As part of the company’s ongoing commitment to India’s increasingly important trade and transportation industry, and the people of the local community, APM Terminals Mumbai has opened a Drivers’ Health Centre dedicated to the health and welfare of the tractor-trailer drivers serving the entire Nhava Sheva complex at the Jawaharlal Nehru Port (JNP), near Mumbai.
The purpose of the new medical facility is to provide the trucking community with free access to basic hygiene, health and sanitation facilities as part of an overall effort to improve safety and the basic living and working conditions of the trucking community who play an integral part of India’s logistics supply chain.
At the formal opening of the inauguration of the health centre on January 29, Director, Container Corporation of India (CONCOR), Yash Vardhan, representing the Board of Directors at APM Terminals Mumbai said the initiative will help in strengthening the most crucial link impacting India’s logistics chain and the society at large.
India, with a population of 1.25 billion, and the world’s third-largest economy, calculated by Purchasing Power Parity, has partly through trade-enabled economic development, seen a reduction in the national poverty level from 41.6% of the population in 2005, to 23.6% of the population in 2012, according to the World Bank’s Global Monitoring Report for 2014-15 on the Millennium Development Goals.
Located near the village of Jaskar, Uran, in Maharashtra State, at the entry of the dedicated access road to APM Terminals Mumbai, the clinic’s services are available to all truck drivers serving the four JNP terminals, including APM Terminals Mumbai, the busiest container terminal at the port complex, handling 1.91 million TEUs in 2015, and representing 42.6% of the record-setting cumulative 4.47 million TEUs handled by the port in 2015.
APM Terminals Mumbai works with approximately 2,200 truck drivers each day, or about 66,000 drivers per month, who deliver and pick up cargo and containers to and from the terminal. Drawn from segments of the community with limited access to medical treatment, many of the drivers suffer from oral hygiene and other health issues, some of which require urgent attention.
APM Terminals Mumbai CEO, Pradip Agrawal said, “We hope to lead by example. We calculate more than 18,000 drivers can benefit annually from the health center. If replicated elsewhere in India, the program will have a significant impact on India’s supply chain by promoting an awareness of the profession, and addressing the issue of shortage of tractor-trailer drivers faced by the industry.”
“Travelling long distances on difficult road infrastructure makes these drivers susceptible to professional hazards, while poor working conditions and long hours only worsen the situation; we are hopeful of bringing a positive change by helping the drivers maintain a healthy body and sound mind behind the wheel, and encouraging safe and responsible driving,” said APM Terminals Mumbai Chief Operating Officer, Ravi Gaitonde.
APM Terminals Mumbai plans to adopt several other initiatives which will be rolled out in a phased manner to cultivate safer, improved working and physical conditions for the industry’s truck drivers, serving as an example for the rest of India’s expanding logistics supply chain.
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