Saravanan Transports, Namakkal, registered a turnover of Rs. 50 crores in 2014-15 which the management expected to achieve a couple of years later. “We aim to reach Rs. 100 crores in the next financial year. We owe our success to best driver management practices”, said Mr. M. Karthik, Managing Partner, Saravanan Transports, in a recent one-on-one to MOTORINDIA.
The Rajam Group was established in 1984 with a view to giving quality and prompt service in logistics and transport segments. It has come a long way now, after foraying intro areas like operations, contracts and services in the name of Saravanan Transports, one of the largest logistics service providers for organisations across South India. The family-owned business has attained great heights under the leadership of Mr. P. Saravanan, Managing Partner, Saravanan Transports, with the able guidance of his elder brothers Mr. P. Manoharan and Mr. P. Thiyagarajan. Mr. M. Karthik, the son of Mr. P. Manoharan with his rich education background use to bring in novel ideas for business improvement and expansion.
It has almost 250 vehicles in its fleet, of which 120 are from Tata Motors, 60 from Eicher and the rest shared by Ashok Leyland, Mahindra and Bharat Benz.
“The support and response given by our clients encouraged us to diversify into other businesses like tyre retreading, wheel alignment, and so on. We later started JK Retreads, JK Truck Wheels and Tata Motors spares and service centre (TASS). We are dealers for OEMs like JK Tyre, Michelin and Bridgestone”, said Mr. Karthik.
With a total of 10 branches across South India, the transportation company carries 40,000 tons of ready-mix concrete in a single month. In order to maximise fuel economy and payload per trip, it decided to reduce the weight of its vehicles, which would result in significant overall cost savings.
The fleet’s existing tube tyres and steel wheels were replaced with tubeless tyres and Alcoa-forged aluminium wheels.
Saravanan Transport was the first bulk operator to use tubeless tyres with alloy wheels. This reduced the vehicle weight by 500 kg, thereby increasing its mileage. The company caters to all types of segments in transportation, like cement (bag & bulk), clinker, coal, ODC loads, paper reels and bundles, RMC transportation and LPG packed cylinders. It uses Domex 600 imported steel to get more strength and less self-weight to get increased payload for bulkers and side decks.
Driver management practices
Shortage of quality drivers and lack of maintenance of vehicles are the biggest challenges faced by transport companies today. In order to retain its 300-odd drivers, Saravanan Transports replaces its vehicles very frequently with new generation vehicles, conducts regular safety training programs for its drivers, offers several incentive schemes, provides funds for their children’s education, encourages performance through awards and recognitions, and motivates its staff and drivers to move to the next level.
Recognising Saravanan Transports’ service to the society and the driver community, several companies like Mahindra, Castrol and ACC have honoured them with Safety Performance Award and Best Transporter Award. “Our drivers have received the Mahindra Excellence Award for Best Driver this year”, he added.
Answering a question on the company’s future plans, Mr. Karthik said: “We are planning to move to the next level for logistics management. We shall have warehouses in Chennai and Coimbatore and are also aiming to step into refrigeration and cold storage segments.”