Long ago,when I watched a show on discovery channel about indian truckers, as indian it was embarrassment for me to see our fellow countrymen in these pity situations. To be honest, we don’t give respect to them and always watch them as school dropouts, poor and helpless people. Though we know that we cant survive without them. From food to medicines,LPG cylinders to everything we use in our daily life and house are being provided by them. But still they are not getting credit what they deserve. Today I will try my best to make some points for their better life.
1. RESPECT- They need respect, problem in our country is that we don’t respect any skill worker. I was talking to some american diesel mechanics on facebook regarding their job. Almost everyone told they love doing their job and they earn much better than any degree holder. I can say same about truck drivers too. Europe and North America are facing a big shortage in trucking industry that’s why they are worried about it and arranging free training courses to young drivers. One of my cousin brother too drives truck in canada after leaving his job as engineer, his parents are government employees and have big house in chandigarh but still they are proud of him. We treat truck drivers as slaves and that is one reason they feel depressed. So we should change our mentality.
2. Safety- In India mostly truck operators think only about their benefits. In western countries, they check vehicles every year and then give clearance to run on roads. England’s Drivers And Vehicle Standards Agency shared their data as 9 out of 10 vehicles inspected in 2014/15 were healthy and had no problem. In middle east, Government authority examines trucks every year even police can stop any truck anywhere at any time to check mechanical parts of truck so that their roads and other passengers on roads can stay safe. In India we don’t have system like that and mostly truck owners make their drivers life hell by not spending single penny on repairing of trucks . Unfortunately, while accidents only poor drivers have to suffer every kind of pain and loss.
3. Corruption - Nothing to say about this cancer in our society. We always see overloading trucks on roads, when many truckers tell about fake challans of overloading,then they do it deliberately for making some profit. Every driver has to pay bribe for crossing border of any state,seems GST could change this trend as around 22000 crore rupees go in pockets of corrupt policemen and traffic officers every year.
4.Technology..Indian government is trying best to make drivers life easier. As trucks contain35 tons load,so stopping such heavy truck at exact time at exact place is not an easy task. Our truckers drive in rainy and snowfall seasons too,that’s why it is important to have new technology to brake calmly. ABS is mandatory and am sure it will help saving valuable lives on roads. Government has already made AC system compulsory in trucks.Drivers drive in hot summers and windy winters, thus they need AC in summer from saving themselves killing heat waves of rajasthana and heater in chilly jammu-kashmir and himachal in unbearable winter.
5. Salary and insurance- Unfortunately, we don’t see this job as good or skilled profession, therefore salary is also low. After many years of experience , one could earn 3000040000 rupees. On the other hand any university graduate can earn more money than it without any experience, this gap is hugeeeeeeeee. In western countries, people and government understand value of skilled and hardworking people,so they pay more and give every kind of support to make their life stress free in this stressful and risky profession. They need all types of life insurance,medical check ups and some holidays too for spending some time with their families. Their salary is low that’swhy they drive slowly on roads to save money from less consumption of diesel and that creates problems for others.
6. Timing- In trucking sector,time is very crucial factor.Our Indian drivers spend20% of their valuable time on checkposts of various states. They have to wait many hours for entering in any state . On the other hand,only 4% of our freight is being carried by refeer trucks thus we waste $13 billion of fresh food every year and this situation is when then we have the most hungry people in the world who die due to hunger. Therefore some big transport companies are doing their best to change these stats by buying more and more refeers and avoiding perishable products. In this way,drivers can take their sleep properly without worrying about products. Latest study shows how drivers who sleep even one hour less than 7 hours, are dangerous on roads and their chances of accidents increase by ignoring required sleep.
I might have missed many points,but these points are the most important to make our saviors life better.
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