New Delhi/Bangalore: Vahak, India’s most-trusted transport community platform, has announced a collaboration with SecureNow, a leading tech-enabled insurance platform for businesses, to offer cargo insurance to the Indian trucking community.
Vahak, co-founded by IITians Karan Shaha and Vikas Chandrawat, is on a mission to digitise the Indian logistics sector, which contributes over 14% to India’s GDP. This logistics tech company is fostering India’s largest ecosystem of transport SMEs, shippers, and lorry/fleet owners on its website and app, amid the fast-growing $250 Billion logistics sector in the country.
Karan Shaha, Co-Founder, and CEO at Vahak, said, “Our vision is to build a trusted transport community platform that addresses the needs of transporters, fleet owners, and truckers for growth. While the Indian trucking business remains fragmented and unorganised, and largely not covered under social security benefits, we want to bring peace of mind to the demand and supply sides, helping them mitigate the financial risks associated with transporting goods.”
Discussing the need of the hour, Shaha elaborates, “India transports nearly 4.6 billion tonnes of freight annually, generating transport demand of 2.2 trillion tonne-km, as per NITI Ayog. As this demand grows, associated road freight movement is likely to increase to 9.6 trillion tonne-km by 2050. And as road freight travel grows, the number of trucks is likely to more than quadruple, to roughly 17 million trucks by 2050. And, so will the urgent need to safeguard the transported cargo.”
Cargo insurance can protect trucking companies and shippers against losses due to theft, accidents, natural disasters, and other unexpected events that can cause damage or loss of cargo. This can help mitigate the financial impact of these losses and provide peace of mind to both parties. Many shippers and manufacturers may require trucking companies to carry cargo insurance in order to comply with regulations or contractual obligations. Failing to have proper insurance coverage can lead to penalties and legal issues. Having cargo insurance gives fleet owners and truckers competitive advantage over those that do not, as they can offer load owners and manufacturers an added level of protection and reassurance, improving customer satisfaction and building trust in the long run.
India is home to around 60 million MSMEs, many of whom lack the knowledge necessary to purchase reliable transit insurance at the time of booking confirmation. Abhishek Bondia, Co-Founder of SecureNow, explains, “Unfortunately, while small businesses are most vulnerable to accidents, they are unable to give a large share of mind to insurance. Our collaboration with Vahak will help to bring them into the coverage net. Through this partnership, we will make transit insurance more contextual. Firms can buy their insurance at the time of booking the transport. This will ensure higher compliance rate for these businesses, better coverage and lesser administrative overheads.”
SecureNow’s tech-enabled platform offers comprehensive insurance solutions with limited exclusions and low prices. The pre-buying and post-sale process allows businesses to manage their policies with multiple insurers and raise claims through one common platform. With this collaboration, Vahak has added another key feature to safeguard transporters. Vahak had recently announced its collaboration with Coverstack making digital vehicle insurance processes efficient, fast and cost-effective.