Beyong transportation

PE investors see logic in logistics again

Investors attribute the increased interest to the fact that logistics players have realized that they can’t be just transporters and therefore becoming less asset-heavy and offering more services

P R Sanjai & Shraddha Nair

Mumbai: Private equity or PE firms are once again actively looking for investments in the logistics sector, which had experienced a drop in the pace of deal activity due to a mismatch in valuations.
PE firms were previously looking at deals of at least $50 million, while smaller logistics companies were keen on deals of only up to $20 million.
“A good number of PE deals in the sector concluded in the (current) financial year as well as a healthy number of deals in the pipeline are reflective of the strong PE interest in the sector,” said Manish Saigal, executive director and national industry head, transportation and logistics, KPMG India Pvt Ltd.
Loading video...
Buyers are getting more flexible with accepting smaller ticket sizes as is evident from recent investments:
• India Equity Partners (IEP) invested $10 million in Swastik Roadlines.
• Ashmore Alchemy Investment Advisors invested $10 million in Siesta Logistics Corp Ltd.
• Mayfield Fund and Sidbi Venture Capital Ltd invested $11 million in Fourcee Infrastructure Equipment Pvt Ltd, with another $10 million coming from IEP subsequently.
Also See | Increasing opportunities (Graphic)
“This flexibility will also help entrepreneurs raise equity capital for disruptive and yet untested ideas in this sector in the Indian context,” said Gautami Seksaria, founder and partner, Supply Chain Leadership Council (SCLC), which conducts business events for the logistics and supply chain sector.
Finance minister Pranab Mukherjee unveiled plans for 15 more mega food parks in the country in the Union Budget for 2011-12. He asked states to reform legislation relating to agriculture produce marketing urgently to improve the supply chain. Given that an estimated 40% of the fruit and vegetable production in India is wasted because of inadequate storage, cold chain and transport facilities, the Budget extended infrastructure status to these, apart from the mega parks. Such status acts as an incentive to companies to enter the sector.
According to Venture Intelligence, which tracks PE and venture capital in India, PE investments in the logistics space declined from 17 deals worth $491 million in 2008 to 10 deals worth $182 million in 2009. In 2010, there have been 11 deals worth $245 million.
“Many logistics players are now expanding into cold chain, so the opportunities to invest are increasing,” said Vishal Sharma, founder and chief executive, Tuscan Ventures Pvt Ltd, a PE firm focused on logistics, citing examples of companies such as Transport Corp. of India (TCI) and Gati Ltd are expanding into cold chain.
LCL Logistix India Pvt. Ltd, one of Tuscan’s portfolio companies is in the process of raising $10-12 million from PE investors.
Investors also attribute the increased interest to the fact that logistics players have realized that they can’t be just transporters and therefore becoming less asset-heavy and offering more services.
“These companies have begun to move towards providing third-party logistics (3PL). They have started evolving, so though a significant part of their revenue is trucking, there is a mix now of other services (in their revenue),” said Shruti Gupta, vice president, Tano India Advisors Pvt Ltd, a PE firm. Deals in this space are typically $7-15 million in size, she added.
At least half a dozen logistics companies with a presence in 3PL and cold chains that Mint spoke to indicated that they are in talks with PE firms for a possible dilution in the next three to six months.
There has also been significant PE activity in those segments of transport infrastructure where the policy framework is firmer and friendlier than in other sectors, such as roads and minor ports, experts said. While most minor ports have PE investments already, there have been seven deals in the roads segment in 2010, more than the number of deals in the previous four years put together, according to SCLC data.
Within logistics, the cold chain segment is expected to see significant buoyancy in investment as the twin strands of market strength and policy benefits converge.
“Besides, the anticipation around the full opening of the sector, that is expected to see a number of global retailers set up shop in India, makes it further attractive,” said Seksaria of SCLC.
Though overseas strategic interest in the segment has been limited, there’s domestic interest in looking at fast-moving consumer goods, confectionery and retail businesses that may carve cold chain companies out of their existing systems to take advantage of increased opportunities. “This will mean an excellent opportunity for PE investors interested in this segment,” she said.
Tuscan Ventures, which spotted the opportunity in the cold chain sector earlier on, incubated Cold Star Logistics Pvt Ltd, which has been operational for the past three months.
Graphic by Yogesh Kumar/MintCopyright © 2007 HT Media All Rights Reserved

Courtesy: Mint

IT gaining traction

MUMBAI:

Not finding a suitable software is an important barrier for adoption of information technology (IT) for a number of large companies and Small and Medium Enterprises (SMEs) in the logistics space

Lack of commitment and involvement and employees fear of change are serious impediments in the way of IT adoption for them

Lack of expertise in IT and untrained manpower are the major perceived barriers in adopting technology for a sizable number of logistics companies

These are some of the interesting findings that the second edition of a survey by leading software developer Softlink Logistic Systems has revealed.

Taking stock of the various aspects of IT readiness of a cross section of logistics service providers (LSPs), including international logistics players in the country, the survey, 'Adoption of Information Technology in Logistics, India - 2010' has touched upon important aspects such as the motivational factors for them to invest in technology, their plans to invest in technology solutions, their perceptions about benefits in adopting IT and the barriers they face while going for it.

The survey, which has covered over 500 companies as respondents, also dismantles a few myths that many marketers hold dear to their hearts. For example, the survey shows that return on investment is not an important factor for adopting IT as it was popularly believed. An overwhelming 43% of respondents have said that improving operational efficiency is the key motivating factor as against a meager 4% of the respondents who cited return on investment as the factor. Improving customer service came a close second as a motivating factor.

The survey says that most of the logistics companies responded have planned an increase in their investments on IT for 2011. There is an increase of 12% in IT investment outlay for 2011 in the range of Rs 10 lakh to Rs 25 lakh as against 2010. The majority of the respondents from large and SME have indicated that they will either increase their budget outlay for 2011 or continue with the budget outlay of 2010.

The survey also revealed that there is an increase of 41% in investment of more than Rs 1 crore in IT compared to 2010. 16% of the respondents have said that they are still undecided on their investment plan for 2011.

While large companies have shown a marked increase of 75% from last year in investment of more than Rs 1 crore on IT, there is a drop in the percentage of SME from the previous year by 56%.

The number of large companies planning to invest around Rs 50 lakh to Rs 1 crore bracket has remained the same as 2010 whereas there has been a drop of 56% among the SME from the figure of 2010. Incidentally there is an increase of 3% from the figures of 2010 in large companies, it said.

"There is an increase in certain categories and decrease in some. For example, in Rs 10-25 lakh investment group, of 8.61% companies that expressed their desire to invest in IT during the last survey only 5.3% have actually gone for it. In less than Rs 10 lakh category, though 50% companies who had planned to make the investment over 58.8% did investments,' said Amit Maheshwari, CEO and co-founder of Softlink Logistic Systems, comparing the two surveys.

More than ever the companies are certain now that any new or continued investment spending is certain to yield greater benefits both the short term and the longer term but some are still not sure about the amount of spend on IT.

When respondents were asked to rank the motivating factor for adopting IT in their organizations, 43% of them said that improving operational efficiency as the top most factor in motivating IT adoption, while 25% said that improving customer service as the most important factor and 11% considers improving data quality the most important. Reducing labour cost and making shipment secure were cited as motivating factors by 7% and 6% respectively. The other factors were return on investment and direct customer request.

Lack of expertise in IT is perceived as biggest barrier in adopting IT by majority 46% of the respondents. The second is untrained manpower which is perceived as a barrier by 44%. Employee fear of change ranked third and is cited by 33% of the respondents as a barrier.

The top three perceived barriers for SME companies are lack of expertise in IT (48%), untrained manpower (42%) and employee's fear of change (31%) in that order. For large companies the top three barriers are untrained manpower (50%), lack of expertise in IT (39%) and employees' fear of change (39%), respectively.

Only 13% of large ones said that insufficient financial support is a barrier in adopting IT while 20% of SMEs have said so. Get a Quote

Courtesy: Economic Times

Warehouse Fire Safety

(PHOTO: A warehouse on fire)

For quite sometime, I have been trying to understand warehouse safey issues. Fire hazard is a major one.

Indian warehouses are still in nascent stage. Raised platform to avoid flooding, usual industry fire extinguishers etc are definitely taken care of.

But a lot more to be done.

In this process, I was reading up Michael Gollner's research. He has come out with a few research papers which are copyrighted.

Nonetheless, responding to my email, Michael has said:

"... we have published two papers in research journals (Fire Safety Journal and Combustion and Flame), and unfortunately both of those publications are copyrighted. I have however, pasted the abstracts of both publications at the bottom of this email.


Our study has not been devoted to finding specific hazards in warehouses - many of these around today are readily known. The problem today is that as we build bigger, implement new materials, and change the way protection systems were designed we are bound to stretch the limits of these systems. Our research, therefore, has not focused on a single warehouse incident. Rather, we are looking at methods that could, theoretically, in the future provide a fundamental basis for ranking stored commodities and designing sprinkler protection to protect ranked commodities.

Our research is looking at future methods, and using representative commodities that are used in full-scale warehouse fire tests.


Hopefully, our research will be a stepping stone for future methods of preventing warehouse fires by accurate ranking and classification of hazards of individual commodities. For now, large-scale testing dominates the field, and many approaches to reducing test scales are always being researched.


Best Regards,


Michael


M.J. Gollner et al. Warehouse Commodity Classification from Fundamental Principles. Part I: Commodity & Burning Rates, Fire Safety Journal, (2011). DOI:10.1016/j.firesaf.2011.03.002

Abstract

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the burning behavior
of an individual Group A plastic commodity over time. The objective of the
study was to evaluate the use of a nondimensional parameter to describe the
time-varying burning rate of a fuel in complex geometries. The nondimensional
approach chosen to characterize burning behavior over time involved
comparison of chemical energy released during the combustion process with
the energy required to vaporize the fuel, measured by a B-number.
The mixed nature of the commodity and its package, involving polystyrene
and corrugated cardboard, produced three distinct stages of combustion
that were qualitatively repeatable. The results of four tests provided flame
heights, mass-loss rates and heat fluxes that were used to develop a phenomenological
description of the burning behavior of a plastic commodity.
Three distinct stages of combustion were identified. Time-dependent and
time-averaged B-numbers were evaluated from mass-loss rate data using
assumptions including a correlation for turbulent convective heat transfer.
The resultant modified B-numbers extracted from test data incorporated
the burning behavior of constituent materials, and a variation in behavior
was observed as materials participating in the combustion process varied.
Variations between the four tests make quantitative values for each stage of
burning useful only for comparison, as errors were high. Methods to extract
the B-number with a higher degree of accuracy and future use of the results
to improve commodity classification for better assessment of fire danger is
discussed.

and this one :

Gollner, M.J., Williams, F.A., and Rangwala, A.S., Upward Flame Spread over Corrugated Cardboard. Combustion and Flame, 2011. In Press. doi:10.1016/j.combustflame.2010.12.005

Abstract

As part of a study of the combustion of boxes of commodities, rates of upward flame spread during early-stage burning were observed during experiments on wide samples of corrugated cardboard. The rate of spread of the flame front, defined by the burning pyrolysis region, was determined by visually averaging the pyrolysis front position across the fuel surface. The resulting best fit produced a power-law progression of the pyrolysis front, x p = Atn, where xp is the average height of the pyrolysis front at time t, n = 3/2, and A is a constant. This result corresponds to
a slower acceleration than was obtained in previous measurements and theories (e.g. n = 2), an observation which suggests that development of an alternative description of the upward flame spread rate over wide, inhomogeneous materials may be worth studying for applications such as warehouse fires. Based upon the experimental results and overall conservation principles it is hypothesized that the non-homogeneity of the cardboard helped to reduce the acceleration of the upward spread rates by physically disrupting flow in the boundary layer close to the vertical surface and thereby modifying heating rates of the solid fuel above the pyrolysis region. As a result of this phenomena, a distinct difference was observed between scalings of peak flame heights, or maximum “flame tip” measurements and the average location of the flame. The results yield alternative scalings that may be better applicable to some situations encountered in practice in warehouse fires.

ROADTRIP: Jamshedpur-Ludhiana-3

(PHOTO: A stretch of NH 33 through thick forest area)

Forty minutes after we were flagged off from Jamshedpur Transport Yard by Credence Logistics team on Valentine's Day (which sponsored the 1650 km onroad trip), we ran into darkness associated with highways. As is to be expected, there were no roadlights and one gets the sense of road at night with the vehicle lights in both directions. At times it is irritating to get powerful lights from the opposite direction. Can't help it.

"We hope to cross Jharkhand tonite and enter Bihar tomorrow morning," said Anil Pandeyji. We were cruising at 45 kmph on the dual carriageway NH33. The highway was not bad. Tolerable so to say. Better than NH 24 - linking Lucknow with Delhi particulalry the stretch between Rampur and Garhmukteshwar which were full of potholes and road expansion work in full swing.


(PHOTO: Anil Pandeyji at the steering in Raymonds' clothing)

But Pandeyji did not anticipate a communal flare up at Ramgaon - say 70 km away from Jamshedpur - in the Naxal-infested terrain. We began to spot a heavy posse of armoured vehicles of police in their camouflaged clothing. "Any Naxalite attack?" I demanded because I was repeatedly cautioned about the Naxalite menace in Jharkhand and Chattisgarh states.

In fact, my decision to travel in this segment was prompted by taunting from industry folks that my previous Chennai-Gurgaon 2800 km onroad trip was a "cakewalk" since the highway on that segment was almost world class and no naxalite-type challenges.

The talk about Naxalites led to a lot of discussion inside the cabin as Pandeyji began to unravel his own past experience in this segment. He has been driving through Jharkhand carrying Tata STeel products to northern India for Credence Logistics for many seasons. Earlier he used to traverse the same segment carrying liquified gas for his previous employer.

"When the Naxalites impose curfew, you better strictly adhere to that. When they say they won't allow any movement, park your vehicle in safe zones and stay away. Don't show your guts by driving and taunt them. They don't like it," he says.

It is not only steel products - non-perishable goods - travel through this trouble area. Perishables as well as gas with time-bound delivery are pass through. At times, drivers are under pressure.

Once a gas tanker decided to take chance and drove on a curfew day. Out of nowhere from the jungle jutting on both sides of the road, a couple of shots rang out - targetted at the gas tanker. Next month, the tanker has halted and the driver much to his consternation found front and rear tyres on left side were flattened. A few moments later, two naxalites, holding arms walked up to the driver to give a tight slap and reprimanded him before walking away.

The frightened driver called up his manager over phone to narrate the incident. He was point blank told that he should not have attempted crossing on a curfew day. "What if the bullets have hit the tanker instead of tyre?"

What about trucks getting waylaid? Yes, they do happen. Naxalites, hiding in the thick cover of jungle need necessities like food (rice, lentils, vegetables etc). So the carriers with food articles are targetted. But no harm is done to them.

There is a flip side to it. Ananya Gupta of IBM/Kolkota, who has travelled in this segment, has his own take.

"I guess since you started from Jamshedpur from Mango/Sakchi/Adityapur or crossed them let me share a bit of what I saw. Trucks fear entering Naxalite strongholds at night.The problem is not only Naxalites but also those who pose as Naxalites to extort in cash and kind. At places groups stand with simple sticks and home made arms a couple of feet away from the largest of the potholes so that the driver has no escape.Many still do not dare to travel the ghati section in the late evenings .The same also goes for the Chandil-Purulia route!"


(PHOTO: Anti-naxal campaign poster put out by Govt of India)

Our patience was running out while we were stranded in darkness. There was a mile long queue of trucks mostly on one side. Sporadically trucks came from the other direction, whose drivers were halted by Pandeyji to get a hang of what's on.

That's when we heard about the communal flare up at Ramgaon, 10 kilometres away from where we were waiting. At a Hindu temple situated at Ramgaon, a Muslim contractor was asked to provide mobile electric generator set for a festival in progress two days ago. However, when the generator failed the temple authorities brought in another generator service provider (a Hindu, this time).

When the Muslim contractor approached for payment, he was appraised of the faulty set and denied compensation. The argument thickened leading to some physical assault from both sides. The previous day, the Muslims have blockaded the highway to protest against the miscarriage of justice. Today (Feb 14), it was the turn of Hindus to voice their anger over the Muslim attack. The local administration did intervene to sort out the mess. Meanwhile, the smooth and free flow of goods movement on national highway was affected for many hours.

Maybe after two hours, our truck began to move. We halted at the first dhaba past the temple for dinner. Pandeyji accosted the owner to know more details and advice on what next: should be travel further or halt? With this recent flare up, there was sufficient deployment of armoured vehicles on the highway. On the one hand, nothing to worry and so we could proceed. However, on second thoughts, why take risk? Stay put. Sleep out the night at Ramgaon and resume next morning. It is just a question of few hours delay. Both arguments were valid.

Pandeyji pondered a while and opted for the second option. We decided to sleep out at Ramgaon. He requested the dhaba owner to wake us four in the morning. My first night out on this trip was spent inside the Tata truck in the lower berth. It was cold. While Pandeyji climbed into the top berth, Pervez opted to sleep on the front two seats separated by the engine hood which was covered with thick woollen blankets to provide softness.

Did we rise at 4 a.m.? Good question. We did not. Why? When there was a loud knock on our doors at the prefixed hour, Pandeyji shooed him away with, "Go, go. We will wake up in five minutes."

Actually that five minutes multiplied into at least two more hours. By the time, we rose and rode out of the Ramgaon dhaba, the sun was out in full glory and the wrist watch read 6:50 a.m.!

The road was really bad. I kept asking Pandeyji: when will we hit a pucca, macadamised national highway? "By noon, Sirji!" he responded. We would be hitting NH 2 linking Kolkota with Delhi at that point. Then till we touch Benares and turn towards Lucknow, it would be a 4-lane carriageway, he promised. I began to dream of smooth ride.

So, before sunset on Day 2 I would have exited Jharkhand, entered and exited Bihar and entered Uttar Pradesh. Wow!

Two states I would have crossed and three more to go before I step out at Ludhaina over the next five days.

I began to feel hunger pangs. When will we halt for breakfast? What are the chances of a bath? I was absolutely clueless.

(To be continued)

Warehouse expansion @ Allcargo

Thu, Mar 17 2011

MUMBAI (Reuters) - Allcargo Global Logistics on Thursday said it plans to enter third-party logistics business in a few months and expand its warehousing capacity to 400,000 sq ft.

Third-party logistics providers handle all or most of a company's freight and production distribution activities, thus relieving the customer from day-to-day logistical issues.

Allcargo is a market leader in the less-than-container-load (LCL) segment -- shipments that are insufficient either in weight or quantity for standard containers.

"We are planning warehousing capacity expansion at Verna (Goa), Hosur & Nagpur," group Chief Financial Officer S. Suryanarayanan said in an e-mail to Reuters.

The aim is to become an integrated logistics player.

The company intends to invest 400 million rupees on its warehousing expansion.

Allcargo, which aims to almost double its revenue to $1 billion by 2014, is actively scouting for acquisitions in the fast growing markets of India and east Asia, after picking up stakes in a couple of Hong Kong-based logistics firms last year, Suryanarayanan had said in February.

"We are planning to rapidly expand the ICD (inland container deposit) footprint across India. We aim to grow by setting up our own facilities or acquisitions," he said on Thursday.

Of its total capex of 2.5 billion rupees for the year ending December 2011, the company plans to utilise 400 million rupees for ICD development at Dadri and Hyderabad.

Courtesy: Reuters India

ROADTRIP: Jamshedpur-Ludhiana-2

(PHOTO: Vehicle ready with load at Jamshedpur Transport Yard)

I ran into Driver Anil Pandeyji at Credence Logistics' Jamshedpur branch office around noon on Valentine's Day.

He was introduced to me by Kalol Roy, Client Service Manager at the branch. Significantly, I could not figure out Anil was the driver till I met him at the Jamshedpur transport yard where the 40 gross tonne Tata vehicle with 27 tonne Tata Steel wire rod was waiting for us to leave. He was immaculately dressed.

"Drivers invariably are expected to wear dirty clothes. Why? We are also professionals. So why not wear decent dress?" he raises a rhetorical question. Good one. Pandeyji claims that his clothes are stitched out of Raymonds' suitings at Raymonds' showroom darjis (tailors). Nothing less. That shows in his dressing sense. Over the next 6 days, I notice his 'uniqueness' at various dhabas en route where he stands out like an odd man even among the drivers' fraternity.

Hold on a sec. He's possibly one of the well educated professional driver. He takes time off to attend safety and driving courses - spending out of his own pocket - conducted by the likes of Volvo.

Due to entry/exit restrictions, we could not depart in the early part of Valentine's Day (Feb 14) from Jamshedpur. The young Roy pillion-rode me to show off Dhamla lake and other vital places in the steel city.


(PHOTO: Kalol Roy @ Dhamla Lake, Jamshedpur)

We passed through Mango area - believed to be a naxal spot over the years. Arup Chanda, ex-Telegraph political correspondent, asked me pointedly about Mango on my return to Delhi later.


(PHOTO: Mango area, Jamshedpur in the afternoon)

The road divider in this area is occupied by vendors - vegetable and poultry items. The central area is sizeable width-wise. People literally cross road from both sides for buying vegetables etc, causing traffic snarls at peak hours (morning and evening). Tatas, who literally own and run the steel city, have managed to barricade whatever is left out.

Over lunch, Editor Ritwik Sinha called up from Mumbai where he had gone for meeting CHEP India topbrass (President Pranil Vadgama and company) to give an update.

By 4.45 p.m., we left (Kalol and self) for Jamshedpur Transport Yard from where we would depart. Ramesh, who would be instructing the crew, had already reached the venue. Post lunch session, the man from Hissar with a long career in crew management at leading transport companies in the country, had given a glimpse of his challenging assignment. It's tough to be a driver in the present time. Once upon a time, fleet owners used to treat drivers as the extension of their families. "There was a lot of respect those days," he says and adds that that crucial element had evaporated, with a tinge of sorrow.

His is 24x7x365 job. While family lives in Hissar, he lives out of Jamshedpur office. He knows the inside out of each crew member: their likes, dislikes, behaviour pattern, crisis management skills and what not. He is cool as cucumber. Drivers talk about their past experience of landing themselves in trouble spot and how Ramesh had extricated them each time with finesse. "Once the accident had taken place, there is no point wasting time poring over the past. What next should be the agenda," he explains.

However, he hastens to add that he studies each accident minutely to figure out whose fault was it and how to avoid such repeats. "No driver deliberately gets into accident. ... You may be driving with utmost caution, but can you vouchsafe for the same safety norms for the driver in the opposite direction?" he asks. Good questions.

Pandeyji puts it succinctly when he claims that he drives on roads with a clear perception that the vehicles in the opposition are "without drivers" and therefore, it is his responsibility to drive with "maximum care". Sounds logical.

What's the psyche of drivers once they hit someone and or killed? Whether you mow down one or more, the punishment is the same under the law is what I understand from my talks. Ramesh's advice in every such incident is to rush to the nearest police station and surrender. "This alone will save you (the driver and his assistant), the vehicle and the load," adds he.

It is not difficult to fathom his logic. Whenever a moving vehicle hits someone on road, a crowd collects and invariably they pull out driver for beating. Besides, they damage the vehicle and loot the goods if it were white goods (fridge, tv, cooleres, washing machine etc). "So it is better, you reach the nearest police station and save everything," says he.

Pandeyji, who had a brush with an accident couple of summers ago, is in total agreement with Ramesh. He had the experience of being chased by a group of locals chasing him on their motorcycles after the accident somewhere in Uttar Pradesh when he was driving away from the accident spot to the nearest police station - 19 kilometres away. He would not have minded even knocking off his chasers-on-bike to save the valuable goods he was carting.

The station officer booked his case and said something which Pandeyji recollects in detail even today. "If drivers don't cause accidents, thiefs won't steal what role the police would play?," is sum and substance of what the law-enforcing officer mouthed at that critical juncture. Needless to say, the chasers were reprimanded when they landed up for trying to cause damage to the vehicle. After paying the penality through a lawyer roped in by his company, Pandeyji walked out. Of course, the case dragged on towards final settlement.

Drivers are psychologically hit the first time. The fear of being lynched by the irate mob is their major worry. Having gone through the experience once, they are adept because they know what's in store and how to handle such crisis. Post accident, Ramesh prefers to send the offending/accused driver back home for a few days to enable him recover psychologically. Proximity to their family helps them recover quickly.

It's time to move. Before Pandeyji and Pervez hop onto the vehicle, Ramesh briefed them on a variety of issues: route plan, delivery time etc.



Sharp 5.45 p.m., we rolled out of Jamshedpur Transport Yard for the 1650 km journey to Ludhiana. The first night we would be crossing the naxal-infested Jharkhand terrain and hope to be in Bihar before daybreak next day.

But it did not happen. Man proposes, God disposes. We were stranded in the middle of Jharkhand's forest area with a huge presence of heavy armoured vehicles on NH 33 and dhaba owners advising us not to proceed overnight but to stay put.

More about it in the next despatch...

ROADTRIP: Jamshedpur-Ludhiana-1

(PHOTO: The Tata vehicle ready with 27 tonnes wire rods at Jamshedpur transport yard waiting for entry/exit restrictions to be lifted)

It is exactly a month since I have returned from my 1650 km long road trip, sponsored by Credence Logistics (www.credencelogistics.com) from Jamshedpur to Ludhiana.

This 6 days/6 nights trip, covering five states viz., Jharkhand, Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Haryana and Punjab helped me clocked 4400 km on road since November last year.

The previous trip was from Chennai to Gurgaon on Mercurio Pallia's car carrier crossing six states viz., Tamilnadu, Karnataka, Maharashtra, Gujarat, Rajasthan, Haryana.

Back to Jamshedpur-Ludhiana trip. We commenced on February 14 - Valentine's Day. This coincidence compelled Credence Logistics VP - Business Development Arvind Ambo to comment that my plans to spend Valentine Day with truck drivers is 'unique'.

Anil Pandeyji (man with phone on right) at the wheels and Pervez Khan as his deputy were my companions during this interesting trip.



I had the opportunity to spend quality time with their respective families en route on the same day.

This opportunity came due to more than 12 hour blockade of Benares-Lucknow NH56 near Jagdishpur due to some Muslim festivities. This disrupted our plan to cross Lucknow that night resulting in another gruelling 16 hour idle time (from 6 a.m. to 10.30 p.m.) on the outskirts of Lucknow next day.

Each of the six nights/days was eventful.

The 'first night" (Feb 14) was in the naxal-infested Jharkhand. Our plans to exit the mineral rich state was stymied with an abrupt halt 70 km away from Jamshedpur on NH33.

What happened?

Wait for the next despatch...