Freight, warehousing in dire straits: KPMG Bs Reporter / Chennai September 21, 2007 Road freight and warehousing, key segments of the Rs 4,00,000-crore Indian logistics sector, are in dire need of labour and skills. The report says in the road freight segment, the truck drivers’ profile is the most wanting. The report estimates that while there are around 3 million truck drivers for M HCV (medium and heavy commercial vehicle) segment, the number is likely to swell to nearly 51 million by 2015.
The warehousing sector is the worst off when it comes to managers, including supervisors, the study says. The organised portion of the market will soon require managers with training and experience in warehousing-specific operations, it says. The study estimates the number of warehouse managers required in the organised sector at around 14,000, a gap that will grow to around 35,000 by 2015.
This means the country will need around 8,000 more warehouse managers by 2015. “If we assume that the industry can provide around half this number, there needs to be an institutional capacity to train 4,000 new warehouse managers each year by 2015,” the study adds. KPMG estimates that India’s spend on logistics, at 13 per cent of GDP, is higher than the developed nations.
“The key reason for this is the relatively higher level of inefficiencies in the system, with lower average trucking speeds, higher turnaround time at ports and high cost of administrative delays.
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