Keep On Truckin'

Unlike The Indian Express, who have shown no sympathy for India’s truckers (see their editorial), I remain firmly on the side of truck drivers and truck-owners.

Transportation and trade go hand in hand. All tradeables have to be transported to the most distant markets if really fat profits are to be booked. Kulu apples cannot be sold in the Kulu Valley itself; they must be taken to where apples do not grow (like, say, Chennai) and where they are therefore scarce, for fat profits to accrue. Exotic flowers grown in Coorg or Jharkhand (like anthuriums) must be transported quick to the Amsterdam Flower Market for the highest gains to be made.

Now, in socialist India, everyone will surely agree, the transportation sector sucks real bad. And trucking, its biggest part, sucks the worst.

Protectionism has meant that truck owners must invest in pygmy Tata trucks. We do not see such trucks on the real highways of the West. Now think of the poor truck driver, driving this horrible machine with “double declutching” required for changing gears. And think of the roads he drives on. And also think of how IMPORTANT a role he plays in our economy.

I have no hesitation in affirming that the role played by truckers is a million times more IMPORTANT for our survival that the role played by pyaray Manmohan and all his stupid "planners".

Trucks are the biggest consumers of highways – but the administrative apparatus of the socialist Indian state preys on them because they have monopolized highways – that is, the “notional highways” of India. Trucks are routinely stopped at “check points” every few hundred kilometers for octroi and bribes. They are apparently now being forced to buy premium branded diesel (because the oil companies could not manage to sell premium diesel to car owners, I guess.)

Further, there are highway tolls too – which is “double taxation”. Truckers pay the cess on diesel. This revenue stream is already dedicated to the Central Road Fund. So there should be no tolls on government-built highways. But here there are tolls. There should actually be “freeways”.

An idea whose time has come is dedicated “truckways” with “open road tolling” powered by GPS. These can easily be privately supplied, given the customer base of truckers on all key routes. Yet, this will require upgradation to modern multi-axle trucks, which do not destroy road surfaces. For this, free trade in used multi-axle trucks is required. Our pygmy single-axle Tata trucks will surely not be allowed to ply on these modern truckways because they cause damage to the road surface and private truckway owners will debar them on their properties. Our horrible highways and our horrible trucks go together – and so must depart together as well.

India does not need “education” and “healthcare”.

India needs a REVOLUTION in Transportation.

Shubh Laabh and Shubh Yatra – let these be our slogans.

(Read the news report on the truckers strike here. And the Express editorial here.)