Ideal Movers, the logistics arm of the IDEAL group of companies headquartered in Kolkata, started operations in 2000 with a fleet of 30 trailers. Over the years, the company has expanded its fleet and emerged as a leading player in the transport industry with a footprint in all major industrial hubs of the country. It currently owns more than 1,850 mechanical trailers, over 65 cranes and a number of Goldhofer hydraulic axles. Raghav Himatsingka, director, Ideal Movers, talks about how technology has helped bring in efficiencies in the company’s operations, the challenges in implementing new technologies and the company’s future telecom plans. Excerpts:

What are the core components of the company’s telecom and IT infrastructure?

In the transportation industry, Ideal Movers has been one of the pioneers in making significant investments in IT. We were the first in the industry to introduce Microsoft Navision enterprise resource planning (ERP) systems way back in 2003-04. The company worked very closely with the Microsoft team to develop the various modules tailor-made for the transportation industry. The company generates daily, weekly, monthly and other periodic management information system reports that are data-backed by GPS tracking systems as well as our ERP systems.

How have telecom and IT helped the organisation streamline operations?

Transportation is an industry characterised by high business transactions in terms of record keeping, cash management, billing, etc. For instance, for every trip made by a vehicle, five lorry receipts and freight memos are generated. In addition, the company has to provide money to drivers for diesel, toll taxes and other miscellaneous expenditure. Being a Rs 8 billion company with nearly 2,000 trips a day, it would be almost impossible to manage accounts without IT systems. In this context, it would have been difficult for the company to scale up as quickly as it has in the absence of a strong IT system.

Are service providers equipped to meet the product requirements of the transportation industry?

There is huge scope for increasing the efficiency of our infrastructure and network. There is a tremendous amount of uncertainty in consignment deliveries as a result of delays and damages. A lot of these unpredictable costs can be reduced with the adoption of new technology, increase in investments in infrastructure and progressive action by lawmakers to ease the challenges of running vehicles on the road.

What are the challenges faced in implementing new technologies?

There is always a section of traditionalists who find it difficult to adopt new technology. Technology by nature brings in change and many people find it difficult to accept the changes brought about by new technology. While technology makes business processes simpler, it also makes things too transparent. Some people tend to dislike the transparency, which poses a challenge for technology adoption. Moreover, the introduction of a new technology typically involves acquiring new skills. There is a learning curve wherein initially it is more tedious to work with a new technology than to continue with the traditional ways, but once a user crosses a certain threshold, technology makes things simpler. However, it is difficult to motivate people to put in that initial effort in order to overcome the challenges associated with mastering the skills to use the new technology. At times, the adoption of new technology requires the management to hire additional manpower for implementing and understanding the technology. This imposes higher costs on the company. Managing the new team responsible for the technology roll-out is another challenge.

What is Ideal Movers’ telecom and IT blueprint for next year?

We will add more vehicles with monitoring systems (currently about 50 per cent of our fleet is GPS enabled). Moreover, as part of our ongoing technology initiatives, we will continue to drive innovation in using the data collected in order to improve operations.

What are the likely big trends in the technology space for the transport industry?

In the next two years, there will be a massive technology revolution in the transport industry. The two big trends that will dominate the transport industry are:

• A significant increase in the adoption of GPS technology in vehicles.
A surge in the number of technology platforms on mobiles and desktops for connecting GPS-enabled vehicles to cargo loads in a faster, more transparent and more profitable manner.