Lockdown leaves over 30K freight truck drivers stranded

Bijendra Ahlawat

Tribune News Service

Faridabad, May 24

“It has been two months that I did not get a call for work from my employer,” said Mohan Singh, a driver hailing from a nearby village. “Though I got my salary for March, but due to no work, the employer expressed his inability to pay for the lockdown period,” he said adding that hundreds of drivers and cleaners had been facing similar situation. Revealing that his family of six was facing tough time as he had no source of income for being jobless for the past over 60 days, Suraj Pal of Palwal village, who worked as a driver with a transport company here said he had started looking for other avenues to make a living as there was no job guarantee in that sector.

Sources in the transport industry revealed that as 75 per cent of the trucks had still been off the road.

Haryana Transport and Truck Association general secretary Subhash Kaushik said while the staff, including the drivers, had been directly hit, the overall loss to around 1,200 transport companies had touched several crores. “Easing of lockdown has helped in revival of only 15 per cent of the work and around 20 per cent of my vehicles are still stranded in other states,” he said adding that majority of these had been engaged in transport of essential goods.

“As more than 60 per cent of the drivers have left or gone to their homes, shortage of drivers could take a toll in revival of the sector till it gets vital support from the government in form of waiver of road tax, insurance, permit fee and interest on EMI,” he added.

IP Laul of the LTC Logistics Limited, a transport company, said as post lockdown revival has been less than 15 per cent, it had affected employment of large number of people associated with the sector directly or indirectly. Revealing that vehicles that got stranded mid way had become a liability he said they now had an additional burden of paying parking fee, which was between Rs 200 and 400 per vehicle per day. “With no source of income and work, how will we be able to pay the salary or the expenses, which include the road tax and insurance fee among others? he asked.

Col S Kapoor of the Faridabad Industries Association (FIA) said with over 40,000 trucks been associated with the industry, transport crisis could pose a hurdle in revival of the economy.