Clinisafe Courier and Logistics, Bangalore, is one of the fast growing logistics company providing dedicated services to the biopharmaceutical industry, fulfilling a key role in the line of supply chain management for research and drug development. Mr. Raghavan P.G., Chairman & Managing Director, shares his segment status.
Excerpts:
Please brief us your company’s operational profile.
We are Pharmaceutical cold chain logistics provider with Top most rated and vision oriented Temperature controlled logistics movements company with strong presence in global markets for pharmaceuticals & finished drugs movements – Monitoring and Establishing Global contacts towards growth of hassle free Imports and Exports into India, growing the relationship towards economic and affordable temperature control solutions for commercial and non-commercial shipments to and fro into Pharmaceutical exports markets and assisting frontline operations and structure to enable new ideas into developing tier one and tier two cities for faster connections & express deliveries of temperature sensitive products.
Transport fleet size: 15 vehicles all owned, 5 trucks leased. Operations started in the year 2010. The Growth has been challenging at 40% every year and the industry expanding in domestic horizons.
How strong is your cold chain infrastructure?
We have our own corporate office in Bangalore and regional offices in Chennai, Hyderabad, and Mumbai, Delhi. We operate in lease cold chain warehouse from our trusted partners, since trucks are used only for pharmaceutical transportation, the cold chain facility warehouses will be of clients and we need to provide transportation most of time. Service and major issues of trucks are taken care by AMC contracts of Respective trucks and their companies. We have 18 drivers and 12 office staffs in managerial and Supervisor positions through the country. Yes we work with major pharma based courier & logistics companies through international location as our partners. (like Fedex, DHL & Fischer Express Cargo, PHSE, Optimize and few more).
What are your thoughts on different customer segments, retention and USPs to stay ahead of competition?
All major pharmaceuticals companies handling API (Active Pharma Ingredients) through the country are our customers. We have marketing done through our professional team, and we have branding as our major showcase to get clients via web enquires and since the industry is very small and budding, we get reference through our quality work and word to mouth advertising. Our USP is to provide the market with clean, contamination free imported containers fitted trucks with much more temperature adherence, with direct access GPS controlled monitoring facility to all our clients.
Your observations on cold chain logistics services market size, volume and growth please.
The logistics market for cold chain industry is of approx 600 crores and expanding, the business volume is much in terms of ratio: Food 60% pharmaceutical: 40%. Business was down as an entrant last 5 years below, challenging was the task when finance to procure fleet to cater to the industry, chassis of any truck make will get financed but not the expensive components like refrigeration unit and Puff (poly urethane filler) body for container to mount on trucks. But today the market scenario has changed and the industry is slowly looking at growth potential with many financial institutions coming forward to finance ready built reefer trucks as per client needs as complete package.
What according to you are the major constraints and challenges in this domain?
Chassis of any truck make will get financed but not the expensive components like refrigeration unit and Puff (poly urethane filler) body for container to mount on trucks. But today the market scenario has changed and the industry is slowly looking at growth potential with many financial institutions coming forward to finance ready built reefer trucks as per client needs as complete package.
Need more support from Government bodies on tax part, as already all logistic owners are suffering from heavy toll taxes, State to State permit collections are priced randomly, instead of one country one tax like global operations, our country has multiple taxes on logistics and transportation like, road taxes, State taxes, AIP (All India Permit taxes) and inter-State permits. Also to manufacture and get a new refrigerated truck moving, there are number of taxes like VAT, CST and Sales Tax on Reefer Machine and Truck Chassis & body manufacturing, where if government provides few subsides can bring down the burden of cost for logistics from small to big entrepreneurs looking at a vision to grow the industry further.
Your take on technology tools like GPS & data loggers?
All trucks are equipped with modern GPS tracking units with latest being the track facility from in house to moving truck, showing parameters like temperature, destination points, speed, fuel consumption and reach oriented target goals. Also we have temperature loggers as additional safety device to monitor temperature for products inside the containers.
As a logistics company, the challenging task goes in designing the routes of travel for each truck leaving the facility from pick-up to destination, in eventuality of any break down the puff containers hold good the required temperature up to 4-6 hours, this lead time is what communicated between our trained drivers and the ground handling staff to place an spare truck for transfer and shifting of material/product immediately. The routes of truck as designed in carefully to pass through major towns and cities till destination, wherein a breakdown occurs where the material can be transferred to nearest truck in any city or cold room facility immediately till spare options are available.