Reel­ing un­der a cri­sis due to the Covid19 pan­demic and the ris­ing diesel prices, the rep­re­sen­ta­tive or­gan­i­sa­tion of truck­ers and al­lied stake­hold­ers, in a mis­sive to the In­dian Trans­port Min­is­ter Nitin Gad­kari has de­manded that the road war­riors -dri­vers, who are keep­ing the econ­omy of the coun­try mov­ing, should be in­oc­u­lated on a pri­or­ity ba­sis so that there is no stop­page of trans­port move­ment. ACO­GOA has also called for an im­me­di­ate em­bargo on diesel prices and a state-con­ducted study to es­ti­mate the loss to the trans­port in­dus­try by the gov­ern­ment of In­dia. WSN re­ports.

Through a let­ter to the trans­port min­is­ter of In­dia, the pe­tro­leum and fi­nance min­is­ter, trade body ACO­GOA has warned that the trans­port in­dus­try is on the ven­ti­la­tor and has beck­oned the gov­ern­ment of In­dia for a bailout by pro­vid­ing oxy­gen sup­port in the form of tax hol­i­day for the cur­rent fi­nan­cial year, stop­ping the up­ward trend in diesel prices which is touch­ing Rs. 100 a litre, a mora­to­rium on EMI till 31 De­cem­ber 2021, strict ad­her­ence to the seizure of ve­hi­cles un­der Supreme Court guide­lines and fix­a­tion of min­i­mum freight rate as per Sec­tion 67 of the Mo­tor Ve­hi­cles Act.

Speak­ing to World Sikh News, the gen­eral sec­re­tary of the All In­dia Con­fed­er­a­tion of Goods Ve­hi­cle Own­ers As­so­ci­a­tions -ACO­GOA -Ra­jin­der Singh men­tioned that, “In­di­a’s GDP is at the low­est com­pared to the past 6 years. Busi­nesses are strug­gling, there are labour short­ages, un­em­ploy­ment and a slow­down in man­u­fac­tur­ing and trade.  All of this has se­ri­ously im­pacted the trans­port in­dus­try and its mul­ti­far­i­ous stake­hold­ers, who have been com­pletely ig­nored by the gov­ern­ment of In­dia de­spite umpteen rep­re­sen­ta­tions since the Covid19 pan­demic struck.”

“Let it be clear to the gov­ern­ment of In­dia that the trans­port in­dus­try is wait­ing for life-sup­port, es­pe­cially the owner-dri­ver ma­jor­ity small seg­ment. It is es­ti­mated that more than 80 per cent of trans­porters are small op­er­a­tors.  Since Sep­tem­ber 2020, prices of diesel have shot up by over 20%, and of tyres by over 10%. Dri­ver salaries in­creased by 10% to 15% be­cause of low avail­abil­ity,” he added. 

When asked “Why does the trans­port in­dus­try not arrange for in­oc­u­la­tion of dri­vers, Ra­jin­der Singh promptly said, “ACO­GOA will pro­vide full sup­port to the gov­ern­ment all over the coun­try to arrange such cen­tres where we can in­oc­u­late dri­vers and other as­sist­ing staff. We are com­mit­ted to sav­ing lives as in the first and sec­ond wave of the pan­demic, many lives were lost and many re­turned back to their homes not to re­turn.”

“ACO­GOA will pro­vide full sup­port to the gov­ern­ment all over the coun­try to arrange such cen­tres where we can in­oc­u­late dri­vers and other as­sist­ing staff. We are com­mit­ted to sav­ing lives as in the first and sec­ond wave of the pan­demic, many lives were lost and many re­turned back to their homes not to re­turn.”

Ra­jin­der Singh, Gen­eral Sec­re­tary, ACO­GOA

“We have sent this let­ter to the Chief Min­is­ters of all states with the hope that some states can take this up at the ear­li­est,” added Ra­jin­der Singh, who deeply cares about the lives and prob­lems of truck dri­vers.

The let­ter to Nitin Gad­kari states that “De­spite all hin­drances and dif­fi­cul­ties, Dri­vers -the road war­riors con­tin­ued their ser­vice of trans­port­ing es­sen­tial com­modi­ties, much-needed PPE kits, med­i­cines, oxy­gen cylin­ders, food items and grains through­out the coun­try.  Em­ploy­ers are pro­vid­ing face masks, sani­tis­ers and mon­i­tor­ing their health, but what is the Union gov­ern­ment or state gov­ern­ments do­ing for them?

“Low con­sumer de­mand, low fleet uti­liza­tion, low freight rates, neg­a­tive op­er­a­tor prof­itabil­ity, large out­stand­ing pay­ments, de­creased cash flow, delin­quency lead­ing to de­fault in pay­ment of EMIs and large work­ing cap­i­tal needs have been the hall­mark of Lock­down 2.0, which was gen­er­ally lo­calised, though the ad­verse im­pact was na­tional.  Ad­di­tional loans, top-up loans for tyres, fuel, in­sur­ance, per­sonal loss, Covid-pre­ven­tion funds con­tinue to be an ad­di­tional bur­den. “

The moot point is whether the gov­ern­ment will lis­ten to the woes of the trans­porters and if it will, then when.  As of now, there are no im­ages of truck dri­vers be­ing in­oc­u­lated. The monthly talk show of the In­dian Prime Min­is­ter Naren­dra Modi and the ‘gi­ant strides’ by the Min­is­ter for Trans­port and Roads Nitin Gad­kari has not ac­knowl­edged them as road war­riors.

The rise in diesel prices is lead­ing to heavy in­fla­tion. The im­pact of the rise in pe­tro­leum prices on ed­i­ble oil prices is only one in­di­ca­tor, but will any­body lis­ten?