Now, e-commerce also drives innovations at Tata Motors

Growth of e-commerce is set to drive changes in the preferences for commercial vehicles, giving rise to demand for those which can be on the road for longer period of time, bringing in fundamental changes to the efficiency of country's logistics sector, said officials of Tata Motors.

This would lead to vehicles with higher engine power and having smart tracking systems, they said.

"E-commerce will drive efficiency in the transport sector to be brought about by vehicles having better up-time, higher engine power and faster turnaround time, resulting in faster deliveries at economical costs," A K Jindal, head of engineering, commercial vehicles, told dna.

Gone are the days when the truckers could enjoy their time leisurely at the dhabas. The next-day delivery model in e-commerce means that every second counts.

"While meeting e-commerce customers, we have found out that they need to move their vehicles non-stop. To ensure that the trucks are always on the move, drivers are changed frequently. So, the condition of the vehicle has to be such that it is always on the road, fit and fine. When you do that, the quality of the vehicles and the engine and the comfort that the driver enjoys are of prime importance," Rajesh Kaul, business head, medium and heavy trucks, said on the sidelines of Truck World Expo, where Tata Motors is showcasing its latest range of its MCVs and HCVs.

As new age businesses as well as next generation truckers take over, Tata Motors is also planning to make its medium and heavy commercial vehicles connected.

"The second generation are coming into the trucking business and they are demanding more feature-rich vehicles with more comfort. With our Prima and Ultra range, we are trying to address that market. In a month's time, we plan to put telematics into all our tractor trailers, and going forward, maybe, in a year's time all our vehicles would be connected," Kaul said.

Tata Motors had joined hands a year ago with UK-based Microlise to launch advanced telematics and fleet management services in the Indian market.

"There is a hardware which is connected to the engine control unit and many sensors in the vehicles, which transmit data to a central server. And there are many ways - a PC or a smart phone - through which the consumers can get the data analytics," Jindal said.

"While data tracking is being done primarily by the users themselves, in coming days, we, ourselves would also start tracking data. This would be done for bettering our products as well as providing services like alerting the trucker about taking the vehicle to the workshop by analysing the data about how the engine is treated," he added.