing FDI and various international OEMs entering the segment, I look forward to the sector reaching global standards and going through an accelerated growth phase.”
He feels that there is likely to be a paradigm shift in the way the future transport is likely to evolve. “The Government is planning for more than 25% shift in cars/goods traffic thro’ the waterways and railways. The emphasis is going to be on multimodal transport. Also the technology impact and innovation will lead to digital transport age; and dynamic pricing model will become the norm. Customers will be looking for value-added services, apart from cheaper and safer on-time deliveries. All these developments will lead to greater collaborative association amongst operators to offer the customers economical end-to-end services. As for the plans of Janta Roadways, considering the likely developments in the years ahead, we will not focus a great deal on fleet expansion but rather on providing value-added services”, asserts Mr. Singh.
“We are having positive thinking and a pro-active approach to reduce costs and offer better value-added service to customers. We are willing to go along with them as one long-time partner for progress.”
Being a pioneer in the car carrier business and with increasing car production, does he not expect an impressive 
growth in this segment? Mr. Singh replies: “It is a valid question, but we should look at the way this business model is likely to change. The Government is very much interested in promoting use of ro-ro ships and railways for cars transport. This will definitely impact the trucks segment and we have hence decided to focus on a collaborative approach by joining hands with like-minded operators to address the requirements of OEMs. In this approach, we are already transporting from the Bangalore hub of a car manufacturer’s hub and spoke distribution model about 8,000 cars, per month to different southern States. We are also looking at value-added services like yard management, PDI and other technical services at the hub to meet the customers increasing operational demand.”
Commenting on the roadmap for the journey ahead, Mr. Singh says: “With the technology enveloping the transport segment, I have realised that the need of the hour is trained manpower for implementing the programs. My son, Manavdeep Singh, after having done his MBA with specialisation in logistics & warehousing, has taken over the responsibility of steering the company during its future transformation. Also, we will be starting soon a training program for licensed drivers and mechanics regarding technology-linked skill requirements with the introduction of new BS standards. We have also started the bus zone recently, the first of its type in India and an exclusive bus dealership of Tata Motors, for supplies in north Tami Nadu. We are also talking to various logistics companies for working together in the last-mile transport activities”.
Mr. Singh is busy moulding his team with the requisite skills to address the rapidly changing tech-driven sector. The top three priority focus areas for his company are technology upgradation, collaborative approach and adding value for customers. Well, loaded fully with ammo and getting battle ready, Janta is expected to play a bigger role in transport in the days ahead.