With over 42 per cent market share in the region, JK Tyre has garnered many loyal transport fleets in the Eastern region who are primarily into steel and container logistics from nearby industrial towns to the ports of Kolkata and Haldia, writes Dhiyanesh Ravichandran
The term ‘Drayage’ is no new term in the glossary of road logistics. It is derived from the word ‘dray’ – a sideless horse-pulled cart used for transporting goods over shorter distances from or delivery to a seaport, border point, or some intermodal terminal with both the trip origin and destination located in the same region. Over time, dray horses were replaced with trucks, and the dray industry in itself stands phenomenally different in our times.
A large share of trucking activities in Eastern India – a region consisting of the four states of West Bengal, Bihar, Jharkhand, and Odisha – can be identified as dray logistics, owing to its geography and scattered industrial development. Although Kolkata is the largest, it is not a hardcore industrial city. Most of the industries are concentrated in the towns of Durgapur, Asansol, Siliguri, Jamshedpur, Dhanbad, and so on. They are not far away from the commercial and the logistics hub of the East. That’s where Kolkata earns the brownie points – its significance lies in the facilitation of trade through its ports.
The ports of Kolkata and Haldia support over 10,000 and 3,000 trucks involved in drayage on an average respectively. They haul mined iron ore and other minerals from the mines of East India for port shipment, along with steel from Jamshedpur, Durgapur and Bokaro, rice and other grains from Bardhaman, and finished goods from local industries. These dray trucking routes do not exceed 200-300 kilometers, although the goods they carry are often heavy and require a dedicated fleet of vehicles including multi-axle bulker and tractor-trailers.
This kind of short-distance haulage is unique, which means the cost and revenue dynamics are very different from long-haul trucking. Says Dilip Kr. Shaw of D.K. Enterprise, a Kolkata-based transport contractor involved in dray logistics: “Since the haul route is shorter, it is easy to monitor and efficient to run. The average distance covered by our trucks is 2-2.5 lakh km per vehicle handling 8 lakh tonne of cargo every year. The more we maximise our savings in truck maintenance and aggregates that need frequent replacement, like tyres, the more our profits”.
Tyres account for over 20 per cent of the overall cost of operations, and thus we are highly dependent on their efficiency and long mileage, he adds. His fleet consisting of 200-plus trucks is one-hundred per cent radial with JK Truck Radial. They last for about 3-4 years and bring his annual tyre consumption to about 1,200 units, including his Kolkata and Jamshedpur trucking hubs, according to his company.
Shaw regards the JK Tyre brand as a member of his trucking family, as the decade-long relationship has been very beneficial and significant for the growth of his four-generation old business. “Since the time we joined hands with JK Tyre, things have turned very favorable for us. Today, they are an integral part of our maintenance and fleet strategy. For instance, we are reaping a savings of 8-10 per cent in diesel costs for our entire fleet. We could also optimise our fleet operations with technical and preventive maintenance assistance from JK Tyre’s highly skilled and cooperative Fleet Management Team.”
Besides, Shaw is highly impressed by JK Tyre’s overall offerings to its customers, along with a highly responsive team and network of road-side tyre assistance pan India. “I think that’s perhaps the reason behind the success of the brand in this region. JK Tyre is the market leader here with about 42 per cent market share, and a majority of my fellow transporters and rival companies are fully JK compliant”, he adds.
Lastly, the office of D.K. Enterprise is also a recurrent spot for JK Tyre to hold its period health check-up and awareness camps for drivers and workers involved in the trucking business. The tyre brand is well-known for its driver training and welfare initiatives since its initial days, and we see their commitment towards the trucking community growing and evolving day by day. In fact, drivers are the first set of loyal supporters who recommend the brand to their respective fleet operators in the region, notes Shaw.