1. Surface Logistics Business

Long haul transportation and city & mile distribution services

We have 10 years of experience in surface logistics operations. We own vehicles for long-haul primary distribution as well as for secondary distribution. In addition, we use leased vehicles as and when required.

The vehicles are designed with the flexibility to operate in ambient, chilled or frozen temperature models and can also run as multi-temperature vehicles. Our fleet of temperature-controlled reefer vehicles maintain a temperature-controlled environment to ensure proper handling of perishable products throughout the transportation process.

Surface logistics can be further divided into long haul transportation and city & mile distribution:

1. Long Haul Transportation

Long Haul movements usually happen from the customer’s factory to our/third party distribution centers. In large MNCs, various product lines are produced in a single manufacturing plant from which shipment takes place to various parts of the country. This type of shipment is normally a full truck load and is typically long distance (500 – 2500 KMs) as opposed to partial loading of a truck by multiple clients.

As it is a full truck load movement, trip pricing is based on the vehicle size, load type and route to be served and is negotiated with the customer. The availability of return load from the next nearest point is also a key consideration while determining the pricing with the customer. This also helps us to optimize the overall network of transportation based on the slots granted.  A typical contract is usually 1 to 3 years in length and is typically renewed after adjusting for expected volumes, frequency of deliveries, inflation, etc.

We generally endeavour to place our own reefer fleets for every trip on a best efforts basis, and if we are unable to do so, we arrange another fleet from the spot market / dedicated third party vendors. The majority of load movement on hired vehicles is in dry load category primarily to service back haul client requirements.

1.  City & Last Mile Distribution

City & Last Mile distribution caters to inner/ inter-city movements (up to 500 kilometers) usually from a customer’s distribution center to its regional distributor / retail outlet. We are involved in city distribution since 2009.

Our city distribution business has 3 types of pricing models:

1. Fixed rental payment plus variable payment on kilometer run
2. Variable payment with minimum kilometer run guarantee
3. Variable payment with no minimum kilometer run guarantee.

The secondary distribution contract is usually for 1 to 3 years with an auto renewal clause in certain cases. Additional requirement comes from the clients on account of increase in demand during various festive seasons in India especially during the second half of the financial year. The summer season also brings increased demand of frozen movements like ice-creams and other dairy products.

For all our clients we have appointed a Accounts Manager(AM), who acts as the single point of contact. These AMs are also responsible of publishing various MIS reports to client at regional and national level which helps monitor the Service Level Agreement (SLA) on placements, temperature and timely delivery. The AMs act as an intermediary to provide first-hand information to the client and at the same time escalating any problem to right person for quick action on ground.

2. Warehousing Business

“Asset-light” warehousing model

Our warehousing solutions cover the complete spectrum of temperature ranges from ambient to chilled and frozen. In addition, we are one of the few service providers with blast freezing capabilities. Blast freezing enables us to reduce the temperature of certain products such as poultry and meat, received in our temperature-controlled warehouse quickly, by subjecting it to -40ºC. Our temperature-controlled warehouses are equipped to manage temperatures from -18 ºC to +25 ºC) with our warehousing facility offering blast freezing capabilities as well.

All our temperature-controlled warehouses adhere to strict standards on food safety and hygiene. Our temperature-controlled warehouses are operated under process control systems which help maintain a pre-determined temperature for different products and provide for ERP based inventory management system.

The salient features of our most temperature-controlled warehouses include:

• Multi-facility environment friendly refrigerant – R717 (Ammonia);
• Multi-chamber, multi temperature warehouse to accommodate various products such as dairy products including cheese and butter, confectionaries including chocolates and other frozen food items;
• Modern Pallet racking;
• High reach trucks and modern product handling equipment;
• Rooms designed to accommodate products in temperature range of -40 to +25 ºC;
• Adequately illuminated warehouses with special subzero light fittings;
• Complete power backup with multiple generators;
• Uninterrupted, skilled and committed manpower to deal with large set of SKUs from order receiving to dispatch;
• Training and quality interventions to ensure round the year compliance and service levels;
• BRC and FSSA (Food Safety and Standards Act, 2006) certified.

We store our products in pallets that are capable of enduring weights of up to 1 tonne (i.e. 1,000 kg). The G+5 (i.e. ground + 5 levels) racking and pallet system employed by us increases our storage capacity and enables stacking of products. The storing and unloading is done by using forklifts.

Our warehouse has 6 temperature-controlled and 1 dry/ambient docks and capacity for storing approximately 3,500 pallets (each approximately 4m) in different temperature conditions.