In an exclusive interview with SME Times, Mahesh P Trikha, Managing Director, Aargus Global Logistics Pvt Ltd said that the small and medium logistics firms need proper government attention to compete globally.

Excerpts of the interview...

Could you tell our readers about your company?
Mahesh P Trikha: We are an International Freight Forwarding and Logistics company based in New Delhi with 13 offices across India and about five representative offices in China. We are into all parts of Logistics Gamut of International Forwarding, Customs Clearance, Warehousing of General and Temperature Sensitive Cargo, Project Cargo, Door to Door deliveries world wide, Air and Ocean Chartering and related services.

How much growth have you witnessed till date in the logistics sector?
Mahesh P Trikha: We have grown between 20-40 percent in the last three years and expected to grow by another 20 percent this year too.

Huge infrastructure bottlenecks, mismanagement, delay in shipments, financial hindrances are all part of the challenging environment prevailing these days in the logistic sector. What is your opinion and how can this be handled to compete with the global standards and practices?
Mahesh P Trikha: This is the area which is very sensitive and most of the infrastructure activities are government controlled. Indian logistics sector lags behind in maintaining standards if we compare it with other countries. To compete with them we have to be among the best in the world.  We have badly managed and congested ports, bad roads, high interest rates, no proper policies, strikes, power issues, and bureaucracy  that are hindering the growth in the logistics sector.

Indian SME sector incurs huge losses due to the above mentioned hurdles. How can we tackle the high logistics costs in goods and services incurred by them?
Mahesh P Trikha: Surely, the SME sector is the one who has to suffer the worst of it. The government should look at it as separate industry. Banks should be encouraged to provide loans at world competitive interest rates. The government should provide subsidies as compared to the other countries in similar field and so on. 

We know the fact that Indian logistics sector lags behind the developed 3PL (third-party logistics) businesses in Western and European countries in terms of technology, infrastructure and quality of service. What is your take on this?
Mahesh P Trikha: I wish in this sector whether ports, airports or highways, should be entrusted to private sector. A separate ministry has to be created to take care of fast implementation and developing world class infrastructure.   All related activities should be brought to one ministry who should be made accountable to provide such facilities in given time schedule.

What kind marketing strategies do you usually implement for customer satisfaction?
Mahesh P Trikha: We work through our partners on global basis with joint sales calls and strategies as most of large customers are foreign based or have joint ventures. We also attend the conferences world over for similar lane segment to reach our customers along with regular sales calls as well personal contacts through mailer and presentations.

(Namrata Kath Hazarika can be contacted at namratakh@tradeindia.com)