Truck freight rates for major metros inch up in February: CMIE data

Road transport is estimated to account for over 70 per cent of domestic freight demand

The cost of transporting goods by truck to major metros went up in February.

Rates are up 1-5 per cent with the western part of the country seeing the largest increase on a year-on-year basis, shows an analysis of data collated by the Centre for Monitoring Indian Economy (CMIE).

The expense is calculated on a per kilometer basis of transporting goods using trucks with a capacity of 15 tonnes. It is available as the spend incurred from Delhi to various destinations across the country. The analysis here considered the cost of transport to other major metros including Mumbai in western India, Kolkata towards the east, and Bangalore and Chennai in the south.

The per kilometer cost of transporting goods using a 15 tonne truck rose 4.7 per cent to Rs 42.4 from Delhi to Mumbai in February. It was Rs 40.5 a year ago. The Delhi-Kolkata rate rose 3.1 per cent to Rs 42.9 in February 2024 from Rs 41.6 a year ago. The cost to Bangalore rose 1 per cent to Rs 42.2 compared to Rs 41.8 in February 2023. It rose 4.2 per cent to Rs 94.8 for Chennai, compared to Rs 91 a year ago.

Many smaller centres have also seen an increase in rates. Delhi-Patna rates are up 8 per cent to Rs 50.1, Delhi-Guwahati is up 1 per cent to Rs 52.2, Delhi-Hyderabad is up 2.1 per cent to Rs 43.5, Delhi-Sirsa is up 14.5 per cent to Rs 55.4.

Others have seen a decline including Bhopal (down 0.5 per cent), Lucknow (-1.6 per cent), Thiruvananthapuram (-2.2 per cent), Bhubaneswar (-3.5 per cent) and Jaipur (-11 per cent). Ahmedabad and Dehradun rates remained unchanged.

As per a Niti Aayog report in 2022 titled ‘Transforming Trucking in India’, 70 per cent of the domestic freight demand was carried by road transport.

Trucking had been disrupted in January when drivers initiated a protest against the penalties mentioned for hit-and-run cases, in the new Bharatiya Nyaya Sanhita (BNS). The updated provisions included a ten-year jail term, an increase from two-year imprisonment in the previous Indian Penal Code (IPC). The updated policy also entailed a fine of Rs 7 lakh if a truck driver absconds the scene of an accident without reporting it to the authorities. The protest was called off after the trucker’s body All India Motor Transport Congress (AIMTC) was assured that the new laws concerning hit and run cases will be implemented after discussions with the union representatives.

Vehicle registrations, which represent the retail sales, have seen a rise across the different categories. In January 2024, there were 301,107 heavy goods vehicles that were registered, an increase of 12 per cent compared to last year. Medium goods vehicle registrations declined by 0.7 per cent to 37,532 in January. Light goods vehicle registrations dipped 1.1 per cent to 601,579 (chart 2).

The trucking market is expected to rise by more than four times the 2022 number of 4 million trucks to 17 million by 2050, as per the Niti Aayog report.