The cancellation of Rs.500 and Rs.1000 notes under the guise of ‘demonetisation’ may pose a challenge to the Indian transportation sector, a big chink of which includes the trucking industry, the fact is, the truckers have not lost hope yet. According to the All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC), there are an estimated 9.3 million truckers in India. Of these, the number of heavy-duty trucks is increasing year-on-year. There is a distinct movement happening towards higher tonnage trucks. The ban on overloading is driving transporters to look at bigger, multi-axle trucks that can carry more. While October 2016 marked a month of growth for Medium and Heavy Commercial Vehicles (M&HCVs), the sale of truck-semitrailers and truck trailers is on the rise. Rajasthan continues to be the biggest truck-trailer market; Haryana continues to be the biggest car carrier market. The effect of demonetisation may be evident on truck trailer operators, they continue to see growth in the scope of their vision. Industry experts are also optimistic about the growth of truck-trailer segment. This growth, they claim, will ensure that the trailer industry, which is both, organised and unorganised, will post good growth. Truck code may take time yet, and until then, the unorganised bit of the trailer industry may not have a reason to worry about. That does not eliminate their responsibility to build safe and high quality trailers; the fact is, the trailer industry in India is looking at outperforming its global peers over the medium- and long-term.

Cyclical in nature