India Full Truck Load Market - Growth, Trends, and Forecasts (2022 - 2027)

The India Full Truck Load Market is expected to grow at a CAGR of more than 6.0% during the forecast period (2022 -2027). The world's biggest lockdown has brought transportation of goods in India to a near halt, even though the federal government has exempted the sector from restrictions to halt the spread of coronavirus. Daily movement of trucks has collapsed to less than 10% of normal levels. Road transport accounts for about 60% of freight traffic in India, according to the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways.

The India-China trade is on course to cross USD 100 billion for the second consecutive year as it has gone up to USD 67.08 billion in the first half of this year 2022 amid a big surge of Chinese exports. China's exports to India have gone up to USD 57.51 billion, up by 34.5 per cent last year 2021 while Indian exports to China fell to USD 9.57 billion, a decline of 35.3 per cent compared to last year 2021. China remains the largest trade partner of India and for the first time the bilateral trade exceeded USD 100 billion in 2021.

According to industry reports in June 2022, after a gap of over two years, India and Myanmar are likely to resume trade through the land route. When Covid struck the land route trade was stopped. However, the sea and air routes continued. Since the past few weeks, there have been talks between the ministry of commerce and Myanmar and it's been decided in principle to reopen the land route for cross-border trade. Once trading from Moreh resumes, India will begin to pitch again for pushing the proposed 1360 km India-Myanmar-Thailand trilateral highway.

Key Market Trends

Growth in Agriculture Industry Driving the Market

One of the major problems in the agricultural sector is that the farmers are unable to get the actual value for their agricultural products. Also, the most challenging issue faced by the agricultural sector is the transportation of agricultural products beyond the state boundaries throughout India. Government has taken several steps with adequate budgetary provisions to develop robust and integrated agri logistics systems in the country for transportation of agri-produce. Government of India has launched "Kisan Rath" mobile application to facilitate the Farmers, Farmers Produce Organisations (FPOs) and Traders in hiring vehicles for transportation of agri-produce. This mobile application is also integrated with National Agriculture Market (e-NAM) portal for facilitating load requests of traders registered in e-NAM portal.

The overall export of APEDA products increased to USD 7408 million in April-June 2022 from USD 5663 million over the same period of the last fiscal. The export target for April-June 2022-23 was fixed at USD 5890 million. The initiatives taken by the Agricultural and Processed Food Products Export Development Authority (APEDA) which works under the Ministry of Commerce and Industry have helped the country in achieving 31 per cent of the total export target in the first quarter of the current fiscal. For the year 2022-23, an export target of USD 23.56 billion has been fixed by APEDA for the agricultural and processed food product basket.

Government Investment on Road Infrastructure Supports FTL Market

National highways account for 2% of the total road network and carry over 40% of total traffic. Highway construction in India increased at 17.00% CAGR between FY16-FY21. Despite pandemic and lockdown, India has constructed 13,298 km of highways in FY21. In FY21, 13,298 kms of highway was constructed across India. The road transport ministry has completed 1,41,190 kilometre of national highways as on March 31 this year 2022 out of the set target of 2 lakh km for 2024-25.

While the epidemic affected many different sectors at various stages over the past almost two years, the road sector struggled but made fantastic progress in terms of building new national highways. Connectivity with remote and tough terrains, decongesting major points in the road network, an integrated multi-modal national network of transportation and logistics, and steering ahead with the ambitious voluntary vehicle scrappage policy are also on the 2022 radar.

In 2022-23, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways has been allocated nearly Rs 68,000 crore more than the revised expenditure in 2021-22. In absolute terms, this is the highest increase (from revised estimates of 2021-22) among all ministries in 2022-23. Nearly all of this additional allocation has been earmarked for investment in NHAI. This is in line with the ambitious target for expanding the National Highways network by 25,000 km in 2022-23 at an all-time high pace of over 68 km per day compared with around 37 km/day achieved, the highest so far, in 2020-21. In 2022-23, NHAI has been allocated INR 1,34,015 crore, which is 106% more than the revised estimate of 2020-21.

Competitive Landscape

The Full Truck Load of India is fragmented in nature with majority of local players, this makes the sector highly competitive. Some of the strong players of the country include DSV Deutsche Post DHL Group, VRL Logistics Limited, Ritco Logistics Ltd, TCI Express and Safexpress. Companies are focusing on providing value added services along with trucking. The companies in market are competing on parameters like Pricing, Location, fleet size, and Additional services such as kitting, assembling, labelling etc and technological advancements.

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• The market estimate (ME) sheet in Excel format
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