Chennai: The BS4 truck ban in the National Capital Region due to air pollution and polling activities in Maharashtra saw truck fleet occupancies drop to 60 per cent in November.
Fleet occupancy levels dropped to around 60 per cent in November 2024 on a month-on-month basis. Poor urban demand across categories, the BS4 truck ban in the NCR region because of air pollution issues, polling activities in Maharashtra and reduced agricultural produce movement led to the decline in occupancies, according to Shriram Finance.
A majority trucks in the business are BS4 compliant and given the existing entry ban in the NCR region, these trucks transport items to the NCR border from where the goods are loaded into smaller BS6 or CNG trucks and delivered in the NCR region. This has resulted in increased logistics costs in the region.
Another factor that has impacted the truck rentals was the polling activities in Maharashtra which resulted in slowing down of the logistics activity.
Truck rentals, which had returned to normal levels in October 2024 post the festive season rush, saw a decline in November 2024 in most trunk routes as demand for transportation services softened. Truck rental rates for round trips followed a downward trend, with rentals on key trunk routes like Delhi-Chennai-Delhi and Delhi-Bengaluru-Delhi declining by 1.4 per cent and 1 per cent respectively on a month-on-month basis.
