BAPU SATYANARAYANA writes: Truckers in Karnataka went on strike on the midnight of February 22 in protest against the government’s decision to make the installation of “speed governors” compulsory. They contended that making the device mandatory would raise operating costs and slow down the movement of goods, particularly essential commodities and perishables. And they dropped dark hints of vested corporate interests behind the move.
The stir was withdrawn in a couple of days after the Supreme Court granted a stay but, while it is to easy to see the truckers’ point, it is also important to understand the socio-economic rationale behind the move which the truckers are eager to ignore.
Truckers all over India share some common traits. Barring exceptions, most trucks are in poor shape, noise and air polluting, with dubious registration. Barring exceptions, the drivers are undisciplined, overbearing and aggressive. They are impatient, take sadistic pleasure in playing hide and seek with cars and smaller vehicles, and care not a whit for human life and limb. It may be fun for truck drivers but for drivers of the cars it becomes a frightening experience.
But that’s not all.
Some years ago a Parliamentary Committee found that 80% of trucks carry much more than the designated load. The overloading is not marginal and many times it is as much as twice its capacity and sometimes even more. The reason for this is that truck owners want to recoup their investment in a short span of time and they have no qualms about discarding the trucks once they have made a sizeable profit. Any further use is only a bonus.
The outturn would be naturally more if the delivery of goods is made quicker. This is possible only if the trucks can move with great speed. This is the main reason why the Federation of Trucking Industry went on strike against speed governors being made mandatory. But the reasons offered for public consumption are quite to the contrary.
Indeed, while the truck operators and owners languidly talk of the delay and vested interests, not one of them seems to have any concern for human life that might be saved by the speed governors. Sure, the speed governor rule at the moment is operable only in Karnataka on Karnataka-registered vehicles, but surely a start must be made somewhere?
The fatalities on our highways has been increasing year by year and according to the latest statistics, more than one lakh people died on our roads last year, forming a whopping 8% of the world fatalities of 12 lakh. In 2005, two-thirds of the dead were in the age group of 15-44. This is most distressing for, besides the trauma felt by the near and dear ones of the victims, it is a great economic national loss.
Though no definitive attempt has been made one rough assessment puts it at as high as 3.9% of the GDP! But more damning aspect is that trucks emerge as major killers.
Some time ago Ministry of Transport under World Bank funding did a research of Road User Cost Study. According to it there is a particular speed for each type of vehicle when the fuel consumption is minimum. At higher or lower speeds the fuel consumption gradually increases and roughly at twice the optimum speed the fuel consumption will be twice as high. This correlation exists for lower speeds also.
Thus, the fuel drain without speed governors can be imagined. When the country is reeling under the impact of rising price of crude oil and considering that a large percentage of crude is imported, saving fuel becomes crucial for country’s economy. But the truckers do not seem to be in the mood.
Overloading has another more serious damaging effect. Again, a research project undertaken by the transport ministry reveals that the deterioration of a road depends upon the fourth power of the load.
Thus, for example, if a truck carries twice its axle load the damaging effect on our roads is 16 times more (2x2x2x2). If our roads and highways are in poor condition, it is also attributable to overloading because at the rate they deteriorate the transport authorities cannot keep pace with repair and maintenance. For the vehicle owners, poor roads result in an increase in vehicle operating costs which they transfer to customers.
Therefore , whether by way of death on our highways, increase in fuel costs, increase in commodity prices or poor state of roads the customers will be at the receiving end. These are weighty issues that need to be resolved. Just yielding to the truckers’ lobby will not do and the whole gamut of issues are involved.
(Bapu Satyanarayana is a retired chief engineer in the Union ministry of surface transport)
I had pointed this out the very first time Churumuri posted something on this issue soon after the budget. Chidambaram has once again found a new way to screw tax payers. The banks and the farmers are both getting away with the tax payer’s money.
Overloading and the age of the trucks are both serious issues and should be dealt with immediately. Installing speed regulators is not a solution. Like in the US, the government should define a mininmum qualification for truck drivers and institute mandatory safety training for them. There should be strict rules on the maximum number of hours a truck driver can drive in a day. A number of accidents happen due to overworked truck drivers who go to sleep at the wheel. Also, highways, at least the national higheways should be extended to six lanes and trucks and other heavy vehicles should be given the slow lane with a fixed maximum speed limit.
Haven’t lorry owners said that they would get speed governors fixed if their prices are reigned by govt.?
The speed governors’ price in B’lore is supposedly 20 times more than what it is in North India.
It’d be interesting to know who distributes speed governors in Karnataka, and their political links.
there are a whole lot of a systemic problems. one of which is failure of the state provide a good road network and to standardize goods transport.
as nowni says it will be interesting, nay instructive, to see the politics and governance of speed governors. i know katti-ge tarkaari taglidru, tarkaarige katti taglidru cut aagodu tarkari ne but even then it does not make sense to say two wheelers and cars can speed but not trucks.
More than all these, truck drivers are a terror on highways. Why because;
Most of them suffer from poor eye sight and refuse to wear correcting glasses lest it may affect their macho image.
Several of them have night blindness. They can’t see a thing, especially back of vehicles, in the night. So black cars suffer high risk of a hit from them.
Many of them are habitual drunkards. They have too many for the road.
When the drinks take over, they simply hand over the wheel to their ‘cleaner” mates, who don’t have DLs.
In my opinion, more than the speed governors and dippers, what is important is- the transport department should stop handing over heavy vehicle DLs to such blind and semi-blind persons.
“Sound Horn – (Unsound Driver) – OK”
Horny OK Please. :-P
Why all this restrictions. Why always blame the tax payers. For a change let it be the other way. Make the roads better, broader for the commuters. America and Europe has better roads not because they are rich, they are rich as they have better roads. If we want to restrict speed , let us go back to Bullock cart age, jataka gadi age, or Bapuji age. I see no Bullock carts in Kenee gowdan koppal now!
Restricting the speed of trucks is a welcome move. But in order to restrict accidents, all drivers (not just truck drivers) must be tested for their safe driving skills before issuing the license. More importantly it is important to cultivate the habit of driving within a lane. Currently in India the only way to drive is to weave in and out of traffic and this increases chances of traffic accidents.
babuds.. rofl. ebina. eddu biddu nakke.
dharma. antaha baaLe haaNN aagidre ellaru suldu tinntirlillave? there is a lot of validity to what the posters have commented on.
systemic problems kelavu ive, avugaLa buDa hiDIde horatu idakella samadhaana illa.
I do not quite agree with you. Please read my post below for my views and analysis
http://www.enidhi.net/2008/03/karnataka-truckers-strike-speed.html
I read the link that eNidhi posted and I am crossposting the comments I made on eNidhi’s blog on this issue:
One should be aware that higher the mass, higher the momentum. Higher momentum makes it difficult to maneuver a heavy vehicle especially at higher speeds. This means the truck driver can not make a sudden turn to avoid a pedestrian.
At lower speeds the pedestrians can have a longer reaction time to react to an erratic truck coming at a lower speed.
Also on city roads in US, pedestrians have the highest priority and everybody has to yield to them. (On freeways pedestrians and any other vehicle which travels slower than a certain speed limit are not allowed This includes bikes(bicycles), mopeds and scooters). In India pedestrians are treated like beggars.
Also coming back to the math, the kinetic energy is proportional to square of the speed. Which means that if someone doubled the speed, the kinetic energy would be quadrupled. In an accident the damage is caused by the high kinetic energy.
In US, the trucks are limited to much lower speeds compared to cars even though the traffic in US is way less chaotic compared to India. Low speed for trucks is the way to go.
I do like the concept of trains for long distance hauls like the one eNidhi has linked to in his blog.
I’ve replied to your comment sir…