Mid-fortyish, lean and emaciated Kush Singh is as eager as me to complete the journey from Chennai to Gurgaon. Over the past five consecutive days, we have been travelling in his truck, logging almost 700 km/day with him at the wheels. Eight Renault Kwids are docked in the two-tier chambers of the 18.75 metres trailer that he is chugging through his ‘ghoda’ for delivery in the National Capital Region. Part delivery happened in Agra post-lunch on the fifth day. Until the start of this 2,760-km truck trip (June 24, 2016), we did not know each other. When the journey ends in Gurgaon past midnight in the next few hours, I know him like the back of his palm.
Kushbhai is a veteran truck driver with 15 years and several lakh kilometres in his kitty. Blemishless career graph. He did not go to any driver training school to learn truck driving. Why? Because none existed when he began his career, and assuming such a school was there, his chances of going to classroom to learn ‘trucking’ is out of question. His brother-in-laws, long-haul truck drivers themselves, lured him into this line of business because his earnings as a factory hand were negligible and they were concerned about Kush’s financial capability to support their ‘behen’. So, Kush was inducted for free training with a proviso that he would not be paid for six months, but with a promise that he would turn into an ace truck driver who can earn substantially on his own post-training. His brother-in-laws-turned gurus lived upto their reputation. Today, Kush is an ace truck driver with a clean record.
Good. Why is he pepped up today (June 28, 2016)? Post delivery of these Renault Kwid in NCR, he would head for his village in Jharkhand. What’s great about his home visit? Well, he is going home after a gap of nine months. Plus, he plans to spend the next two months with his family. Good. Hang on, the next 60 days he will be on “loss of pay”. What? Yes, that is the ground reality because he is a truck driver and like you and me he is not entitled to annual privilege leave. Don’t drive kilometres and get no pay. A simple formula structed by fleet owners or motor maliks. Well, Kush’s case is not a solitary one. This is universal. No fleet owner is gracious or generous enough to give their drivers paid leave.
What kind of employment contract truck drivers sign up? That’s the point. No written employment contract exists in the Indian scenario. (Kush, however, has one but with no provision for paid annual leave!). Lack of paid leave is not the main concern for the millions of truck drivers in India. Their list of complaints is endless. With motor maliks paying no attention to their grievances, thus leaving to a humungous trust deficit between them, the nation is experiencing 22% shortage of drivers. Simply put, for every 100 trucks put on the road by manufacturers through sales to motor maliks, 22 trucks are lying idle on the roadside or godown with no driver in sight. A grim scenario given the fact that 70% of India’s manufacturing activities (inbound of raw amterials and outbound of finished items) depend on surface road transport.
Okay, the diagnosis is clear – shortage of drivers. Reasons again are visible on the surface. Still there is no permanent remedy in sight. Why? For example, when someone is diagnosed with total renal failure, surgery is recommended. But the patient and his family has to take a call on what next? Options, actually, are none. Go for surgery. Hobson’s Choice. But patients and family decide to apply balm or go for naturopathy. Why? reluctance to face the crisis squarely in its face and sort out the crisis once for all.
In the driver shortage crisis, what is the remedy? Abandon temporary solutions and look for permanent ones. For instance, every single HCV OEM boasts of giving scholarship to drivers’ children from high school level and possibly promising higher studies with easy loans etc. Not bad. Some companies ‘gift’ trucks to best drivers. Obviously such gestures will be in single digits and cannot be in millions. Otherwise, they will go bankrupt. Cosmetic. Such overtures will never ever solve the problem of driver shortage. Helping their children’s education will bring more to take up trucking as a career option is nothing short of myopic.
So, what are the permanent solutions?
- Improve working conditions. While tendering out transport contracts, ENSURE 3PLs or transporters sign up SLAs which will specifically contain clauses on regular proper employment contracts for their drivers with regular salaries and social security benefits (ESI, PF, etc.) and MONITOR these payments are dispersed without fail every month. Link release of payment to transporters/3PLS to clean books on driver management. This will send the right message to potential drivers that the ultimate users (read India Inc.) care for them genuinely.
- Use the Corporate Social Responsibilty (CSR) funds to create proper driver rest room facilities, not on highways but outside their own factory gates and distribution centres, so that drivers waiting for loading or unloading outside have decent DRRF (toilets, bathing ghats + safe parking) and do not resort to open defecation.
- Regular health check-ups be done every quarter, if not every month. Not the photo-opportunity seeking eye camp or blood donation camp, but a serious health risk assessment. Given the kind of cabin seats (pathetic, mostly), back ache is a serious concern. So, this is an area warranting immediate action. The safety of India Inc.’s cargo (raw materials and finished goods) depends a great deal on the health of drivers. So they are interrelated.
- By and large, long-haul drivers are lone wolves. They drive alone. Not that they don’t need second or driver assistants, but there is none available. How to address this? Motor maliks want driver assistants, but don’t want to pay them. So drivers, if they need one, have to pay out of their own pockets. Many still do it. But why drivers should underwrite the rich motor maliks or India Inc.? Companies should go for adopt a kalasi or driver assistant formula. They should pay the wannabe drivers.
- India Inc. (not only HCV OEMs, but all) should go in for ASDC-scripted RPL program for the existing drivers. Under the RPL program, drivers spend their waiting time outside factory gates/DCs in classroom and get better driving tips and safety nuances. This again be showed under CSR spend. By the way, successful drivers are rewarded by the Government of India (Rs. 2,500 for drivers and Rs. 1,500 for driver assistants). For details, write to skc.asdc@gmail.com
- The entire organization should realize that truck drivers are key supply chain elements. Without them being kept in good humor and treated decently, all blueprints for success will remain just that: dreams on paper. Sensitizing everyone from gatekeeper to logistics head at plants/DCs is vital to help drivers recover their lost self-esteem.
- One of the key areas where drivers would feel happy that companies do care for them is if and when India Inc. realizes that seamless movement of their goods pan-India is their responsibility equally and not that of transporters or truck drivers. Highway highhandedness has to be a priority area for India Inc. to take it up with the respective State Governments and reduce the rough edges. Transporters are not savvy enough to handle this area. India Inc. can. They should not throw up their hands in air and claim, “we have outsourced and therefore, it is not our responsibility.” India Inc., outsourcing does not mean abdication of responsibility. Wake up!
Well, the steps spelt out above are not complete. It cannot be. I deliberately kept the role of government out of this purview. A lot can be done by other stakeholders, excluding Government at the Centre and States. It is easy for us outside the government to point fingers at the authorities for omissions and commissions. Certainly true. But let us begin spring-cleaning at our doorsteps and then demand action from the authorities.
That is, if all of us are serious about the 22% shortage and genuinely wanting to find a solution. I am an optimist. I have been tracking the corporate and fleet owners’ behaviour since January 2010 and am happy to share the positive changes in their psyche towards the soldiers on Indian highways as of today. Yes, there is always room for improvement. What’s noticed on ground is the baby steps. Miles to go before we collectively boast of India as the Developed Economy. The leap from the present Emerging Economy gag is going has to be gigantic. Ready?
The writer is the author of 10,000 KM on Indian Highways, Naked Banana! and An Affair With Indian Highways. He is also founder of the KRK Foundation, a registered trust focused on improving the working and living conditions of truck drivers and their families living in remote villages of India. He’s reachable at ramesh at krkfoundation dot org