1. What are some common problems faced by the commercial vehicle owners in India and how has Transport Mall helped them overcome the same?
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Many issues account to the struggles faced by an industry. Forces like corruption, compulsive overloading, no provision of halting charges, lack of professional support, absence of roadside amenities and shortage of trained drivers are a few challenges that we face but if you ask me the core problem then I will say it’s the low bargaining power of a Commercial Vehicle Owner. That is because of the fragmented nature of the industry and the fallout of this problem is that a CVO is neither able to extract a good deal from his customer nor when he is a customer himself. I have seen it in my 15 years of professional life working within this industry.
Transport Mall is on the path to becoming a unique social commerce platform for CVOs where an owner of a single-vehicle gets the same privilege as a fleet owner i.e Convenience, better price, and access to critical services.
2. What are the kinds of financial services/insurance services provided to commercial vehicle owners by Transport Mall?
As of today, Transport Mall provides Motor Insurance with prime focus on commercial vehicles. We are generating business from 25 States without having a single person in the field. All the leads are generated by Transport TV, we don’t make a single cold call. 60% of the sales come from repeat customers. We have lined up some innovative Insurance products too for the near future apart from the existing Motor Insurance product.
3. Please throw some light on the thought behind taking a plunge toward business transformation from Transport Tv to Transport Mall.
Transport TV was our idea but Transport Mall is our viewers’ idea. The vision behind Transport TV was to fill the information gap among different stakeholders. We were not only successful in doing that but also in winning the trust of millions of CVOs. So it was they who started asking for different products like Insurance and Vehicle Finance.
On the other hand, for the years I spent in this sector, I was looking for the right moment to consolidate the CVO community to increase their collective bargaining. So in 2019 when we reached the 1 Million monthly Unique Visitor milestone (now we are at 10 Million) and the growing expectations of the CVO community from us gave us the confidence to take the plunge from a Social Media Giant to a Social Commerce Platform.
4. With resumed infrastructural and logistical activities, how is the business taking shape post lockdown?
Transport Activity is at the Pre-Covid level but smaller CVOs are under stress due to past default in EMIs or the fallout effect of Moratorium. There is a big number of vehicles recovered by NBFCs at a regular level. Here again, I can give you an example of low bargaining power. Any big businessman or a factory owner can avail of the facility of loan restructuring but smaller CVOs are often denied this facility by financial institutions even where there is a positive intent of repaying the loan is proved.
5. Could you share some real-life stories/case studies where Transport Mall has helped a driver or made their job easier?
We are fortunate that we are generating hundreds of such real-life stories every day where Transport Mall has made jobs easier for Commercial Vehicle Owners or drivers. Today our Transport TV is the only source of credible information regarding happenings of the Transport Sector. This is the only source where he gets updated about any change
in policy/regulation. Transport TV has touched millions of CVOs/Drivers in such a way that you may get emotional watching their video testimonials.
Our Driver Dhaba feature takes drivers to the safe Dhabas where their vehicles and goods are safe and where the drivers can get access to a safe parking space.
Vehicle Owners are able to get genuine Insurance policies anytime from our app thus saving them from all the hustle.
6. With the on-set of the pandemic and services moving online, how has the structure of the commercial vehicle market been influenced? Could you specify any notable changes in the business operations?
Even before the pandemic, a lot of services essential to a CVO had moved online. For example, paying motor vehicle taxes/fees, generating or modifying e-way bills, paying toll fees via Fastag, recharging Fastags, and so on. One positive impact of the pandemic is the increase in acceptance of online transactions. There is lesser hesitation now since this pandemic has pushed even the person with the highest resistance to do at least one thing online, be it making an online payment or arranging his/her child’s online class.
7. Please tell us more about Transport Mall’s recent initiative Driver Dhaba.
Driver Dhaba is a service recently launched by Transport Mall that lets drivers find Dhabas on their routes conveniently and quickly. We have aggregated 1000+ Dhabas in 12 states that are safe and secure for drivers and for their trucks after grading, verifying, and certifying them on the basis of strenuous checks.
The dhabas are categorized into four categories – Gold, Silver, Bronze, and Take Away. The categories are given on the basis of the facilities that these dhabas provide such as CCTV, parking, restrooms, quality food, and security guards for the safety of the vehicles. While this is just the start, the idea is to provide safer Places with all the required amenities and conveniences of the highest standard to commercial vehicle drivers across the country within the next year.
8. What are your future plans with Transport Mall? Are there any new developments in the pipeline.
Transport Mall is on a path to becoming a one-stop platform for all the business needs of CVOs, be it financial products or consumables. In immediate future, we are soon launching consumables on our platform which will result in convenience and ease of doing business for millions of Commercial Vehicle Owners. This is a huge opportunity, more than a $70 billion market in India alone.
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