Nagpur Golden Transport Co. commenced operations way back in 1960 and is a renowned transporter offering parcel booking, FTL, ODC, contractual, warehousing, door-to-door and express cargo services in the States of Madhya Pradesh, Chhattisgarh and Maharashtra. The group owns a fleet of 150 multi-axle trucks from the stable of Tata Motors, Ashok Leyland and Eicher.
Mr. Sachin Bagai, Director, Nagpur Golden Transport Co., dwells upon his perspectives on the future of the country’s logistics space and the role GST would play in it.
Excerpts:
FY17 performance
FY17 was slightly better than FY16. It was a competitive year but there was development in the working system of transportation sector wherein we have also done some modernization in our work culture.
Outlook for FY18
The first couple of months of FY18 have been slow and we expect the market to continue to be slow since GST is coming from July. Even the July to September quarter might not be too better as the whole industry will be taking efforts to adopt new systems for GST.
GST impact on logistics sector
In the short term, it might have a negative effect on the market but in the long term it will be very helpful in increasing the daily running of commercial vehicles and reduce the overall hassles which the transport sector is currently facing.
Company’s GST-readiness
Our firm is getting prepared to implement GST and is in the process of making the necessary changes in our accounting, software and procedures. We have expanded our warehousing facilities in order to cater to the upcoming demand from various other industries.
Technology adoption
We are in process of adopting fleet management solutions. In the near future, we would be geared up to monitor the performance of our vehicles online and also measure the repair work required in vehicles which is kind of a preventive maintenance solution.
Tackling driver shortage
Driver shortages is indeed a major problem for our industry. We don’t think we have done enough to solve this issue. One way forward in this regard is to mandate the CV manufacturers to open driving schools where they can train people and certify them as responsible and capable truck drivers. In this way, they can provide new drivers as well as new trucks to the whole industry and can even add the driver training cost to the actual truck cost.
Factors that would drive logistics sector growth
We expect the following aspects to be the top three bright spots for our sector for the future: 1) Transport companies will close existing depots in each state and will use transport services more. 2) Due to uniform tax in all states, the overall running of trucks will increase and there will be huge reduction in cost and turnaround time. 3) We will see a boom in the inter-state sale/purchase of goods and overall increase in manufacturing activity.