“I once overheard my relatives regretting to my father that he has no sons to continue the family business. It hit me hard that how can anyone think that a girl / woman cannot handle or nurture transport business.” Divya Pillai at that time was in her senior school.
An MBA in Entrepreneurship & Marketing from Amity University, Lucknow, Ms. Divya has already taken Excel to enviable heights through her efforts, though she says there are still ‘miles to go’.
Hailing from Kerala, Ms. Divya’s father shifted to Allahabad in 1972 and worked as a mechanic for a Tata Motors dealer for years. Gradually, chassis transportation became his forte and Tata Motors entrusted him with it across India. Thus Excel Transporters was born, but now in Lucknow.
Born in 1991, Ms. Divya joined her father’s business in 2010 merely after the first year of her graduation. Excel, at that time, was a Rs. 4-crore company. Today its turnover amounts to Rs. 62 crores. Chassis transportation remains its mainstay. Now, Excel also operates the Lucknow plant for Tata Motors and has 26 chassis carrier trailers.
“In 2013, market slowdown affected our turnover tremendously, and we decided to diversify our business. In 2014, we became an authorized Tata service station for CVs in Barabanki, UP, where we offer repair, maintenance and accidental repairs services. Then in 2016 we entered the car carrier segment also for another Indian auto maker. As of now we are transporting 10 vehicles, but we are planning to increase it to 50 in two years,” Ms. Divya says.
The sailing was not smooth for her. Ms. Divya began her work with near-zero knowledge of transportation business. At the tender age of 19, she was, ‘dispatching trucks in the middle of the night with her team’s support’, but it taught her the challenges of the drivers better.
Ms. Divya brought in accountability of drivers and the workforce in the company, besides creating departments to handle different aspects of business.
In this business, poaching of drivers is a real threat, but Ms. Divya is always ready to pre-empt any such happening. She maintains an open office and constantly assures her drivers that they can find work with Excel all days of the year.
She carries forward the legacy of honesty from her father and urges her drivers and staff to not take any short-cuts: “I make sure that our drivers do not suffer at any cost. I believe that only slow and steady win the race.”
Yet it so happened once that under her watch a driver stole two chassis. And that triggered introduction of a system at Excel to hold part of the payment till a driver delivers the vehicle back with an acknowledgement.
Every trough and crest which included facing gender biasness from both the staff and the drivers, Ms. Divya learnt to dig deep within herself to find strength to tread on.
“Initially, the senior staff could not help but see me as the kid they knew me from before. Then, during our meetings with major Indian CV OEMs, they never gave importance to my work, but now they do. I cannot let my father’s dream for Excel go down. He was and is still my inspiration. I know I have to forge on,” an emotional moment for her with her father passing away earlier this year.
They say the proof of the pudding is in eating. For Excel, it translates into a major domestic CV OEM assigning them urgent deliveries exclusively.
With the help of her elder sister and brother-in-law, Ms. Divya is aiming for the sky. As a recipient of the Lady Transport Personality Award at the Mahindra Transport Excellence Awards 2018, she envisions a turnover of Rs. 100 crores for Excel in the next two years.
This State-level basketball player may not find time to shoot another ball, but she sure is ‘Excelling’ at her dream job.