With the nationwide lockdown caused due to the spread of the novel virus, the logistics industry has come to a halt despite being exempted from the restrictions.
In light of the above, BlackBuck, one of India’s largest online trucking platforms, yesterday announced a slew of measures to catalyse freight movement and bring the logistics industry out of its current state of limbo.
‘Move India’ a BlackBuck initiative aims to kickstart the movement of trucks and goods across the country and revive the broken supply chain. The manufacturers, traders and other shippers who have either started production or have stock ready can use the platform and gain access to a million trucks which can be booked instantly, at the lowest possible prices to transport products across the country.
Further, BlackBuck has completely waived off commission to encourage the trucking community to come on the platform and resume operations. It has also come up with several safety nets including direct money transfers (DMTs) and trip insurance to ensure the next line of COVID warriors, truckers, are supported and cared for as they work towards bringing India’s economy back on the road.
Under the initiative over 5,00,000 fleet owners, with over 10 lakh trucks, will be enabled to discover demand, get access to services including FASTag, GPS and Fuel Cards and earn more.
The waiving off commission will lead to an added incentive of INR 2,000 to 3,000 for fleet owners on every trip they undertake. The added incentives will run into lakhs for several large fleet owners and encourage them to start full-fledged operations.
Moreover, the company has decided to extend its platform and commission waiver to small time transporters, mandi sellers and distributors who are currently not a part of the BlackBuck platform to bring entire logistics industry back on track. The company will extend the zero-commission benefit to over 20,000 such transporters and sellers via a one call booking helpline over the next 1 month.
Rajesh Yabaji, Co-founder and CEO, BlackBuck said, “With the government restoring the truck movement, the main objective of “Move India” campaign is to bring trucks back on the road, through incentivizing the fleet owners and providing protection to our driver community. After almost 2 months of lockdown, nothing is more important for our economy than the immediate revival of the logistics sector, which will help the country through the harvest season, move the needed essentials, and make India bounce-back to its growth path!”
Apart from this, BlackBuck has established INR 50 crore relief fund for its driver-partners who may contract COVID 19 in the line of duty.
It will offer a relief package of INR 50,000 in the form of direct Money Transfer (DMTs) to the affected truck drivers.
The company has also opened a free helpline for the affected drivers to reach out to BlackBuck.
Also, the company will offer free trip insurance inclusive of hospitalisation expenses of up to INR 50,000 for drivers in case of an accident and a term cover of INR 3 lakhs for the driver families in case of unfortunate demise or permanent disability.
