Rapidly rising corporate logistics firm Siddhi Vinayak Logistic Ltd (SVLL) has closed in on a strategic partnership with Transport Solutions India (TSI), the trailblazer in engineered lightweight semitrailers, that could lead to joint manufacture of trailers custom-designed for SVLL’s specific transport requirements.

Impressed with the performance of 155 TSI flatbed trailers it has acquired over the last five months, and the manufacturer’s ever-ready attitude to service support, SVLL will buy up to 700 more in 2010–11 as it kicks off an ambitious plan to grow its fleet of heavy trucks from 1,500 to 4,000 in the next three years.

This growth will hinge on its association with TSI, which has been designated as its exclusive supplier of “all types” of trailers henceforward, SVLL founder and chief mentor Roop Chand Baid told Autocar Professional. Baid revolutionised the transport of agricultural tractors four years ago using “RTO-approved 62 wheelbase” Tata 1613 vehicles when trailers were the norm, delivering cost savings of up to 20 percent to the OEMs and boosting his own profitability by 30 percent. SVLL today accounts for 60 percent of all transports of ag tractors across India

SVLL was Tata Motors’ first customer for the Prima world truck and presently plies 28 (out of an order for 100) of the 4028 model hauling steel for Tata Steel and Essar. It has already co-designed with TSI a curtainsider to transport a single 34-tonne steel coil, and plans to operate more than 100 of this type under contract with JSW in Bellary, to be hauled by Tata’s earlier-generation 4923.

Baid is now all ready to spark off the next revolution, this one in the transport of commercial vehicles. A trial load of three Tata LCVs on his first truck carrier, the SRTC 3T model from Lohr India Auto Transport hauled by a Prima 4028, was flagged off at Tata’s Pune plant last fortnight headed for Faridabad.

He plans an aggressive investment in 500 SRTC 3Ts, capitalising on the fact that very few others will dare to touch this business yet because of the high cost – Rs 61 lakh – of the rig and the fact that “at least 200” are needed to make it viable “on the basis of a 30 percent return load”.

Provided, of course, they are hauled by high-powered tractors like the Prima to reduce transit times, which will contribute to increased sales for his customers and enable SVLL to make “one or two” additional trips per truck a month.

SVLL has already negotiated contracts with JCB, L&T Case, Tata Motors (including the Prima), and MAN Force (for all its fully built tippers for export), and will run trials for them over the next couple of months to establish a basis for costing. All are very keen to have their vehicles transported on a vehicle of this type, he points out.