GST: A New Road For Transportation And Logistics Industry In India 

India is all set to usher in a game-changing tax reform—the goods and services tax (GST). Apart from creating a unified market across India, GST will help make India’s manufacturing competitive by cutting high logistics and warehousing costs.

The regulatory reforms proposed in the GST presents a golden opportunity to revisit, rationalize and re-engineer transportation and logistics networks, given the inherent inefficiencies with taxes based on the crossing of administrative boundaries or border checkpoints. Taxation at a national level, rather than by each state, will result in more efficient cross-state transportation, streamlining paperwork for road transporters and bringing down logistics costs.

What is the Future of Truckload Transportation? 

There’s been a common thread in my conversations with shippers over the past few years: their desire to take freight off the truckload grid — i.e., minimize the number of one-way truck shipments they make. This desire is driven by a number of factors, including:

• Capacity concerns: A lot of capacity has left the market since 2008, with many carriers going bankrupt when the recession hit and others downsizing their fleets. This hasn’t been a problem to date because economic growth has been weak, but if and when the economy picks up steam again, many shippers are concerned that truckload capacity will significantly tighten. And thenew Hours of Service rules set to go into effect July 1, 2013 — coupled with the impact CSA is having on the ability for carriers to hire and retain drivers — will only make matters worse.
• Fuel: Although diesel prices have remained relatively flat this year, ranging between $3.85 and $4.10 per gallon, they are almost double what they were in June 2009. And the outlook for the future remains the same: uncertain and volatile. Therefore, shippers are looking for ways to minimize their exposure to rising diesel prices, especially fuel surcharges.
• Sustainability: As I discussed ina recent Talking Logistics episode, many companies are showing renewed interest in sustainability these days, and they are taking action on various fronts to improve the sustainability of their supply chains — especially in transportation, not only because it offers the greatest opportunity to reduce a company’s carbon footprint, but also because it provides significant cost benefits too.

10 Key Logistics & Procurement Practices to Know and Master to Reduce Spend 

Getting the raw materials needed to maintain production is one of the most important parts of the whole supply chain. If raw materials are unavailable, all subsequent processes are affected, which may result in increased costs to consumers and the respective companies as well. However, following these 10 practices can help you learn how to reduce spend in the procurement supply chain. 

Make in India - A win-win situation! (Infrastructure and transport sector in India)

The Indian infrastructure and transport sector has been improving successively over the years. The Golden Quadrilateral is a highway network connecting many of the major industrial, agricultural and cultural centres of India. A quadrilateral of sorts is formed by connecting Chennai, Kolkata, Delhi and Mumbai. Other metropolises also connected by the network are Ahmedabad, Bengaluru, Bhubaneswar, Jaipur, Kanpur, Pune, Surat, Guntur, Vijayawada, and Visakhapatnam. But there are a number of challenges