Logistics start-up Porter loses a few customers as it says no to overloading

Trying to prevent overloading of lorries in the unorganised sector isn’t a paying proposition, at least in the short term. Porter, a start-up that plies a fleet of 6,000 small lorries connecting key metros, tried to do this and ended up losing a few customers. But, in the long run, the company says it’s firm on preventing overloading to promote road safety and curb vehicular pollution.

“Overloaded vehicles tend to topple easily, which is a safety issue, and though drivers are usually unwilling to take additional cargo, several times they do not have an option as the sector is unorganised,” Pranav Goel, co-founder, Porter, told BusinessLine, adding that 70 per cent of his customers were from the unorganised sector.

Porters lorries have a load-carrying capacity of 750 kg to 3.5 tonnes.

Although overloading helps drivers pay off their loans in a shorter duration, it damages the vehicles, lowering their life to almost half, apart from damaging roads.

There are specific dense sectors — such as marble, timber, stone and grains — which are more prone to overloading. Several times, vehicles are overloaded to an extent that it is visible from the gap between wheels and mudguards and does not even require weighing scales, Goel said.

Trucks on Porters’ platform — most of whom are single-owner vehicles — move plywood, furniture, ceramic, electronics, textiles, chemicals, cement, bricks, paints and chemicals, FMCG and pharma goods. The platform itself undertakes random checks with the drivers, Goel added.

The company — whose fleet operates in Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Mumbai and Chennai — plans to extend to two more cities.

Goel said overloading is a menace, particularly in Delhi and Hyderabad. For instance, in Delhi, customers have a huge bargaining power, and since they have an upper hand, they usually force vendors to overload.

While the link between overloading and safety is known, not many people know that overloading also impacts pollution. Every marginal increase in moving cargo beyond permissible limits leads to an exponential increase in pollution, said Goel.

For instance, a 10 per cent increase in load beyond permissible limit could lead to 15 per cent increase in pollution, a 30 per cent overload could imply 50-60 per cent increase in pollution, and a doubling of cargo movement could lead to three times the increase in pollution.

With the Goods and Servcies Tax regime set to roll out on July 1, Goel said: “We are GST compliant”, adding that things have not changed much for the company.

Porter operates in last-mile distance ranging over 200 km. The firm’s fleet has an average age of 2.5 years. Also, it has been generating e-way bills for the past two years.

The company is looking to tie up with firms to help single-truck owners and their customers, which include small and medium enterprises, to become GST compliant.