These truck drivers turned profitable entrepreneurs by partnering with Amazon India

Bengaluru-based Kiran Kumar Singh didn’t plan on turning into a truck driver. However in 2015, his father met with an accident whereas driving a truck and was hospitalised for 3 months. Kiran realised that it was as much as him to shoulder the accountability of offering for his household.

To mitigate the household’s quick monetary disaster, Kiran stepped into his father’s sneakers and have become a truck driver. It took him nearly three months to learn to professionally drive vehicles. This resolution to tide his household over the powerful occasions led Kiran to construct his ardour for logistics entrepreneurship.

“I labored as a truck driver with Jayem Logistics, and utilised my hard-earned financial savings to buy my first truck,” he tells SMBStory.

By an acquaintance at Jayem Logistics, Kiran learnt a few requirement for a long-haul car on one of many routes of Amazon India’s community. He enrolled as a accomplice and commenced working the route, rapidly orienting himself to Amazon’s operational tips.

He says Amazon noticed his diligence and the standard of service, and provided him extra routes to function throughout south India.

“In a span of underneath three years, I expanded my fleet. Now I run my middle-mile operations enterprise known as SDP Logistics, alongside my father, brother, and uncle. Now we have employed near 40 truck drivers,” he says.

Truckers – an important a part of the provision chain

Kiran’s entrepreneurial journey is one amongst a number of success tales made doable by Amazon Transportation Companies, which is the logistics arm of the ecommerce main.

Amazon India’s provide chain community is complicated, and consists of a number of nodes corresponding to fulfilment centres, sorting places, supply hubs, and the last-mile transit for delivering items. These components must work in sync to make sure the best product is delivered to the right handle.

When the ecommerce firm entered India in 2013, it observed that sellers didn’t have a dependable and strong logistics community. And so, it started creating such a community, partnering with native corporations and small companies to assist transport packages.

Amazon has since grown quickly in India on the again of its logistics community, and its trucking companions play an integral function within the middle-mile operations, enabling it to rapidly transport packages between fulfilment centres and the final mile.

Abhinav Singh, Director, Amazon Transportation Companies, India, says:

“Trucking companions play a pivotal function in making certain on-time deliveries. Now we have labored with our logistics companions and custom-built programmes to allow truckers to achieve monetary flexibility, guarantee protected driving strategies, route information and upkeep, and facilitate procurement programmes from massive OEMs.”

Amazon India additionally secures well being and accident insurance coverage advantages for drivers, conducts driver security engagements, and runs an early cost programme and help fund to assist its logistics companions cowl their prices throughout powerful occasions. Additional, it has enabled drivers to view, observe, execute, and pre-assign hundreds by way of its Relay app.

“Driver security is our high precedence, and we have now skilled hundreds of drivers this 12 months on defensive driving, COVID-19 security, and facility security protocols,” Abhinav says, including, “Now we have partnered with third-party corporations to offer well being and unintended insurance coverage protection for drivers, which is reimbursed by Amazon.”

Extra tales of logistics entrepreneurship

Like Kiran, Gurugram-based Naresh Pal Sharma joined Amazon’s logistics wing after listening to concerning the ecommerce main’s requirement for long-haul automobiles. After turning into a truck driver in 1993, Naresh had his fair proportion of studying experiences and highway accidents. However he remained obsessed with driving vehicles.

In 2017, he enrolled as a accomplice with Amazon, started working a number of routes, and expanded his fleet to 40 vehicles. At this time, his son Rahul helps him run the enterprise, which is called NRS Transport Companies.

Naresh says, “Normally, truckers aren’t very well-received in our society. However my household, kinfolk and neighbours are impressed by our ardour. I need to construct such a popularity that my career is handled nobly like different jobs. No function is simply too small so long as there’s real intent hooked up to it.”

Kiran and Naresh hail from completely different backgrounds however they’ve each ventured into logistics entrepreneurship and supplied jobs in addition to a secure earnings for the 80-plus truckers they make use of in complete.

Vikash Kumar, Director and Founding father of Bengaluru-based Kalpavriksha Logitech, is one other instance. His logistics agency’s partnership with Amazon India has helped him present for 500 households, that are instantly or not directly related together with his enterprise.

Birendra Kumar Singh, who hails from Dhanbad and runs a small logistics agency Jyoti Companies, is one other beneficiary. He says, “I began my profession as a supply boy at a courier firm. After I finally ventured into logistics and have become related to Amazon in 2019 to run middle-mile operations, I used to be in a position to increase the fleet from eight to 56 automobiles. One of many excessive factors in my profession was when my previous courier firm invited me as a visitor of honour for an occasion.”

With the logistics sector in India anticipated to develop at a CAGR of 10.5 % between 2019 and 2025, such tales of logistics entrepreneurship are sure to emerge extra typically. Another excuse for the sector’s development in India is that it has been awarded the infrastructure standing, which is facilitating the influx of investments.

In December 2020, MSME and Street Transport and Highways Minister Nitin Gadkari stated the federal government has initiated a plethora of initiatives to make such investments clear and hassle-free. Additional, truckers and the logistics sector at the moment are popping out of an prolonged interval of uncertainty and volatility attributable to provide chain disruptions within the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic.

As earlier than, the ecommerce sector is anticipated to stay one of many greatest contributors to the expansion of this phase in India, which is spearheaded by Amazon Transportation Companies and Flipkart’s in-house provide chain arm EKART Logistics.