TT Group MD opens up on lack of skilled logistics personnel in India

TT Group chairman and managing director Arun Vasu recently opened up about the lack of skilled logistics personnel in India and why he is tying up with Singapore University of Social Sciences (SUSS) and Singapore Logistics Association (SLA) and Rajiv Gandhi National Aviation University (RGNAU) to offer courses on logistics and supply chain sectors to industry professionals in India.

TT SKILL, a new division of TT Group now offers courses on cold chain management, time-sensitive cargo management and dangerous goods management.

"There are many supply chain management courses available across different universities in India. So we wanted to focus on the pain points of the industry and these three are very crucial from a logistics perspective. Unlike many other industries, very less can be learned from textbooks about logistics," he said.

In an exclusive video conversation that happened during the recently concluded Air Cargo India 2022, Vasu spoke to STAT Media Group about the evolution of TT Group from being GSA for airlines to leveraging that expertise to introduce bonded trucking in various airports in India.

TT Trucking, part of TT Group, recently started operating bonded trucking from Delhi International Airport and is already approved by customs to operate from the airports in Hyderabad, Bangalore, Chennai, Cochin, Coimbatore, Mumbai and Ahmedabad.

He spoke about the future of Indian air cargo and how Indian airlines should manage their cargo operations which brought significant revenue even when passenger sales were down.

"Today airlines fly everywhere in the country but it is not feasible. You need to have a hub and spoke model. So they need to consolidate as a cargo airline in one airport and it has to be a feeder service," he said.

Vasu claims that the Covid-19 pandemic has proved the value of bonded trucking and the people have acknowledged the importance of the business they do.

"I was always fascinated by trucking. When I go to Europe, where the entire region is connected with trucks, it fascinates me. When we decided to get into trucking we were particularly interested in custom bonded trucking because there was a gap. We were trying to bring in our expertise from the airline side. There were many challenges and resistance. We struggled," he said.