Technology can ease last-mile exercise
Last-mile connectivity is usually the shortest segment in the overall journey, but in India’s case, it is also one of the most exorbitantly priced. Prasanna Pahade, Chief Strategy Officer, Mahindra Logistics, explains why.
Sanjay Bhoyar, a farmer in Kotgal, a small village in Maharashtra’s Gadchiroli district, looks towards the sky and detects dark monsoon clouds. While most would celebrate the respite from sweltering summer heat, Bhoyar frowns in anxiety. His mid-sized 10-acre paddy field is yet to be ploughed. The main stumbling block is that Sanjay’s tractor requires a crucial component and the nearby service centre has requested for some time to get it delivered from the manufacturer’s warehouse in Pune. With monsoon showers few days away, Bhoyar has no option but to request the dealer to speed up the process. From Pune to Nagpur, the component travels without a hassle due to excellent and broad highways. The road network from Nagpur to Kotgal is nearly non-existent due to inadequate investment and other uncontrollable circumstances. While the 715 km journey from Pune to Nagpur can be undertaken within 24 hours, the mere 170 km journey from Nagpur to Kotgal remains challenging and requires more time. This short but challenging segment of the total journey is termed as last-mile connectivity in logistics and supply chain parlance. This is the part which impacts one of the important Ps of the four Ps of marketing – the ‘Place’.
THE PROBLEM
The total length of all roads nationwide is about 3.3 million km, but national highways comprise barely 96,260 km. In addition, a large proportion comprises single-lane highways that urgently need widening and improvement. If highways are in this pitiable condition, one can only shudder to think about the condition of state and locally administered roads that form the bulk of India’s road network. The government is making all efforts to improve and widen highways across India. In FY17-18 alone, NHAI awarded 150 road projects of 7,400 km worth `122,000 crore. In the last five years, the average length of road projects awarded by NHAI was 2,860 km with 4,335 km awarded in the last financial year. But decades of neglect and tough geographical terrain, coupled with opposition to land acquisition, has led to the current pitiable situation.
Decades of neglect coupled with opposition to land acquisition has led to the current pitiable situation
Logistics companies transporting goods have to face multiple hurdles such as unfavourable weather and inhospitable terrain, but the non-existence of roads is the most painful since it aggravates the situation multifold, creating further problems.
THE SOLUTION
Many logistics companies are trying to overcome these challenges by adoption of technological solutions such as a control tower to provide seamless information on supply chain status across geographic locations and diverse transportation modes. Few other technological aids include Automated Storage and Retrieval Systems (ASRS) in warehouse and transportation, RFID in place of bar codes, and GPS for real-time tracking. With the industry fast adopting technological solutions to overcome transportation infrastructure inadequacies, we can expect the auto component dealer to safely predict the number and type of spares required well in advance. This will enable the auto component dealer to place orders in advance, so that farmers such as Bhoyar don’t have to wait for long durations for tractor components.