Commercial vehicle manufacturer, Daimler India Commercial Vehicle showcased its BSafe Express’ a specialised ‘reefer’ truck for transporting Covid-19 vaccine. This was designed by DICV in collaboration with Motherson Group. The company claims that BSafe Express will enable transporting vaccines at a much quicker pace.
The trucks were launched by Satyakam Arya, Managing Director and CEO, DICV, VC Sehgal, Chairman of Motherson Group and LV Seghal, Vice Chairman, Motherson Group. The new truck is a lightweight insulated reefer which comes along with a telematics solution. The company added that it also has integrated IoT sensors offering real-time monitoring of temperature, humidity, shock, tilt and tamper. It will be offered in a diverse portfolio from 10-42 tonne to cater to the needs of the Indian market. The trucks will also have Covid free cabins with infection proof fabric as a standard fitment.
Satyakam Arya, Managing Director, and CEO, DICV said, “Around 1.3 billion people are to be vaccinated, not once, but twice. Government is vaccinating the Covid warriors first which is about three crore. Then they are vaccinating people beyond a certain age who have comorbidity which is around 27 crore. So, we expect the real demand to come in when the second course starts. And, there is another 100 crore beyond that. This would require a dedicated fleet of 10000-12000 trucks. If India has to do this safely, they need reefer trucks.”
LV Sehgal, Vice Chairman, Motherson Group, added that, “Motherson has made this with the components in-house. All this is from the investment that has been done internally, so far. Also, the air-con was developed with Valeo-Motherson JV. It has the capacity to go up to -20’C.”
Exporting BSafe
Arya expects most of the demand to be from the private players in the Indian market. Speaking about the export market, the CEO added that, “DICV already exports to markets worldwide and this solution is made in India for India, and is ready for the world. We will be offering this solution to all the markets Daimler and Motherson is present.”