Increased demand from retail customers during the festive season and arrival of farm commodities into markets post monsoon helped truck operators realise better rentals in September, after witnessing a decline in earnings in August.
Rentals on important trade routes within India increased around 4-5% in September, after declining 2-3% in August. The improvement in rentals was mainly on account of 10-15% increase in the quantum of fruits and vegetables arriving at wholesale markets at various cities, according to the latest report by the Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRT).
Additionally, the quantity of goods manufactured and dispatched by small and medium enterprises went up 15-20% month-on-month in September, increasing the demand for road transportation by trucks.
Truck rentals fell in August on the back of uneven distribution of rainfall across the country that delayed the harvesting of certain crops and subdued manufacturing activity in that month. ?The withdrawal of the monsoon and beginning of the peak festival season brought extra activity for the trucking business mid-September onwards,? said SP Singh, convener of IFTRT.
?Small and medium manufacturing units, which constitute 70-75% of the country’s manufacturing output, increased dispatches by 15-20%, to meet demand from wholesalers and distributors across the country,? he added.
Singh also said product dispatches from large companies who manufacture on a large scale remained flat during September.
According to IFTRT, truck rentals on important routes such as Delhi-Mumbai-Delhi went up 4% month-on-month in September to R65,700 per return trip for carrying nine tonnes of cargo.
