Goods – food for thought for Ministry of Commerce and Industry , Govt of India

By Wg Cdr BR Shastry,
(former fighter pilot and now a Logistics company owner)

Now that 5 days have passed since the midnight of March 24th, here are some thoughts :

1) With the stoppage of trucks across India, all (or most) supply chains have collapsed.

2) Retail shops are getting cleaned out of necessities.

3) Replenishment of necessities needs to happen urgently to avoid misery and, if mishandled, a famine like situation may be in store.

4) Truck drivers may have scattered to their home towns and villages , so reviving the supply chain will be difficult.

5) Even if trains are used to rush food to various regions, the last mile movement to the retail shops still needs trucks .

6) Medicines are manufactured at clusters in some parts of India and need to reach retail pharmacies and hospitals across the country.

7) So the above analysis shows that mobilization of truck drivers needs to be done on an emergency basis in the next few days by tracking the truck firms and getting them to contact their drivers and find out where they are.

8) All district administrations must mobilise the drivers, get them tested, and use sarkari facilities to get them back to their vehicles asap, wherever they need to go. Food and stay need to be arranged for them.

9) All fuel pumps enroute should be authorised to give diesel on credit if need be , with "Crovid credit" stamp on the bill, vehicle number and driver’s licence details.

10) All drivers shd be able to access through their phones, the locations enroute where food packets are available, either for a nominal charge or free if the local charities are able to gear up .

11) Tolls should be waived for the time being , but vehicles can be tracked for future reference by the toll cc tv.

12) Return trips of the long-distance vehicles need to be planned by the district commissioners where the vehicles get unloaded. Drivers must be tested again before they start the return trip. Either loads should be planned, or the vehicles given an official chit to go back empty. This is important to ensure that the circulation of vehicles continues. Otherwise all the vehicles will get stuck at the destinations.

District Commissioners have the power and resources in their district. They are magistrates, the police is with them, and they can call the local fauj for help as needed.

They shd demand that their state govt gives them the needed resources, or generate them from the local community.

This is a make or break challenge for them. Anyone who fails should be asked to leave the service.

Unless govt uses these 14 days upto April 14th to set this in order, I am afraid we will see martial law emergency declared and army will have to take over.

That’s my reading of this catastrophe as a logistics operator. It is a do-or die situation , and I am not even considering the virus illness and the demands it will place on the resources.

There is another issue about the buying power of the masses. Those who have passive income flows will survive, and those who don’t, will need to be supported by community pooling and charity effort .

This can happen locally but only provided the commodities reach the locations.