Gurgaon-based logistics company’s trend-setting performance
Vehicular logistics brings to mind images of truck drivers navigating highways in trucks fully loaded with goods. Appalling working conditions, low income and a lack of dignity sum up the harsh reality of a truck driver’s life. This irony was reason enough for Mr. Deepak Garg to move out of his comfort zone at McKinsey and address the issue. In the process, he reinvented himself as an entrepreneur in the logistics space and brought human dignity to the profession.
The entrepreneur spent several days chatting with thousands of drivers on roadside dhabas. Coupled with that, his past experience at the consultancy helped him understand the operational issues, roadblocks, customers’ anxiety, drivers’ pitiable conditions and all the other domains at play, which bring in the highest levels of inefficiencies in a sector serviced by 60 lakh trucks and one crore drivers.
The outcome as we all know is Rivigo, a Gurgaon-based logistics company that has integrated technology into the transport system to bring a perceptible change in the supply chain management, thereby creating value for its customers in the apparel industry.
It’s no surprise that the 1.5-year-old company has already convinced the textile and apparel industry and is slowly building a clientele base comprising yarn and fabric manufacturers. “In the textile industry we are already catering to Arvind Mills and many large yarn and apparel manufacturers and are aggressively working towards broadening our client profile,” said Mr. Deepak Garg, Founder and CEO, Rivigo.
Presently the company delivers over 100 tons per day for the textile industry and it is intended to scale up the supply to 500 tons per day within the next six months. These targets are being met through unique efforts.
Time-tested travel n technology
The logistics of vehicular traffic have been addressed in a practical manner. Through some brainstorming, Rivigo has arrived at a model which eases delays caused due to road traffic.
The logistics industry has long been blamed for being unreliable, and Rivigo has been able to find solutions to most of the inefficiencies. One of its USPs around which the entire Rivigo infrastructure revolves is the “Driver relay” model. The concept ensures that the driver is at the wheel for not more than 200 km-250 km at a stretch, after which the vehicle is passed on to the next driver. Like the legendary dabbawallas of Mumbai, here too the vehicles change hands till it reaches the destination. “This procedure does away with the transit time lost due to rest periods, and has also ensured that drivers get back home on the same day or within 24 hours, thereby saving 50-70% of the transit time on long-haul routes,” explained Mr. Garg. “This model adds huge value to the textile and apparel clients as speedy deliveries are very important for the sector that typically has a shelf life of 60 days-80 days.”
Typically, it takes around 8-10 days to transport products from Bangalore to Guwahati whereas Rivigo can deliver the same within three days. As a result, the product gets 7-8 days extra on the shelf. This is very important for an industry like apparel where the season could last only for three months. This is getting heavy traction from many apparel companies.
Rivigo maintains a very high level of driver engagement which is important in the space where driver availability is becoming scarcer day by day. The vehicular infrastructure includes a fleet of about 1,000 trucks that will grow to about 3,000 by the end of this financial year.
What differentiates Rivigo from several others is that it has created a digital infrastructure, most of which has been developed in-house. It has installed sensors and devices to get real time information for precise monitoring of vehicular movement and manage fuel theft.
Real time tracking also happens by connecting with drivers through mobile apps and the 41 pit-stops across over 150 routes have tablet personal computers to monitor everything on a real time basis.
Mr. Garg and his team have deployed technology to enhance operations at every level of the eco-system. A case in point is box-level tracking. This enables identification of each box picked up by Rivigo at all locations, and traceability of the boxes throughout the network. This also reduces the possibility of mis-routings of boxes and quick reconciliation.
Functions like real time data access and flow tracking are integrated into the system. Rivigo also enables integration of technology with its clients which reduces paper work and the time spent on tracking. The integration of technology in the supply chain management has enhanced the business approach at both ends. As for the back-end operations, it is paperless.
Mantra for Man & Machine
Mr. Garg charted a unique pathway after studying operational challenges in logistics through management experts and analytical minds. In order to optimize productivity, Rivigo takes care of drivers by ensuring they return home every day, live healthy and lead a respectable life. Moreover, to further incentivize their profession, they are given salaries, instead of trip-based payments.
Secondly, tie-ups with OEMs help maintain the fleet of trucks to enable fast, efficient and effortless movement across highways. Crucial mother pit-stops, spread across 2.5 acres, have captive workshops from Ashok Leyland (AL), supplier of Rivigo’s trucks. Here, AL engineers attend to fleet and undertake a pre-trip inspection, a standard practice in the aviation industry, that has now been introduced in India’s logistics sector to ensure a smooth run for Rivigo’s trucks.
In the unlikely event of a breakdown on the road, the truck is brought back on the road within four hours, against an average uptime of up to 48 hours on highways, as AL engineers are stationed 24×7 at transit pit-stops. Similarly, the tyres, a crucial component for smooth navigation, are always kept roadworthy with tyre technicians stationed at pit-stops through an exclusive agreement with JK Tyre.
The agreement works through another innovation: JK Tyre does not sell its tyres but charges Rivigo as per the cost per kilometre (CPKM), an initiative that cuts down on acquisition costs and curbs operational expenses.
Against the average distance of 15 km per hour by the industry, Rivigo’s technological and operational innovations have ensured that a Rivigo truck covers 40 km or more in an hour to service clients the fastest on Indian road conditions, overcoming delays at numerous checkpoints across 29 States in the country.
No surprise that Rivigo’s clients leverage its reduced turn-around-time (TAT) and reliability. Notwithstanding that, technology ensures visibility of product shipments. The logistics company offers cost reductions and just-in-time capabilities, besides getting product to store shelves faster and reduce inventory.
Rivigo has made all this possible via its disruptive innovations in a traditional sector to transport goods across the length and breadth of the nation speedily, safely and securely.