TRANSPORTATION AND

LOGISTICS SECTOR
PROJECT ON INNOVATION AND DEVELOPING BUSINESS IDEAS
PGDM-09

SVKM’s Narsee Monjee Institute of Management Studies, Bengaluru

Bannerghatta Main Road-560083

SUBMITTED TO:
Dr. SRINIVAS SRIRAMDAS

SUBMITTED BY:
AAMIR BAKIR – A001
ASHWIN VERGHESE– A016

SUBMITTED ON:
29th JULY’ 2019
Introduction

There has been a wave of digital innovation across the transportation and logistics sector from ride
sharing, smart cars and intelligent logistics. The benefits include opening new revenue streams, adding
commuter convenience, lowering transactional costs and building environmental sustainability via
reduced carbon footprints.

Four Key Elements of Innovations

1. Collaboration - Teamwork is essential to getting things done. In today’s global and digital 24/7
world, challenges are more complex; it's becoming increasingly important to bring more, diverse
minds to the table and to break down silos. Collaboration means to work together (relationships)
toward (process) something in common (outcomes)
2. Ideation - Fresh, new ideas help your organization stand out. With intense competition for
resources, organizations must differentiate in order to survive.
3. Implementation - What good are new ideas if they are not put to use? Organizations must
engage the best people to champion their ideas and keep those great ideas moving forward.
4. Value Creation - You don't have innovation if your new ideas aren't creating value.
Organizations must implement ideas and programs identified as most effective in delivering value
to stakeholders.

Industry

Expenditure on logistics in India stands at 13 percent of the GDP as compared to 18 percent in China
and 8.5 percent in the US, according to a Kalaari report, ‘The India Opportunity.’ Indian e-commerce
has touched a GMV of $15 billion and has given rise to a new category of e-commerce-focussed
logistics companies.

In the case of larger players, 70 percent of deliveries for Amazon and Flipkart are executed through
their in-house logistics entities. Amazon’s logistics network spans massive warehouses, smaller sorting
hubs, and a long-haul, mid-mile and last-mile delivery network that even includes transport by boat.
Flipkart is setting up a large logistics park near Bengaluru to become the linchpin of the company's
supply chain in the country.

Countries without much legacy infrastructure stand to gain the most by leapfrogging directly into digital
and mobile solutions for logistics. According to the All India Motor Transport Congress, there are close
to 12 million trucks in India. The road freight volume in India is forecast to be 2,211.24 billion freight
tonne kilometre, growing at 4.7 percent.
According to the report ‘Logistics Market in India 2015-2020’ by market researcher Novonous, the
entire logistics industry in India is pegged at $300 billion, growing at a CAGR of 12.17 percent by
2020. About 90 percent of trucks in India belong to single-truck owners, which makes the sector ripe
for digital connectivity and aggregation platforms.

Innovations in Transportation and Logistics

Connected Devices – The Internet of Things (IoT) boom has entered the transportation
sector via automated multi-modal route planning services, shared bike exchanges, corporate carpooling,
courier aggregation, connected traffic cameras and even smart road dividers

1. Rivigo – Uses IoT

Ultimately, effective logistics is not just about technology but better living conditions for the truck
drivers. Trucking is a backbone of India’s economy, but truck drivers live in appalling conditions,
according to Deepa Garg, founder of Rivigo. The startup has developed a solution based on pit-stops
for truckers and a baton-based relay. This not only leads to efficient and safer transportation, but also
results in an improved lifestyle for the truck drivers. They can return home each day, lead healthier
lives, and spend more time with their families.

Rivigo has a fleet of around 3,000 containerised trucks, and a network of over 70 pit stops across the
country. Each driver (‘pilot’) needs to cover around 250 km or about five hours between pit stops.
Location, routes and driver allocation are tracked via IoT and reported on an app, which is available in
11 Indian languages. Clients for services like refrigerated shipping include e-grocer BigBasket.

2. Trukky – Uses Real time connectivity

Real time connectivity helps address any challenges that might occur, react in a less randomized fashion,
create predictability throughout the supply chain, and increase collaboration to deliver products to
customers on time. It delivers insights and guards us against potential disruptions from weather, traffic
or current events to help shippers make better, faster decisions. It enables shippers to improve customer
service and cost controls through the management of inventory in motion by providing proactive status
updates.

One advantage of real time connectivity is innovative services like live pricing. Founded in 2015, online
logistics platform Trukky has developed an online solution for truck hiring and tracking. With rate
index, live pricing and a three-step booking feature, it aims to bring in more ease and transparency in
the trucking ecosystem.

This tackles consumer apprehensions about being overcharged and having no service delivery
guarantee. Customers have the option of booking a full truckload or part load. Direct connectivity helps
remove unnecessary intermediary layers such as brokers, thus passing the savings onto customers.
Trukky claims a network of over 5,000 truckers, with more than 2,000 clients from FMCG, cement,
and chemical sectors.

Value of Innovation

RIVIGO

Rivigo is giving a product offering which is pathbreaking. Benefiting the customers and the most
unprivileged stakeholder, the driver. They are doing this at a cost that is competitive. In transport, fixed
cost is around 45 percent to 50 percent, whether a truck runs for 10 km or 100. While trucks in the
traditional model do about three trips a month, Rivigo’s trucks do about seven return trips. The
customers are also able to get access to the services of Rivigo at rates which are very attractive in the
logistic service Industry. The clients are able to save around 12-20% of the overall logistic costs when
they shift to Rivigo. This has created value as we can see that clients are slowly shifting from the
traditional logistic service providers to Rivigo.

The innovative model also ensures that the drivers are not away from their homes for more than 12
hours, thus helping them maintain a work-life balance. It has also helped reduce delivery time by 50-
70% and cut inventory costs, making the entire supply chain leaner, reliable and more responsive. The
company’s patented fuel efficiency maximiser, pilferage detection algorithm and fuel visualiser ensure
‘Zero’ pilferage incidents in the relay network.

Trukky

Founded in May 2015, Ahmedabad-headquartered Trukky is a mobile based on-demand

intercity transport service provider that focuses on catering to the micro, small and medium
enterprises’ goods transport needs. Leveraging the power of technology, the web and app-based
online logistics platform offers modernistic and simplified way of truck hiring and tracking at
fingertips. With rate index, live pricing and a three-step booking feature, Trukky aims to bring
in more ease and transparency in the trucking ecosystem.
Ideas of Innovation

Platooning

Platooning calls for a number of trucks to follow each other very closely so they can take
advantage of the aerodynamics and save fuel.

The technology to make all of this happen is a result of collaboration between Peloton, a
company that automates tractor-trailers and Omnitracs, a fleet management company.

The lead truck sets the pace. Through the integration of vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)
communications with state-of-the-art, radar-based collision avoidance systems, the
technology synchronizes braking and acceleration between pairs of trucks. This
communication ensures that the trucks travel safely at aerodynamic following distances.

For the driver of the follow truck, the Peloton system works similarly to adaptive cruise
control with the added safety feature of V2V communications to enable automated braking
within 0.1 second of braking by the lead truck. The driver of each truck controls steering
while the platooning system coordinates speed and distance between the trucks-- meeting the
definition of SAE Level 1 automated driving.

Platoons are managed continuously by a cloud-based Network Operations Center that

connects to trucks through cellular and Wi-Fi communications. Cloud-based supervision
limits operation of platoons to specified roads in safe driving conditions.

AUTONOMOUS TRANSPORT

Autonomous logistics describes systems that provide unmanned, autonomous transfer of

equipment, baggage, people, information or resources from point-to-point with minimal human
intervention. Autonomous logistics is a new area being researched and currently there are few
papers on the topic, with even fewer systems developed or deployed. With web enabled cloud
software there are companies focused on developing and deploying such systems which will
begin coming online in 2018.
After Google’s autonomous car has crashed in Mountain View, many critics have jumped to
the conclusion that the whole idea behind autonomous vehicles in logistics is unsafe. They’ve
forgotten to mention that Google’s autonomous vehicles have driven more than 1,4 million
miles, without a single incident.

Since drivers are responsible for 94% of car accidents worldwide, it’s not hard to conclude that
replacing a human driver with a computer will reduce the number of car accidents and make
roads safer.

Many people outside this industry don’t know that autonomous vehicles in logistics have
already taken on a significant part of the logistics work process. Although there are still no
autonomous trucks that transport thousands of tons of goods on the open road, autonomous
forklifts, and robot arms are a common piece of technology in modern warehouses. They load,
unload and transport goods within the warehouse area, by connecting to one another and
forming flexible conveyor belts. These tasks require advanced sensors, as well as vision and
geo guidance technology. In addition to warehouses, we can also see autonomous vehicles in
logistics in airports, harbors, and yards.

Still, this is far from autonomous driving on the open road. The future of logistics will include
large autonomous trucks, delivering goods. Autonomous forklifts will then unload the
packages and put them in their place using a network of conveyor belts and robot arms. Some
truck manufacturers have already made significant steps to introduce the first fully autonomous
heavy duty freight vehicles.
REFERENCES

1. https://cerasis.com/autonomous-vehicles-in-logistics/
2. https://yourstory.com/2018/02/meet-5-startups-aim-disrupt-logistics-sector-using-technology/
3. https://economictimes.indiatimes.com/wealth/earn/startup-trukky-uses-tech-to-offer-real-
time-goods-transport-rates-to-smes/articleshow/61995676.cms
4. https://eng.rivigo.com/technology/iot-sensor-data-collection-and-processing-system-the-
foundation-of-intelligent-decision-making/
5. https://yourstory.com/2018/03/rivigo-billion-dollar-valuation-journey