'Average distance covered by trucks up by 100-150 km/day post 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 pre- GST era, according to logistics sector's representatives.

Goods and Services Tax (GST) was implemented on July 1, 2017.

Its been six months since the government brought in the GST and the impact of the new tax regime has been such that average distance covered by a truck in India is between 400- 450 km/a mark today, CEO of logistics firm TCI Express P C Sharma told PTI.

The trucks these days on an average are covering 100-150 kilometres more compared to pre-GST period, Tiger Logistics Chairman and MD Harpreet Singh Malhotra said.

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 days time, Sharma said.

"Our trucks which were travelling from Delhi to Bengaluru, had to stop at least at 5 to 6 places and at each stoppage a minimum 5 hour was wasted," Sharma said.

TCI Express has 4 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 value-added logistics services for 9 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 bad to worse day by day. Trucks can not pass freely.

"There are certain terrains like Bihar, Uttar Pradesh, Odisha and entire Northeast where the highway conditions are still substandard, which significantly brings down the overall average speed of trucks on the highways," Vineet Kanaujia, Vice President (Marketing), SafeExpress said.

Sharma said the distance can further go up if government constructs outer ring roads in Tier II and III cities. The trucks reach these cities and as they are bound to pass through the city which is not possible during day hours, the vehicles keep on waiting for the sun to set and entry reopen.

Manish B Agarwal, Partner and Leader, Infrastructure, PwC India, said the trucks in the country have started covering greater distances since the country-wide implementation of the new tax structure.

The performance of the logistics sector which comprises of transport sector (consisting of unorganised small businesses, trucking, fleets and large transport companies), storage and warehousing has also gone up, he added.