Big Idea

Long-haul players

Truckkers is ushering in transparency in truck trailers

RA Chandroo

When Mohammad Illiyaz quit his job at Amazon to start something on his own, he wasn’t clear on where he was headed. But when he heard about the problems his friend faced in getting a good transporter, he decided to venture into logistics. He started his own transport company in Kurnool, Andhra Pradesh to understand the issues in the industry. During the course of business, he met Gouri Patil who was also running her own logistics company then. With an initial investment of Rs.20 lakh, they decided to launch Truckkers, an online trailer aggregator.  Sometime after the start-up was launched the third co-founder, Naveed Ahmed, joined the team.

But why focus on trailers? “There were no organised players in the sector. When Illiyaz suggested the idea, I was interested and figured that we could add some value to the sector,” says Patil. Their trucks are either monitored manually or by GPS devices and they charge a 7-10% commission on the freight. In case of manual tracking, hourly calls are placed and once status is updated on their portal, an automatic mail alert gets triggered to the customer. The company also does a background check to ensure the quality of service provided by owners.

The start-up that began as a B2C is now shifting base to B2B to stabilise order inflows. “We are trying to sign more institutional clients as the demand will not be always high in case of individual customers,” says Illiyaz. Its clients include Uranium Corporation of India, Vijay Engineering among many others.  

It is working on automating functions and building an ecosystem that will benefit all the players. “We are in process of getting IOT (internet of things) devices to enhance customer experience. The long-term plan is to build transportation hubs across the country that will act as pit stops for drivers,” says Illiyaz.