Distances covered by trucks rise after GST

The average distance covered by a truck in the country has increased by up to 100-150 kilometres a day as compared to what vehicles were covering in the preGST era, according to logistics sector representatives. Its been six months since the government rolled out the GST and the impact of the new tax regime has been such that the average distance covered by a truck in India is between the 400450 km/ mark now, CEO of logistic firm TCI Express P C Sharma told the PTI. Trucks, on an average, are covering 100-150 kilometres more compared to the preGST period, Tiger Logistics Chairman and MD Harpreet Singh Malhotra told the news agency. Earlier, due to various hiccups like check points, barricading at various levels, octroi, trucks were travelling 10-12 hours and were able to move about 300-350 kilometres in a day, Sharma said. "Our trucks which were travelling from Delhi to Bengaluru, had to stop at five to six places and at each stoppage a minimum of five hours was wasted," Sharma said. TCI Express has a four per cent share in the domestic express logistics industry. The time taken to make deliveries to customers like auto majors Honda and Maruti and drug firms Zydus Cadila and Dr Reddy's Lab has also reduced, he said. Tiger Logistics, which has some big customers like Hero MotoCorp and Yamaha and Suzuki from auto sector, and LG and Sukam from electronics, said the landmark decision of removing octroi is not just benefiting the transporters but also the consumers.

This has also brought down the maintenance costs of vehicles by up to 30 per cent. Due to uninterrupted journeys, the mileage has also improved by 10-15 per cent, Malhotra said. He further said, "The harassment of our truck drivers by authorities on highways has ended due to which no money has to be paid to anyone except for the government duties. Our trucks cover up to 120 kilometres more every day". Delhi-based SafeExpress, which provides valueadded logistics services for nine different business verticals, said the time and distance of its trucks has improved by 20-30 per cent post implementation of the GST. However, all three sector representative lamented that the congestion within the cities is getting from bad to worse day-by-day.

Sharma said the distance can further go up if government constructs outer ring roads in Tier II and Tier III cities. The trucks reach these cities and as they are bound to pass through the city, which is not possible during the day, and hence the vehicles wait until late in the evenings to enter those cities.