The pattern of problems and solutions are similar but everything is derivative of the region. The economy and society in Europe and US are where differences emerge in comparison to India. ![[Pasted image 20241013104934.png]] The region is starkly different than the one we inhabit in India. The businesses that operate in logistics especially in road freight are more organised in nature compared to India's informal economy. They are far ahead on the digitisation front as well. Every truck operating and moving freight has to be registered and has a trade history as well. This helps in increasing access to the network for new shippers. There is far more standardisation on trade practices. One thing we could adopt is bettering the driver conditions. Our freight economy time to time uses drivers and helpers as a patsy. The cost of transportation doesn't justify investing building better amenities for drivers. This difference is evident if you look at the demographic of drivers who drive in US and EU compared to India. People from different walks of life are driving rigs(trucks in US) but our driver community is classified into a different caste and discriminated by authorities, common citizens and businesses unanimously. The literarcy rates and training for drivers is bare minimum. That doesn't means they lack in skills. The better educated and well trained drivers emigrate to Gulf countries or North America to drive for fleet operators and in search of better conditions of work. So, if there is one thing that we could do for trucking is make the conditions much more hospitable to drivers by integrating their work into the fabric of our business. And the one place where the business community can help is to have standardised detension charges for different types of delays. ![[Traditional Trade Flow 1.png]] Let me walk you through with an example in agriculture commoditiy logistics. Indian raod transportation network has agriculture commodities as return loads and consistent delays at pick-up and drop off locations disrupt the potential revenues that fleet owners could generate. Fleet owners move commodities or white-goods one way and move agriculture commodities on the return leg. But the constant delays due to commodity trade disrupts their number of trips that they could run. A stationary truck losses becomes a liability for the fleet owner. And many times, the shippers and buyers don't pay detention charges. This hurts the earning and productivity of fleet owners. Thus resulting in expensive transportation indirectly. **** #replytoquestion #logistics #transportation 13-10-24