Category Archives: Rail/Road

FM Logistic India has announced that the company is deploying its first batch of electric vehicles (EVs) in Bengaluru. The first batch of EVs comprises 3-wheelers from a leading commercial vehicle manufacturer having a load capacity of 500 kg. The vehicles take approximately three hours for charging and can cover a distance of about 80 km in a single charge. The EVs will be used to carry out intra-city deliveries for WayCool, a leading player in the FMCG and food segment. FM Logistic India will be helping WayCool to carry out hyper local deliveries to local kirana stores, supermarkets as well as end consumers. Elaborating on WayCool’s efforts towards sustainable Agri-commerce, Amrit Bajpai, COO, WayCool Foods, said “Our partnership with FM Logistic is another step towards advancing fleet electrification. To start, we will have EVs constituting 5 per cent of our total fleet and will continue to increase it. WayCool is committed towards sustainable actions and innovations to drive efficiency across the Agri-commerce value chain. We strongly believe that responsible behavior needs proactive efforts and it’s our duty to leave the earth better than how we found it.” Alexander Amine Soufiani, MD – FM Logistic India, said, “At FM Logistic, sustainability is at the heart of our operations. When WayCool approached us to help them to develop a green network, we were excited to be able to provide them with a green distribution offer to help fulfill their delivery commitments within city limits. We include the challenges of sustainable development in our strategic vision – teams creating solutions for a sustainable supply chain. We are committed to reducing the impact of our business activities on the environment. We are focussed …

Flipkart has announced a strategic and commercial partnership with the Adani Group to strengthen Flipkart’s supply chain infrastructure and further enhance its ability to serve its rapidly growing base of customers. In addition, Flipkart will set up its third data centre at Adaniconnex, Chennai based facility, leveraging AdaniConneX’s world-class expertise and industry-leading data centre technology solutions. Adaniconnex is a new Joint Venture formed between EdgeConneX and Adani Enterprises. As part of this partnership, Adani Logistics will construct a massive 534,000 sq. ft. fulfilment centre in its upcoming logistics hub in Mumbai that will be leased to Flipkart to address the growing demand for e-commerce in Western India and support market access of several thousands of sellers and MSMEs in the region. Leveraging state-of-the-art technologies, the centre is expected to be operational in Q3 2022 and will have the capacity to house 10 million units of sellers’ inventory at any point. In addition to strengthening Flipkart’s supply chain infrastructure to support MSMEs and sellers, the facility will enhance local employment and create ~2,500 direct jobs and thousands of indirect jobs. The other prong of the partnership will see Flipkart developing its third data centre at the AdaniConnecX facility as a part of one of the largest private cloud deployments in the country, thereby further strengthening its growing marketplace e-commerce business in India. The data centre has been designed to meet the highest standards in reliability, security, and sustainability, which will capitalise on the Adani Group’s capability as the largest solar player in the country to generate and source green power. The AdaniConneX data centre is a brand-new facility enabling Flipkart to design the data centre to its growing infrastructure needs with …

In a bid to help fast track deployment of electric vehicles across its logistics fleet in the country, Flipkart has partnered with EDEL by Mahindra Logistics (MLL) as one of its key logistics partners. Flipkart has committed to 100 per cent electric mobility in its logistics fleet and will deploy more than 25,000 electric vehicles (EVs) by 2030. Mahindra Logistics will play a significant role in working with various OEMs and help Flipkart’s sustainable transition to EVs. With a shared commitment and vision towards sustainable business practices, Mahindra Logistics has already launched EDEL, its own electric delivery brand in late 2020. EDEL has partnered with companies in consumer & e-commerce to provide sustainable last-mile delivery across six cities in India. MLL through EDEL will enable Flipkart in its journey towards building a green supply chain by not only deploying a large fleet of EVs but also creating a conducive environment for EV deployment and operations across the country. This includes building supporting infrastructure and technology such as charging stations and parking lots, training workforce, route planning and even battery swapping stations in the near future. Another key focus area will be technology and control tower operations to enable greater efficiency and cost competitiveness. Hemant Badri, SVP Supply Chain, Flipkart Group, said, “Electrification of the logistics fleet is an important part of Flipkart’s larger sustainability goal and a key focus area for the company. We are happy to have Mahindra Logistics on-board as a logistics partner, who will play a major role in helping us achieve our vision of making our logistics fleet fully electric by 2030. Through collective efforts, we aim to build and support solutions that boost EV adoption …

On account of the nationwide lockdown, the Indian logistics sector has witnessed a significant sequential recovery after experiencing severe disruption in Q1 FY2021. This had created demand-side and supply-side challenges which eased in subsequent months as economic activity recovered. As per ICRA note, as lockdown-related restrictions eased and economic activity revived, the freight availability for logistics players also improved. Accordingly, many of the logistics companies reverted to pre-pandemic levels by end of Q2 FY2021 and started reporting Y-o-Y growth from Q3 FY2021, the same has continued into Q4 FY2021 as well. Freight rates also remained firm during this period. According to Rohan Kanwar Gupta, Assistant Vice President & Sector Head, ICRA Ratings, “As the economy opened up and industrial, manufacturing, construction and consumption activities picked up pace, freight availability also improved, aiding recovery in the sector. Freight rates also held up in this period. As such, the pace of revenue contraction mellowed down significantly in Q2 FY2021, and reverted to growth trajectory in Q3 FY2021. This trend was also visible in E-way bill volumes, which reached pre-pandemic levels in September 2020 and posted Y-o-Y growth in all subsequent months. While freight volumes in Q3 FY2021 were supported by the historically strong festive period, the sector sustained its volume growth even after the season ended, giving comfort regarding the sustainability of the recovery.” The recovery has also been visible across other modes of transportation as well. The rail freight traffic reported similar trends, reporting Y-o-Y growth of 5% and 10% in Q2 FY2021 and Q3 FY2021 respectively. The volumes thereafter have also held up, touching peak freight volumes in January 2021, resulting in 7% Y-o-Y growth during the fourth quarter so …

Aggressively expanding its network to extend the reach in every nook and corner of India, Shree Maruti Courier Services is planning to add 2,000 cities and towns of the country in their network and aiming to achieve Rs 1,000 crore turnover in the next five years. At present, the company has a nationwide network of over 2,650 outlets and round the clock working at 89 regional offices across India. The company has a presence in 868 cities & towns and serving to 4,600 pincodes. Elaborating the details on the plan, Ajay Mokariya, Managing Director, Shree Maruti Courier Services, said, “Despite challenging business environment, we are witnessing an increasingly strong demand across the markets. With the aggressive expansion plan, we are aiming to add additional 7,500 unique pin codes across the country. The company has added new products/verticals of surface cargo and upgraded international segment by opening up six new gateways recently. The same will ensure to achieve a target of Rs 1,000 crore turnover in next five years. Keeping in mind Prime Minister’s ‘Make in India’ and ‘Atmanirbhar Bharat’ mission, we are proud to contribute to India’s growth story and aiming to generate 10,000 employment opportunities with this expansion”.

In view of tremendous potential of cross border trade between Bangladesh, Bhutan, India and Nepal (BBIN) Shankar Shinde, Chairman Elect, the Federation of Freight Forwarders Associations in India (FFFAI) has recommended for seamless multimodal connectivity and strong logistics infrastructure in each of the above countries. Speaking at a webinar on ‘UN TIR System and its benefits of expansion to Bangladesh and other BBIN countries’, which was organised by FICCI in association with IRU Geneva, ICC Bangladesh and FFFAI, Shinde observed that accession to TIR Carnet would be immensely beneficial for the hassle-free cross border trade in this region. It would be pertinent to mention that FFFAI is one of the associates of TIR Carnet and have been working with the Government of India for International North South Transport Corridor (INSTC) project, under TIR Carnet. He also emphasised on well-defined policies to be framed up by the respective governments and well-trained officers including Customs and allied agencies engaged at the border check posts. Based on the INSTC route experience, where FFFAI had launched a trial run of containers, Shinde stated that point to point vehicle movement would be the pragmatic solution instead of re-working of unloading and reloading transshipment, to save cost and reduce dwell time. Accordingly, accession to TIR would expedite the process in this regard. He, however, highlighted various other challenges as regard to cross border cargo transportation, as witnessed in INSTC route. Shinde further suggested that the governments will have to provide more impetus on private logistics companies, NVOCC or multimodal logistics operators’ participation in the BBIN project and also important would be to create a BBIN website portal with complete information for trade participation and addressing issues. …

Zipaworld has announced investing a stake in Radiant X-Ways Logistic; the amount has not been disclosed by either of the parties. This investment comes soon after the launch and implementation of Zipaworld’s Ocean Freight digital platform. The Board of Directors of Radiant X-Ways Logistic has nominated Dr Ambrish Kumar, the founder of Zipaworld, as the Chairman of Radiant. Shares his futuristic views Kumar states, “The investment in Radiant marks another milestone for us as we aimed at encompassing and connecting more than 26000 zip codes across India, to the global gateway digitally through the Zipaworld platform.” He also added that “Radiant will help us resolve the first and last mile connectivity concerns as the user will be able to book a cargo right from their door to the destination door from one single gateway, without having to go to multiple vendors”. Zipaworld is all set to break the stereotypes of the Indian logistics sector which is highly fragmented and disintegrated. Prabhakar Pandey, Managing Director, Radiant X-Ways Logistic, expresses his enthusiasm and thoughts stating, “We are keenly contemplating Zipaworld’s holding and backing in Radiant, mainly for digitizing and automating the whole domestic circuit that forms our expertise. Our valuable clients will be highly benefitted with the automation and the technological advancement. Zipaworld is providing Radiant with a gateway to cater to the international market for our year-old clients and that too from a single window gateway”. The assurance of Dr Ambrish Kumar towards the end of last year to transport goods to and from any part of the country and offering the manufacturers and exporters a global access is turning out to be a reality much ahead of the stipulated time. …

RedSeer and Shadowfax have launched the ‘Delivery Delight Index’ to help brands and platforms assess their relative positioning in terms of delivery experience provided to the end customer and take measures to continually improve their delivery experience score which in turn will help them to drive customer satisfaction and improve their revenue per customers. Commenting on the launch of Delivery Delight Index, Abhishek Bansal, CEO, and Founder, Shadowfax says, “I have said this in the past and continue to foresee that five years down the line, e-commerce will evolve into maximum two-day deliveries. While discounts on products are no longer a key driver for consumers to shop online, speed of delivery, safety and hygiene have become imperative in the past few months. Third-party logistics will emerge as an important driver for bringing consumer delight to the brands offering safer, faster deliveries. We have come together with RedSeer to bring the Delight Delivery Index for brands. The index will enable a deeper understanding of customer behavior and preferences and help the brands better serve their customers. The Index outlines interesting facts about the change in consumer behavior. Delivery Delight Index will also help brands and platforms understand satisfaction levels of their end customers across key parameters like Speed of Delivery and Delivery Experience. Some of the traditional/retail and digitally native brands who have partnered with 3PL companies are leading in better delivery experiences. This reveals that the industry needs an agile supply chain management and warehousing solutions of 3PL players to improve on their delivery experience score leading to better revenue per customer.” ‘Delivery Delight Index’ has been developed after ~9,000 consumer surveys covering 34 players across four types of platforms …

Pickkup is now aiming to expand its services to South’s major metropolitan cities Bengaluru and Chennai, apart from starting operations in Vijaywada and Vishakhapatnam this year. With plans to have operations in 5 cities over the next few months, Pickkup aims to reach a revenue of Rs 10-12 crore by the next financial year 2021-22. The startup plans to raise seed capital in the upcoming financial year to fuel its expansion plans including establishing operations in multiple cities and hiring new fleet. The expansion plans come in the wake of stupendous post COVID growth, with the startup registering a 20-fold rise in delivery volumes over the past 11 months. The demand for Pickkup’s on-demand last-mile delivery services grew tremendously from enterprises particularly from retail and e-commerce players. Apart from Bengaluru, Chennai the tech enabled last mile delivery startup is also ready to expand its operations to other Tier-1 and Tier-2 cities of Andhra Pradesh and Telangana. While the operations in Bengaluru are set to start next month, the startup is expected to take off in Chennai and Vijayawada in June and Vishakhapatnam by October this year. Over the next two fiscal years, Pickkup aims to have operations in eight cities with an expected revenue of Rs 50 crore. With a number of its partners having multi city presence, the startup already has order commitments from a series of businesses and e commerce platforms in Bengaluru and Chennai. The startup already has order commitments from businesses, bakery outlets, retail and several e commerce platforms in Bengaluru where operations are set to take off immediately. “With our technology-driven services enabling a highly efficient local delivery model, Pickkup has emerged as the fastest …

In spite of Covid challenges, Indian Railways surpassed last year’s total Cumulative freight loading on March 11, 2021; cumulative freight loading touched 1145.68 million tonnes which is higher than total cumulative loading of last year (1145.61 million tonnes). Freight figures continue to maintain the high momentum in terms of loading and speed in the month of March 2021 as well for Indian Railways. On a month to month basis, up to March 11, 2021, Indian Railways loading was 43.43 million tonnes, which is 10 per cent higher compared to last year’ loading for the same period (39.33 million tonnes). On day to day basis, on 11th March, 2021, the freight loading of Indian Railways was 4.07 million tonnes, which is 34 per cent higher compare to last year’s loading for the same date (3.03 million tonnes). The average speed of Freight Trains in the month of March 2021 till March 11 was 45.49 kmph which is almost double compare to last year for the same period (23.29 kmph). A number of concessions/discounts are also being given in Indian Railways to make railways freight movement very attractive. Strong emergence of Business Development Units in Zones & Divisions, constant dialogue with the industry & logistics service providers, faster speed etc are adding to the robust growth of freight business for the Railways. COVID 19 has been used by Indian Railways as an opportunity to improve all-round efficiencies and performances.