COMBATING COVID-19

Combating Covid-19 for the road freight (transport) fraternity has been full of surprises and some unprecedented challenges.

- Senthil Kumar Subbiah

Possessing one of the largest road networks in the world, spanning about 5.5 km, the arrival and road large spread of Covid-19 since February 2020 has thrown some nasty surprises and unprecedented challenges in front of the road freight (transport) fraternity. As part of the logistics industry in India, the fraternity, due to its intrinsic nature, has had to deal with some seemingly insurmountable challenges. As a primary driver of the logistics industry in India given its reliance on road freight (transport), the fraternity saw itself being greatly affected by the rising menace of Covid-19 in the country. As a key point of access for most of the major economic contributing sectors of the industries (such as automotive, retail, chemicals, electronics, healthcare, etc.), the road freight (transport) fraternity, which contributes to the carriage of over 60 per cent of freight in India, has had to adapt, innovate and find new ways to deal with the challenges brought about by the Covid-19 situation. Such has been the effect of Covid-19, that combating it has become the primary objective of the fraternity.