After meeting numerous fleet operators associated with JK Tyre in the country, MOTORINDIA visited Shree Chadda Roadlines at Chandrapur in Maharashtra. Shree Chadda Roadlines is one of the elite transport organizations in Maharashtra. With a fleet strength of 400 vehicles (200 open body trucks for cements, 35 tippers for coal, 135 bulkers for fly ash, and 24 payloaders for coal), it has been in the business of transportation of cement for more than 15 years now.
While interacting with us at his office-cum-workshop, Mr. Kishan Kumar Chadda, Proprietor, Shree Chadda Roadlines, shared: “I hail from Hoshiarpur District in Punjab. My father was a farmer and I used to assist him. Thereafter, I was working with a different entity for a few years. Thenceforth, I got into the trading business in Hyderabad. Eventually, I bought my first truck which was pre-owned and got into the transportation business (at Chandrapur). Eventually, I bought some additional fleet of Tata models when my brother also joined. We got into the coal transportation business and started working with clients like ACC. The breakthrough came when we struck a deal with Manikgarh Cement. At that time, I bought some additional vehicles on finance. Later on, we also started catering to ACC, Ambuja Cement and a paper mill firm. Our fleet reached 50 in number by 2004. Our business flourished because of Ambuja. We also got into fly ash business in 2008.”
The transporting firm acknowledged the fact that it was able to make rapid strides largely because of the technical support received from JK Tyre. As Mr. Chadda pointed out: “Our association with JK, started 16 years back, and is going stronger. Initially, we used to source it from the market (Aftermarket outfits). Thereafter, we started dealing directly with the company to keep up with our growing fleet size. Currently, JK has the largest share of fitment in our fleet.”
Chadda Roadlines has maintained that tyre accounts for 4-5 per cent of the total costs. It buys 500 tyres per month, out of which 200 are radials with the average replacement cycle being 130,000 km for the latter. “We got into the radial segment in 2008 and achieved 70 per cent radialization of our fleet with the help of JK. We witnessed numerous benefits as tyres’ life span improved by 15-20% coupled by the fact that there were less punctures on roads. There has also been a drastic improvement in mileage by 150%. We have saved Rs. 30 lakh per year due to radialization. We will be having more radial tyres in our newly added fleet and are aiming for 100% radialization in the next few years.”
The local fleet operator also has a state-of-the-art JK Tyre Truck Wheels Centre in its premises which is the second such showroom in the State and is in line with the Indian tyremaker’s plans to expand its network in the country. The centre is well equipped and technically advanced to provide solutions to all tyre- and wheel-related needs of trucks and buses at Chandrapur, a district in Nagpur Division of Maharashtra and is strategically located at its boundary with Andhra Pradesh.
The three-year-old center is part of the massive workshop area and is equipped with a computerized truck tyre alignment machine, nitrogen inflator machine, air compressors, greasing pumps, pneumatic wrenches and a generator set to ensure end-to-end truck and bus tyre care.
Talking about the other key benefits attained from JK Tyre, Mr. Chadda stated: “In 2014, when we opened the wheel alignment centre we started filling nitrogen in our tyres which has ensured midway breakdowns have reduced drastically. JK also provides us technical advice on reducing operational cost of tyres and inputs on tyre care, maintenance, etc. Furthermore, their field officer is stationed at our workshop who keeps a regular check on tyres. As a next step, we are starting area-wise and application-wise testing of tyres in our fleet.”
Shree Chadda Roadlines, which is currently posting a turnover of Rs. 175 crores, is mostly sourcing vehicles from Tata Motors with 4018 accounting for a major chunk of its current fleet. Having an average age of the fleet of 7-8 years, the average distance travelled is 550 km on a single trip to cities like Aurangabad, Nagpur, Chhindwara, Jalgaon, etc. On a monthly basis, its vehicle does 9,000 km per truck average distance. It is open to buying new vehicles depending on the rains.
