A study on Commercial Truck Driver’s Vulnerability in India – Mitigations and Strategies for enrichment of Truck Drivers lifestyle By Dr. P. Senthilkumar* and N. Rajkumar Abstract

In this survey, the ownership factor also was discussed and presented in table 5.The ownership of driver to a truck is around 13% and drivers who work for logistics organization is 81% which is a major content out of the sample population. This was discussed with them on when they become owner to a truck. The answers to that was not proper as the truck drivers were not confident enough about the future traits as how to succeed to become an owner for a truck.

The salary part of the distribution is shown in table 6. The observation is that 56% of the sample population is getting a monthly salary ranging from 10000 INR to 15000 INR and thus there is a direct co-relation to the truck ownership. Since their monthly salary for majority of them ranges in this band, they do not find an outcome/resource to save money to buy own truck or to take lease of a truck.

Table 5: Ownership Profile			Table 6: Monthly Income
Ownership Profile	Percentage		Monthly Income	Percentage
Owner	13%		<10000 INR	15%
Not Owner	81%		10000 INR to 15000 INR	56%
Lease	6%		15000 INR to 30000 INR	13%
Total	100%		> 30000 INR	16%
			Total	100%

Over all trucking experience is presented in Table 7. The observation reveals that there is no significant difference between the trucking experiences. However, 28% of the sample population were having trucking experience less than 2 years and these drivers started their career as cleaners once and turned about to be drivers.

In table 9, kms travelled per day is presented and the observations reveals that 31% of the truck drivers travel 300 kms to 500 kms per day. 26% of truck drivers travel 500 kms to 700 kms per day. Many of the intrastate truck drivers travel less than 300 kms per day (like travelling from Chennai to villupuram or Chennai to Vellore etc.) and the percentage turns out to be 23%.

Table 7: Trucking Experience			Table 8: Trucking Range
Trucking Experience	Percentage		Trucking Range	Percentage
< 2 Years	28%		Interstate	53%
3 Years to 10 Years	26%		Intra State	47%
11 Years to 20 Years	26%		Total	100%
> 20 Years	20%
Total	100%

During transit or after transit the truck drivers normally halt for rest and this is presented in the table 10. The observation reveals that 42% of drivers rest for 4 to 5 hours per day after transit complete and few of them rest for less than 3 hours which turns out to be 24%. Rest of the drivers halt for 5 to 9 hours which computes 34 % and these drivers are happened to be halting at the metro ports for clearance of goods which consumes a major time and thus the drivers are put to a halt for more hours and these resting time finds the driver to engage themselves in vulnerable activities.

As these truck drivers were subjected to more number of hours in roads, questions like no of days and no time these truck drivers take leave or visiting their homes were asked and respective observations are presented in table 11 and table 12.

Hygiene is one of the prime factor for any human being and since the truck drivers are pilots for the Indian logistics systems they have to be treated with hygiene food and thus the table 13 presents the distribution between truck drivers eating at road side dhabas and decent restaurants. The observation reveals that 56% of them eat at road side dhabas and 44% eat in decent restaurants. Table 14 is corollary to table 13 on the observation of truck drivers having sex with multiple partners and drivers who did not reveal about this questions. It is majority of them who eat at road side dhabas are prone to have multiple sex which turns about to be 68% and rest 32% claim that do not have sex with others during in transit.

Condom usage and aware ness on aids was interviewed among the truck drivers and is presented in table 15 and table 16. It is to the surprise that 51% of those who use condom while involving in sex affair are aware of AIDS and rest 49% do not use condom and their awareness on AIDS is not substantial as they do not know how does AIDS spread. These percentage people have different perceptions on awareness of AIDS.

Highway medical centres are nowadays should be requirements and table 17 presents the presence of highway medical centres on national highways. 19% of the truck drivers claim that there medical centres on highways and majority of the truck drivers which is 81% claim that there are no substantial medical centres on national highways.

During the survey the drivers were asked if government would come up with recreational facilities on highways to relax the drivers and have some extracurricular activities, there was an overwhelming response from the majority population of the truck drivers which turns about to be 74% referring to table 18.This outcome reveals that the truck drivers are in need for such recreational centres on highways to de stress their fatigue.

Table 17: Highway Medical Centre’s			Table 18: Recreational Facilities
Presence of Medical Centers	Percentage		Degrees of Happiness	Percentage
Medical Centers	19%		Happily Welcome	74%
No Medical Centers	81%		Occasional Visitor	16%
Total	100%		Not Bothered	10%
			Total	100%

As the logistics owners are interested to make profit in quicker means, they over load the truck and the level of loading condition is presented in table 19. 29% of the truck drivers claim that they drive the vehicle under over load condition with poor maintenance of the trucks. Sometimes the trucks are being driver with poor tires which loses stability and one of the main reason for the cause of accidents.

Consumption of Alcohol and no. of accidents are presented in table 21 and table 22. In table 21, 56% of the truck drivers claim that they consume alcohol after completion of the respective trips. Rest 44% of the truck drivers claim that they do not consume alcohol which the team did not believe in the truck driver’s feedback.