‘Want diesel prices to be lowered, safer highways’
The pandemic gutted India’s economy and hurt millions of workers, artists, professionals, and homemakers. Ahead of the Union budget, HT speaks to a cross-section of people to document their hopes and wishes from the exercise
Before lockdown, there was not a single day when my truck was not on the road. The situation is still not back to normal now
POKAR RAM, Truck driver
JAIPUR: “We were finished.”
This was what 37-year-old Pokar Ram said when asked how Covid-19 hit truckers, the lifeline of goods supply across the country.
Ram, a resident of Devdi village in Rajasthan’s Nagaur district, bought a truck in 2010 to feed his family and provide education to his two daughters. Instead of hiring a driver, he drove the vehicle himself, earning up to Rs 60,000 per month.
“Before the lockdown, there was not a single day when my truck would remain empty. On a daily basis, I used to travel to Gujarat, Haryana, Madhya Pradesh, Delhi, Punjab, and other states,” said Ram, who would mostly transport heavy machinery and tools.
“We (truckers) received the first setback when demonetisation was done in 2016. We somehow overcame that. But the lockdown completely ruined our work,” he said. His income came down from Rs 60,000 to Rs 25, 000 per month.
The transport sector is a crucial cog of the economy and contributes 6.3 % to the Gross Domestic Product. A major contributor of this is freight carriage with road transport accounting for 60% and railways the remaining 40%, according to the economic survey for 2019-20.
When the nationwide lockdown was announced in March, several truckers were on the road, including Ram who was coming back from Alwar. The lockdown, clamped to arrest the spread of Covid-19, shuttered businesses and forced most trucks off the road. Though the transport of essential supplies remained outside the purview of the restrictions, many states set up checkpoints that forced truckers to wait on highways for days, interrupted the supply of goods and gutted the income of interstate truckers.
According to a study by The Energy and Resources Institute (TERI), daily freight carriage by railways fell by half with daily carriage coming down from three million tonnes before Covid to 1.5 million tonnes in June. The All India Motor Transport Congress said on April 7 that their business contracted by 90%. In October, the body, which represents truckers nationwide, said the year-on-year business was still down by 40%. “Before lockdown, there was not a single day when my truck would not be on road. Even after lockdown, we did not get any work till June. The situation has still not got back to normal now,” Ram said.
Like many truck drivers, Ram stays in rented one-room tenement in Jaipur while his family lives lives in a small house with four other brothers in Nagaur. His income shock has forced them to cut down on household expenses because their savings are dwindling.
He said the festival season brought some work and rekindled hope for a more prosperous year.
For the Union budget, he has some demand on behalf of truckers. “The prices of diesel should come down and be reasonable. Second, we would like that corruption or harassment on the highways by police and transport department officials should be eradicated. The new penalties (under the Motor Vehicles Act) have increased the bribe on highways. Some penalties should be reduced,” he said.
He also wants more lights and CCTV cameras on highways to check crimes, especially after some unknown people pelted his truck with stones in Rajasthan in November. He is also hoping for a health insurance policy for truck drivers who are often on the road for days and come in contact with many different people across states.