TruckSuvidha on Startup Success stories platform

Necessity, goes the adage, is the mother of invention. When Ishu Bansal (founder of the logistics startup TruckSuvidha), saw his family business face problems in transporting their manufactured goods, he was convinced there were others sailing in the same boat too and facing the same hardships as his family.

Bansal’s family had set up a plywood manufacturing unit at Mundia in Badaun district in 2003. The manufacturing unit being based in a small town meant that the Bansals would have to get trucks from a 100-150 km circle to despatch their finished products.

They would often end up delivering their promised goods after the deadlines. Resulting into losses due to not being able to deliver on time as well as loss of goodwill. Buyers would walk away from a manufacturer who, more often than not, would fail to deliver on time.

Unable to get reliable and timely transportation facilities, the Bansal family went as far as buying a truck of their own in 2007. That too did not seem to work out.

Recalls Bansal, “A part of the problem did get solved”. We were able to deliver on time but the idea was not commercially viable. We were not able to find return loads for trucks, which resulted in huge costs when we took into account the daily expenses of hiring a driver, the diesel for the vehicle and the return freight. At times, the truck drivers would have to wait at one place for 5 to 7 days at times- waiting to get loads for the return journey. The whole setup, we soon realized, though enabled us to deliver on time, had led to another set of headaches. Obviously, not a very pleasant scenario.”

Ishu would see the harried family and wanted to create a solution. Not only for his family but for all many others like them who, he was sure, were suffering too. Almost four years back, Ishu was enjoying a cup of tea with Amit Punaini, also a partner in the plywood business, when he brought up the topic of transportation related woes. Amit who also had a successful scrap and metal business behind him knew that the man in front of him, almost ten years his younger, was talking sense.

The idea was thus conceived during a casual chit chat but once the seed had been sown, there was no looking back. Together, the two decided to use technology to rid this highly unorganized sector of, at least, some of its ills. That was way back in 2011. “We knew we wanted to do it. Rather, we HAD to do it. We started refining our thought process, closely looking at the industry, building up the database and collecting feedback from various entities involved in transport business. The research consisted of endless visits to Azadpur Mandi (Delhi), transport houses, truck drivers, dhabas, truck unions and interacting with the people who had been in this industry for a long time. After those long conversations and hearing to the travails of others like us, we finally knew we were following the right thing,” says Amit.

This logistics startup connects transporters, truck drivers and customers at one place

Ishu, only 21 at that time, was working with Infosys. The self propelled entrepreneur pooled in all his savings and together with Amit, who was his family’s business associate, set out to work upon the idea of logistics startup.

The two gleam with pride when they mention that the concept was entirely self funded! The concept was under-the-works for a long three years, during which they zeroed in on every possible aspect of it.The portal for this logistics startup was finally launched in September 2014.

Source: http://www.startupsuccessstories.com/this-logistics-startup-connects-transporters-truck-drivers-and-customers-at-one-place/