Union Minister Nitin Gadkari on Thursday approved the draft notification to mandate the installation of air conditioning systems in the cabins of trucks belonging to categories N2 and N3.
Truck drivers play a crucial role in ensuring road safety. This decision marks a significant milestone in providing comfortable working conditions for truck drivers, thereby improving their efficiency and addressing the problem of driver fatigue, Gadkari said in a Tweet.
Last month at an event, Gadkari announced that starting 2025, all trucks will be required to have air-conditioned driver compartments. He had said "At present, a truck driver usually drives around 15 hours at a stretch every day, impacting his physical as well as mental health. I want the working hours for drivers to be fixed soon, like they are in other countries."
His Tweet, however, did not mention a timeline.
A Tata Motors' spokesperson said, "India’s growing trucking industry is facing the challenge of attracting and retaining skilled truck drivers. This decision will benefit the health and safety of drivers as the long hours of truck driving will become more comfortable."
Satyakam Arya, Managing Director and CEO, Daimler India Commercial Vehicles (DICV) said, "I believe that with air conditioning now, the cowl trucks will be gone," adding that the second point on which more concerted effort was needed was the safety of cabins, stating that they never did cowl trucks. We even offered cabins that meet the European crash safety norms, which mandates safety up to the lowest point of the windshield, he added. He said that further, now they have gone up to the next step, from the lowest part of the windshield to the roof of the cabin also, there is a crash safety norm that is followed in Europe, adding that the entire heavy-duty cabin has been fulfilling this regulation since 2023.
He added that we need to focus more on India in terms of bringing sensitivity to safety.