Page 17 - TrafficInfraTech Magazine - Linking People Places & Progres

NEW MOBILITY

The logistics
industry in India
must work smarter

not just in terms
of the equipment
and technology

it uses but in the
knowledge and
relationships it
develops between
individual
from 54th rank in 2016 in terms delays in delivery and disruption
of overall logistics performance. in the supply chain with potential components of
The Indian e-commerce market impacts in other sectors. Only
is expected to more than double 30% of the medium and long haul logistics chains.
from the current USD 32.7 billion national permits trucks accounting The emergence
to USD 71.9 billion in 2022. to three lakhs were operating in of new-age
The pandemic heavily affected the initial period of lockdown. The
the Indian freight sector, which is Railways stepped in to fill the gaps technologies
based on the traditional approach in supply chain by transporting like artificial
of trucking, loading, and the essential commodities.
unloading, and material handling. Along with established e-grocery intelligence,
The trucking industry directly traders, relatively new start ups internet of things
employs 30 million people, and too jumped into fray by tying up
more than 150 million people with offline retailers and kirana and machine
depend on it for their livelihood. stores to deliver essentials. Due learning coupled
During corona pandemic in to its structural weaknesses and
order to maintain the supply of other compounding effects, such with big data
essentials, both inter-state and as the millions of daily wage applications and
intra-state movement of freight workers migrating back to their
vehicles have been allowed hometowns, it is anticipated the predictive analysis
while for the last-mile delivery, freight sector might not be so will disrupt the
the government had asked fast in recovering due to labour
e-commerce platforms to stop shortage. conventional
the delivery of non-essentials and The recent TERI study (2020) on workings of our
use the network for the supply the impact of corona on freight
of essentials like food, groceries, related movement suggest a country’s logistics
vegetables, and medicines. sector.
change in the demand for
The lockdown in India has e-commerce services based on
resulted in a shortage of drivers user response. It showed the
and loading and unloading staff, use of apps for grocery shopping
which in turn has generated has increased while that of food

www.trafficinfratech-com-500653.hostingersite.com April-May 2020 / TrafficInfraTech 17