These panch Pandavs are from the land of Lalu Prasad Yadav. ITI Diploma holders in fire safety. In their early twenties from Darbanga, Samastipur, and Siwan. Joblessness drove them to the National Capital Region. I found them ensconced in the airconditioned conference room of Signo, the start-up that attempts to…

The roads, rather passages, are so narrow that Fortuner or that size SUV would find navigating them arduous. With one 5-degree deviation on either side, the vehicle would derail in the sugarcane or paddy fields and get stuck until assistance arrives. Green in front. Green on the left. Green on…

Tata Motors Achal Paliwal bowled me over at the recently held Automotive Logistics Conclave by the Society of Indian Automobile Manufacturers’ Association (SIAM) with these opening remarks: “Do you know now drivers are called drive bhai!” Indeed, it was sweet music for my ears. Return of respectability to truck drivers? …

Fleet management is not Driver Relationship Management. Or Driver Training is not Driver Relationship Management. Why are you stating the obvious? asks some. For those some, it is obvious but not for a majority of transport world inhabitants. Why so? It is a case of misunderstanding. Managing the fleet, they…

All logisticians lead stressful lives. Kajal Bagchi is a logistician. Kajal Bagchi leads a stressful life. Wrong, Professor Vasudevan! I beg to disagree with the syllogism you taught in my Pre-University days (1972–73) in Vivekananda College, Mylapore, Chennai. Yet, I would stick my neck out and maintain that you and…

(To read TRUCK PARKING: Necessity-1, click here: https://shorturl.at/fINY6 ) The first installment of this series ended with the following: “Just as the trucking industry is critical to our nation’s economic success and way of life, safe and accessible truck parking is critical to the people who drive trucks, the traveling…

Agriculturalist-cum-second hand truck bus salesman, Ulhas Ambegaonkar’s Instagram, is rich of late with a truckload of visuals of his truck rides on American highways over the past four months, visits to pitstops, and the kind of facilities commercial vehicle drivers have access to. It boggles my mind. It is natural…

Syed Kausar Hussain turned sharply at me when the banker-turned-transporter Jasveer Singh of Instant Transport Solutions (ITS) said, “What do you mean whether I know ADAS and DMS? Our fleet uses them.” ADAS stands for Advanced Driver Assist System, and DMS for Driver Monitoring System. Both these acronyms are the…

The parking yard at Park Prime, Jaipur, was packed. But no one noticed Dr. Vijay Pawar, who was busy filling air into balloons one after the other. He was simultaneously glancing at the revolving glass door of the luxury hotel in the capital city of Rajasthan. His anxiety on the…