Coimbatore-based Sreeman Transports was among the top 100 SMEs chosen for the Skoch Achiever Award 2017.

Its proprietor I M Kannan told BusinessLine that the biggest challenge for him now is in taking the company to the next level.

The logistics operator, had since inception in the mid 80s, stuck his services to Coimbatore. Over the years, Sreeman Transports has looked beyond Tamil Nadu at Andhra Pradesh, Maharashtra, Madhya Pradesh, Kerala and some parts of Central India as well.

The fleet has also grown to around 80 vehicles of which 15 are company-owned and the rest in tie-up on a contract basis.

Talking about the challenge, he said “there is a huge paucity of drivers. The entire industry is unorganised and there is no parity in rate – be it on the type of vehicle (six-wheeler, 10-wheeler), the tonnage or distance. It varies from place to place.”

To address this issue, the Government should establish a Drivers' Academy under the Skill Development Initiative, he said.

Kannan pointed out that 15 years ago, every six-wheeler (with a carrying capacity of 10 tonnes) would operate with two drivers and a cleaner. It got shrunk to one driver and one cleaner a decade ago and further down to just one driver (no cleaner) at present, even if the load is as high as 26 tonnes.

“Many trucks are halted for want of drivers and this results in huge business loss,” he said, adding “there is an academy in Andhra Pradesh and at Namakkal in Tamil Nadu. The trained drivers are in great demand in the Middle East, so a majority of them leave in search of greener pastures''.

Reverting to road conditions, he said: "In the middle east, a truck would easily cover a distance of 700 km in eight hours against 300 km or even less here.”

“That's not all. Girls invariably are reluctant to marry truck drivers. This puts off many from taking up this vocation. They qualify, take the licence and either go abroad or ply smaller vehicles like a share auto, and are content transporting people in and around their village.”