Enroute

THE HEARTBEAT 💗 OF THE INDIAN ECONOMY: OUR TRUCK DRIVERS

Team Lobb
THE HEARTBEAT 💗 OF THE INDIAN ECONOMY: OUR TRUCK DRIVERS
March 2, 2022

Unknown to us he drives around rolling the economy forward without any want of recognition or accolades. The wheels of his toil are a subject of hardship and degradation and only he knows the journey and destination.

He generates so much data that today he is the subject of interest from many large logistics Startups (including us). These Startups are providing solutions for companies to get trucks on time, but, are yet to connect to the thousands of agents and truckers who are yet embracing technology. This is where we believe the opportunity is in completing the chain, which conventional and new age logistics companies can benefit from.

92 per cent of the Indian logistics industry is unorganised. Single truck owners dominate the country and there are about 10 million trucks in India. We work with truckers, transporters and agents to make their lives better with technology. To put it simply we make the transporters and agent efficient in engaging with his pool of truckers. Ensuring the truckers manage to get appropriate loads for both to and fro journey. This has a direct impact on bringing down the Freight.

How? You may ask. Until today a single truck owner utilises truck for only 13-15 days in a month. Therefore, the cost of transporting goods would always be higher to make up for the unutilised asset.

The ecosystem has drivers participating in many different models. There are drivers who own trucks and attach themselves to transporters or agents, drivers who work with truckers and do not own a truck and there are truckers who own two or three trucks and attach themselves to agents or transporters.

Our intelligence augmentation lets transporters, and their micro market focussed ecosystem of truckers/drivers, to know the demand in the supply chain for transporting goods across the country, thereby providing a real-time bidding marketplace. This enables transporters to engage all his truckers and truckers have the opportunity to participate intelligently and dynamically instead of being at the mercy of phone call.

TECHNOLOGY IS JUST THE TOOL, HOW WILL THIS CHANGE THE TRUCKERS LIFE?

Indian Trucker Enroute Expenses
Driver/Trucker economics, for Bengaluru to Delhi, a distance of 2200 kilometres, for a 21 ton truck.

We have been helping our LOBB truckers get additional loads every month and with additional operational days. Thereby ensuring additional income in their pockets. Increasing their monthly earnings with extra loads for their trucks with reduced halting. We believe trucks can optimally run for 22-26 days in a month and the efficiency lies in providing those additional loads every month.

A combination of great policy, in the form of GST, and our LOBB Intelligence Augmented Technology, which matches demand and supply of goods, for both to and fro journeys, has been helping change the lives of truckers.

  • Usually, a trucker buys a truck on loan/EMI for 3 or 5 years by paying a 10% – 20% down payment for a 21-ton truck. He pays Rs.60K on a monthly basis for five years.
  • He will not earn much until payment of the EMI.
  • Once the loan is paid off, the Rs.60K a month is a direct impact on his life.
  • The service cost of the vehicle may be around Rs.25k per month after 3 years.
  • In case he decides to sell the vehicle the trucker will get more than half of the buying price in five years.
  • If the truck costs 23 lakhs, he may get 12-14 lakhs when he sells after paying off the loan, which is total profit for him.
  • With the additional money, he prepays his loans sooner.
  • Increased savings means there is a portion set aside for consumption, which benefits the economy.

The business of trucking is complicated because there is no data, we at LOBB are passionate about bringing in this data transparency to help change lives. 15% of our economy runs on the heartbeat of truckers. So the next time you see a trucker LOBB is probably their partner and he is indirectly impacting our economy for the better. For us the trucker is the hero after all.

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