Sales of heavy-duty vehicles rise sharply

Demonetisation may be grabbing all the eyeballs, but another crackdown is happening quietly elsewhere, and the impact is seen on the highways. The clampdown is on overloaded trucks, a common sight on Indian roads. The government is strictly implementing the rules on rated load — the load a machine is designed to carry — and those failing to conform face heavy penalties. As a result, sales of heavy-duty trucks have seen a sharp increase. The transportation industry is shifting fast towards 37-tonne and 49-tonne haulers from 25-tonne trucks, said manufactures and fleet operators. Sales of 25-tonne trucks have nearly halved in the first seven months of this fiscal year beginning April, while those of heavy duty tippers and tractor-trailers increased 32 per cent and 6 per cent, respectively. “The shift to higher tonnage vehicles is driving commercial vehicle growth,” said Ravi Pisharody, Executive Director for Commercial Vehicles at Tata Motors, giving the credit for the new trend to strict implementation of the rated load rules and improving road infrastructure.