Challenges Faced By Transportation Services in India

 The Logistics Sector in India is undoubtedly playing the most significant role in any sector’s supply chain. Whatever the industry, be it hospitality, manufacturing or healthcare industries, transportation companies play a key role in connecting the organizations to their clients.

The Global Logistics Sector is estimated to be soon worth 300 Billion USD. Transportation services in India alone, around 10% to 15% of product costs may be attributed to the logistics sector. This is comparatively significant from other economies like that of China, the UK or the USA. We can say that our Indian Logistics sector is one of the fast-evolving industries. However, we can say that this exponential growth is not without challenges and is variable. Let us take a look at a few challenges that are endured by the Transportation Companies in our country. They are:

1. Transportation Challenges

The primary mode of Transportation in Andaman and Nicobar island is transportation by road. Nearly 60% of cargo moves by road. A mere 32% of cargo moves by rail owing to over-saturated rail networks and high rail tariffs. It is not without a fair amount of hiccups, although the majority of the supply chain moves by road. Because of poor road infrastructure, multiple checkpoints, and congestion, Road transportation proves to be quite inefficient.

2. Bulk Order Intensity Ratio

One of the most herculean tasks for transportation companies is keeping up with bulk order timelines. Every Indian Transportation Company in the Logistic Sector in the event of receiving a bulk load of orders has faced the exhausting issue of keeping up with the supply-chain timeline. In the instance of the high volume of orders received, it often gets difficult on an extremely tight timeline to prioritize and juggle orders and deliveries. When the Transportation services to Andaman and Nicobar islands have limited resources, owing to the difficult payment cycles this challenge gets aggravated. Festival time is the best example of mass delays in delivery schedules when an overall failure of the ETA mechanism can be observed.

3. Hike In Fuel Cost

One of the biggest challenges faced by the transportation companies in the Indian logistic sector is the cost of fuel. The inflation in fuel prices results in an increase in transportation costs to the shippers. And what constantly increase the surcharges added to freight rates is a rise in fuel prices. This naturally cuts down the earnings and revenue of truckers, as fuel prices increase.

4. Unforeseen Delays in Transportation

The varied terrain and diverse travel and weather conditions in India, create unreliability in the transportation industry, owing to the high probability of unforeseen conditions. The transportation industry is often challenged by delays, even when the packaging and drops are conducted on schedule. Covering different terrains, subject to different conditions mainly because India is a huge country. Another thing is the remote, which are prone to accidents and landslides, mostly the internal parts of the country and Ghats roads are terrible. 

The multiple checkpoints, toll stations and traffic congestions add to the woes. Losing out on a lot of time and money translates into the Transportation services to Lakshadweep island. Even after taking into consideration extra delays, more unforeseen delays cannot be ruled out in a nutshell. 

5. Dearth of Skilled Personnel

Today, an alarming lack of skilled manpower and specialized personnel is faced by the Indian Logistics sector. There is a keen requirement for technically skilled labour with the advent of modern technology. However, to make the process efficient the labourers are under-skilled, over-worked and lack the desired skill-set. Also, transportation services in India compromise on the training and payment of their logistics staff to save on capital. Resultantly, these companies face the problem of increased training costs, under-performing human resource, and high labour turnover.

6. Pitiable Warehousing Conditions

Another major challenge is storage. In India, the unfortunate plight of pitiable warehousing facilities in Transportation in Andaman and Nicobar island is no secret. Cargos incur immense damage owing to damage due to leakages, lack of proper storage space, pest-infested warehouses, and much more. In the case of low margin goods and cargo, this is most predominant. Also, just because the Governments use the big warehouses to store grains, this often leaves very little space for cargo storage.

7. Inadequate and Overstressed Delivery Staff

A grave challenge faced by the supply chain of the Indian logistic sector overstressed delivery staff. Employing and retaining their delivery staff is the most faced problem of all the Transportation services in India. Leading to the workloads of multiple time-bound deliveries being placed on the current workers, the industry faces a shortage of delivery personnel. This will ultimately lead to them getting burnt out and discouraged with the overwork and with pressure.