IN ASSOCIATION WITH

PRESENTS
ACHIEVING ZERO DAMAGE WITH THE PERFECT STRATEGIC FIT

An Evolving Phenomena - V-Xpress and its Innovations

It was a hot summer afternoon, when Ashok bhai, chairman V Group was having a discussion
with Mr. O.P. Harshwal, CEO, V-Xpress regarding a major challenge the company was
facing. We are one of the best companies for express cargo in the country, but Ashok bhai
my mission is to make V-Xpress No.1 in the country for express logistics. But Harshwal
bhai dont you think we are kind of heading towards it. Our tag line, Safe & Reliable for
your peace of mind has captured the confidence of our clients and not only that you along
with your team have been successful in achieving 0% pilferage and 0% theft which are rare
phenomena in our industry. V-Xpress services are now at par with old leaders of the industry
like GATI and Safe Express. But thats not enough Ashok bhai, we have just won half the
battle but the other problem still remains, and its about the damage to the goods. I dont
seem to have any solution to achieve damage proof cargo and anything other than 0%
damage is simply not acceptable to me.
Their vision to have 0% damage cargo seemed to be a serious issue for the top management
of V-Xpress, who would leave no stone unturned to be the best, an attempt they always made
to rise in the industry.
Brief History: Shri Kunverji Khimji Shah was an impressive person, a visionary and one of
the most respected personalities of Kutch, Gujarat. Born in 1923 in Kutch he came to
Mumbai at the age of 9 to work in kirana shops. In 1946 he joined Padamshi Narshi & Co., a
local transport company as a clerk. Later his younger brothers also joined the same company.
Looking at Mr. K.K.Shahs excellent performance and hunger for growth, Padamshibhai
confidently handed over the charge of his business to him and also gifted him a Chevrolet
truck. With this same truck, Shri K.K. Shah and his friend Balubhai started a transport
business in 1950. In the name of Balubhai Kunverji & Co. This was the beginning of his
journey in the transport industry as an entrepreneur. In 1952, Shri K.K.Shah launched his
own company in the name of Kunverji K. Shah and Co. along with his brothers. The
company was doing local transport business between Mumbai and western suburbs upto
Dahisar.
Birth of VTC: These were the days of tremendous hardship were in there were no roads and
bridges between Mumbai and Gujarat. There were very few petrol pumps and hotels on the
way and absolutely no source of communication. When the trucks broke down, the owners
used to go to the site with the mechanics all the way from Mumbai to get them repaired.
Highway robberies were a common feature and police support was also negligible. However
amongst all these adversities, Mr. K.K.Shah and his brother V.K.Shah not only started a
transportation company by the name of Vijay Transport Company (VTC) in 1958, but also
became the first from their community to have a successful transportation business.
During that period, traders were not used to handing over their costly goods to transporters in
exchange for no more than a paper receipt. However, the Shah brothers of VTC were so
persuasive that they could soon win over the confidence of these traders and could seed the
idea of taking the benefit of road transportation through VTC. At times the promoters
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compensated the full value to the consignors immediately in case of loss or damage to the
materials. This spread goodwill for the organisation and a relationship was thus established
with the trader community. Soon there were several branches of VTC at Ahmedabad, Baroda,
Bhuj, Rajkot & Jamnagar in Gujarat.
VTC became the first choice of several large industrial and trading houses of Saurashtra and
Kutch for transporting their goods to Mumbai and back. Special care was taken by VTC to
ensure damage free and timely deliveries and this became a major breakthrough in the
transportation business, which took the company into a much higher league. Top
manufacturers of Mumbai like Godrej & Boyce, Bata shoes, Asian Paints, Asbestos Cement,
British Paints, Colgate, Zandu Pharma, Johnson & Johnson etc. commissioned VTC to carry
their material to Gujarat.
While the concept of door to door delivery and just in time services came into India in 1980s.
VTC had tested these concepts in 1960s with its new Mango Special Services. It started
transporting Mangoes a perishable item from Mumbai to the remotest places in Kutch
during the whole summer season. Whatever were the number of cases, more or less, they got
delivered in stipulated time of 2 4 days.

nd

VTC and the next generation entrepreneurs: In 1969, the 2

generation entered the
business when Mr Ashok Shah the eldest son of Mr.K.K.Shah joined the company. Slowly
and steadily, in 1975, younger sons of Mr. K.K.Shah , Mahendra and Hasmukh also joined
the same business. Mr. V.K.Shahs son, Rajesh too joined the organisation and started
contributing actively in the day to day running of the business. With fresh management ideas
and enthusiasm, the company stabilized its business and branches were made self-sufficient.
It then went in a big way in fleet expansion and trucking business. Thus VTC trucks were
prominently seen on the Mumbai - Gujarat highway. VTC had to go through tough times in
1970s when there was a major labour strike and the city of Mumbai came to a stand still for
about 20 days. Also the city then witnessed a heavy recession due to which VTC had no
enough loads from Mumbai to Gujarat.
However the endeavour of the owners did not stumble the company during this phase. In
1978 the reins of the entire business was then handed over to Mr. Ashok Shah by the older
generation.
From 1980 onwards, it started owning properties in various prime locations at Mumbai and
Gujarat. They added many branches to the network by which, the company covered the entire
Golden Corridor (Gujarat Industrial Estate) and became the undisputed prime transporter on
this belt. In 1980s VTC was one of the few companies to have computerised operations in the
transportation sector. The company then got converted itself into a private limited company.
The decade of 1980 was a year of consolidation and the company got equipped with modern
techniques and management processes to face the challenges of the competitive environment.

Professionalism in VTC: In the 1990s the company shifted its focus to professionalism and
made experts in the field of transport and logistics join the company. The organisation was
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earlier scattered into eight separate businesses and legal entities, where now consolidated in
to a single entity namely Vijay Transport Company(VTC). With the advent of professionals a
process of Review Meetings and MIS Reports began in the company giving the detailed
information about the business at regular points in time. The company then started focusing
and measuring both quantity and quality of the business. There was a change in the attitude of
the organisation from just doing business to doing business with customer as the focus. The
organisation was divided into regions which were sub divided into areas. Each director
was assigned a region to ensure smooth running of the same. However, core activities like
HRD, Compliance, Finance & IT were managed by the Corporate office in Mumbai.

VTC out of the comfort zone and birth of V Group: Till 1995 the company had gained
huge control on the business in the Maharashtra and Gujarat area. In 1996 it ventured out of
this area by tying up with M/s Prakash Parcel Service Ltd., one of the top service providers
for the north south region to become their Gujarat partners, thus starting services between
South and Gujarat. The decade of 2000 saw a geographical expansion which took the
company to newer heights. 70 offices were opened in the south zone and the zone joined
Maharashtra in their expansion spree. In Dec. 2002 the company set foot in the north by
opening its first branch in Delhi. They also wanted to convey their emerging mindset towards
globalisation to the world and therefore took the bold step of changing its identity from a 44
year old traditionally popular name Vijay Transport Co. Ltd. to V Group.
V-Xpress - Door to door, Time bound service for just in time needs: With economic
reforms introduced during 1991, around the year 2000, the economy could see the growth in
the country. The consequent trade growth acted as the primary growth driver for the Express
industry. The growth in mall culture and boom in the retail sector augmented the need for
these services. The characteristics of these services were door to door pick up and on
time committed delivery. V-Trans group identified this need and also decided to introduce
this business vertical separately within the infrastructure & operational facilities of V-Trans.
The Group thus gave birth to three separate business divisions under its umbrella V Trans
catering to hard freight surface transport, V-Xpress catering to time bound door to door
parcel service and V Logis catering to warehousing and inventory management experts.
Between 2002 to Sept. 2007 the division did Express business with modest success but could
not mark their presence as a serious business player. Since this Express business was rapidly
growing the Board of Directors of V-Trans analysed the reason for its slow growth to lack of
laser sharp focus. They took a decision to hive off the Express staff and facilities in a true
sense under the leadership of Mr. Ashok Shah and also decided to appoint a separate CEO,
and thereby appointed Mr. O P Harshwal to head the same.
Mr. O.P.Harshwal, a Chartered Accountant, Company Secretary and a Law graduate by
qualification, believed in brick and mortar business. His idea of doing business was to
concentrate more on the deliverables rather than publicity and branding. He was of the
opinion that ones work should speak for oneself. An introvert by nature, he believed in

doing things and always had an ambition to become CEO of a company before the age of 40.
He got this opportunity in the transport sector.
Another corporate office at CBD Belapur was formed to carry out the Express business. From
Oct. 2007 to 2011 the company had to set up proper operational hubs, branches and evolve
standard operating processes. Accordingly to strengthen systems and processes the company
got ISO certification in 2008.
Since in Express business cargo, time is the essence of the contract, V-Xpress had to deliver
material with capacity or without capacity to maintain the time commitment and therefore it
had to incur heavy losses till it developed loads to fill its capacity to optimum level. Also the
challenge was that during this period there were number of companies which mushroomed in
this area of business such as Relogistic (Reliance group), Gammon India, Deccan 360
(Deccan Airline group), Aditi, First Flight, Promto (SER group), ASL, Future group,
Kingfisher, DTDC, RCPL, EXL. However service commitment could not be kept by them.
Operational failures like shortages, damages and delay in delivery were common with all the
operators. Unfortunately all the above companies had to close their business due to losses.
Losses were generated due to increasing costs along with lower capacity utilisation. Business
of V-Xpress also slowed down. By 2009 many of them faded except for few giants like Gati
and Safe Express. But V-Xpress was not ready to accept any failure and the management
therefore decided to come up with ways to improve their business
Understanding the Express business: Express Cargo business is different than the normal
hard freight transport business. Therefore V Group management thought of understanding it
clearly and then changing the equations of the game.
What do the Express customers need?
- Products should reach the destination on Time
- Products should reach safely without shortages and damages
- Transparency in transactions during the movement of the goods
V-Xpress identified the needs of the customers and dealt with each of the areas to reach its
way to being the top player in this market.
Just in TIME cargo:
Earlier whenever there was a delay in consignment it was always considered as an
operational failure and the entire blame was put on operations department. No specific hub or
branch person was held accountable for this failure. And therefore no specific corrective
action could be taken to correct the failure. The team of V-Xpress therefore sat together and
bifurcated each movement of the goods into stages making one person responsible for each
stage and also setting targets for each stage as a measure of effective control.

Following were the stages of each activity from the Door to - Door delivery.
Stage 0
The customer calls at the branch for pick up. The branch staff gets the pick request which
will have pick up address, the name of the person placing such request, destination to deliver
and the items to pick up. The branch staff passes on this information to V-Xpress Associate
(VA) and sends him for pick up. The VA picks up the material, fills in a docket and collects
necessary documents. The VA brings the material to the branch and deposits it at the branch.
Stage 1
Goods collected at the branches are moved to booking hubs (hubs are locations where goods
start their journey towards their final destination) through Feeder vehicles. The goods
should move out of the branches and reach the hubs every day before 12 a.m. The branch
managers are responsible for this movement. The IT system captures this movement.
Target: 95% of the goods received should move out of Branches before the scheduled time.
Stage 2
Unloading of the goods from the Feeder vehicle is done at the booking hub. The hub
manager along with the loading/unloading staff, start their job as soon as the vehicles reach
the hub. The IT system captures the unloading done at the booking hub by the hub manager
accepting the goods against the docket number in the system.
Target: All the goods which leave the branch should reach the hub and the goods should
be unloaded by 2.00 a.m.
Stage 3
After the goods are unloaded at the hub, they are sorted according to their destination address
and then loaded on to Line Haul route vehicles for their final destination. The hub manager
has to examine that all unloaded goods are loaded on these vehicles and they move out of the
hub before 9.00 am.
Target: All route vehicles should leave before 9.00 a.m. with 80% stock available on the
day leaving the Hub.
Stage 4
This stage now captures the beginning of the movement of Line Haul vehicles towards
destination between 5 -9 a.m. The information system also captures the movement of
Crossing stock (goods received from across the state/city) and Booking stock (goods received
from within the state/city). This helps the management to understand the lapse in the
movement of the goods each day.
Once the route vehicle reaches the delivery hub then the unloaded material should be
collected from delivery hub to the delivery branch through the Feeder vehicle before 8:00
am.
Target: 90% of the goods received at the delivery hub for the delivery should move before
8.00 a.m.

Stage 5
Stage 5 consolidates service level from stage 0 to stage 4. In short it gives the target
achievement of the operations team which picks the material from the customer till the
delivery branch.
Target: Service level to the extent of 85% from consignor to delivery branch is required to
be maintained.
Stage 6
From the Delivery branch to the consignee is the responsibility of the delivery team. During
this stage the goods from the delivery hub reach the final destination branch. From the
branches the VAs deliver the goods to the final customers. The VAs through their mobile
phones scan Proof of Delivery (POD) with signature of the receiving customer. Once it is
scanned, the picture is uploaded on the system which is visible on the website on real time
basis. Necessary documents and balance payment if any is collected and deposited at the
branch by these VAs. The EProof of Delivery (E-POD)(Exhibit 3) generated through mobile
phones for instant consignment delivery helps in avoiding delays in receivables.
Target: Delivery to the extent of 80% of goods received at the branches should happen on
the same day.
Stage 0
VA picks up the
material from
customers door
and deposits it at
the branch
Stage 6
VAs delivering the
material at the
doors of the
customer

Stage 1
Goods move from
the branches to the
booking hubs
hrough Feeder
vehicles

Stages of
Door to Door
delivery by
V-Xpress

Stage 5
Consolidation of
services outcome
from customer's
pick up til the
delivery branch

Stage 4
Movement of
goods from
Delivery Hub to
Delivery Branch

Stage 2
Goods unloaded
from the Feeder
vehicles at the
Booking Hubs

Stage 3
Goods are sorted
and Loaded on Line
Haul vehicles

Use of Information and Technology could give the real time data making it easy to put a
check on the movement to ensure delays in timely delivery. It helped the company to have
seamless access to relevant information and data from the network of interconnected hubs.
Virtual Private Network (VPN) ensured total connectivity across all the computerised
locations. Their online ERP system eCargo developed on the latest .NET technology and
customised to suit their needs captured the complete operation at all stages of transportation
right from booking upto its delivery. Real time information updates using SMS and emails
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are sent to the customers. Instant web based tracking and tracing the consignment status at
any given point of time was done through their ERP system. The major hubs used
Mechanized Handling Equipment (MHEs) for efficient operations that drastically reduce
vehicular turnaround time and transit time. Along with hi-tech technology and putting
responsibility of delay in movement of the goods at each stage, making those people
accountable helped V-Xpress to achieve 80% of deliveries on time, every time, which is
considered to be one of the best in the industry.
However it was further noticed that 5% - 10% of the late deliveries were due to
documentation problems relating to sales tax forms, entry tax, transit passes and other
statutory regulations fixed by various state authorities. To mitigate these problems the
management started the process of collecting all the necessary samples of documents and
making a Documentation Series which were then used for training operational and sales
employees through various games and training programs. Even programs for VAs were also
being organised as these people collect and deliver the goods and are the face of V-Xpress.

rd

As the company was strengthening its internal processes, Vishal, son of Ashokbhai, the 3
generation entrepreneur joined V-Xpress in 2010-11. A graduate from R. A. Podar College of
Commerce & Economics, Mumbai and a MBA in Family Managed Business at S.P.Jain
Institute of Management, Mumbai, he had worked with MNCs. After getting a flavour of
MNC style of working, he plunged into the family run business and started sharing
responsibilities with Harshwal in V-Xpress. Ashokbhai, Vishal should oversee the business
at V-Xpress along with me was Harshwals opinion on Vishals induction into the business.

But Ashokbhai remarked Harshwalji, he has to learn about the business and gain lot of
experience to oversee it. Let him get a hang of all the departments and understand how each
of them functions and how they co-relate with each other, only then will he be able to grasp
the complexities of this business So Vishal joined the business as a Manager and was
given the responsibility of dealing with key customer accounts. Over a period of time due to
his increasing hunger for wanting to learn the traits of the business and his serious
involvement in the business he was then assigned the responsibility to handle key areas of VXpress like Sales, Marketing, Human Resource and Finance. This rotation within the
departments made Vishal a pro at the Express business in a short span of time. He was
available to resolve issues 24X7 and thus became one of the core team members during the
whole process of introducing IT solutions in the business. Thus with the new generation, new
ideas and new zeal V-Xpress went ahead to deal with its next hurdle of Shortages.
Zero SHORTAGES - A Call For Action:
The Express Cargo business got defined at V-Xpress in the following manner:
Express Cargo business is all about carrying materials like consumer durables, electronic
items and goods which are expensive. A premium is charged for delivering these goods safely
and timely to its destination. V-Xpress wanted to assure their clients of not only timely but
safe delivery of the goods. They belonged to an industry which assumed that

shortages of goods on delivery was inevitable and cannot be curbed, specifically when the
goods were of expensive and attractive nature.
V-Xpress thus declared a new call for action: the call was Zero shortage by 2014. In this
declaration a whole process began to evolve. Earlier, during the time of loading and
unloading, goods were checked by the security which was largely outsourced. However this
did not solve the problem of shortages. Therefore the management of V-Xpress thought of
taking some stringent steps. They employed and built up an in house security team. At the
Head office they installed 24X7X365 monitoring teams working in shifts to do constant
monitoring of the loading and unloading of the goods at all the hubs. The Centralised Control
Room was equipped with state of the art monitoring surveillance and incident management
technologies and was manned by trained personnel round the clock. Cameras and Cctvs
(Exhibit 2) were installed at all the hubs by which the monitoring could be done at HO.
Coded steel seals were put on the door of the trucks carrying goods. The branch receiving the
goods received the code on the THC (Trip Hire Challan prepared by the Hub) which was
checked with the code on the seal and the seal could only be cut by a heavy metal cutter kept
at each branch. The management came very strongly on shortages and did not allow any truck
to move from the place where shortages were noticed. Loading reports were sent by the On
Duty Security to the Head Security at HO. Real time solutions where offered by the
operating people and the shortage department to resolve shortage issues. If shortages were
identified, then the person responsible for the same was given sufficient time to explain the
error, failing which he had to bear the damages. This caused a lot of iteration in the company,
but the seriousness of the management on the shortages got deeply rooted amongst the
employees. Changing the mindset of people and making them believe that the deliveries can
be shortage free was difficult but finally achieved to the extent of 100% by V-Xpress by
September 2014.
TRANSPARENCY key to Customer Retention:
Ashokbhai along with Harshwalji were of the firm opinion that Transparency in dealings
would only be brought if technology was used to the maximum extent. Information
Technology thus enabled the regional offices of V-Xpress to instantly update the customer
information thereby providing maximum support to the customers. A dedicated team of IT
professionals was always available to manage the operations and provide optimum support to
the customers. Due to information technology, customers could track the movement of their
goods at a click of a button. However if the customers had any query regarding their goods or
its delivery, they raised it at the pickup branch first. The branch personnel then took it up with
the respective hub or the delivery branch through emails. Earlier these emails were not
responded diligently by the hub/ branch heads. This led to miscommunication or noncommunication which de motivated the people sending these emails. Therefore, an
indigenous system of Ticketing was developed to tackle this problem. It is a detached
platform of communication across the organization. Anywhere anytime somebody facing a
challenge in delivering services, can raise a ticket as per the prescribed format and assign it to
the person responsible to provide its solution. Under this system there are 32 types of pre
8

defined problems which can be raised on a responsible person. Standard templates for asking
queries are generated through the system.
Responsible person called the Parent needs to resolve the issue within a predetermined
timeframe or else the query gets escalated to the top management automatically. Further at
HO, the ticketing cell ensured that the ticketing system functioned effectively. In case of any
deviation the ticketing cell intervened and got the resolution from the parent. Ticketing
system was directly monitored by the CEO on daily basis. This system was efficiently used
and appreciated by the employees of V-Xpress. With the ticketing system the person raising
the query and the person answering it were only identified by their docket numbers.
Therefore they got viable answers, thus felt motivated and empowered. Unanswered queries
got escalated and these escalated issues would then be answered by the parent in the Zero
Hour meeting.
Zero hour meeting is held at the corporate office under the guidance of the CEO along with
the whole operation team. It is for giving speedy resolution for critical deliveries. All
customer care executives are free to raise their issues in the meeting and get instinct
resolution to their problems. It enabled them to provide faster service to their clients.
The issues of Timely delivery, transparent dealings and Zero Shortages were accomplished
by V-Xpress but Harshwal and Ashok bhai along with Vishal were wondering how they
could capture the next frontier, Zero damages
With an organisation of 1000 people, where each consignment passed physically through
more than 20 hands while moving door to door, it was indeed a huge challenge!

KEY DELIVERABLES:

Marketing strategy for increasing share of retail business from existing share

Competitor Analysis: Gati & Safexpress and Spoton

Market entry strategy for E-commerce logistics market with total solutions approach

METHODOLOGY TO BE FOLLOWED:

Weight age will be given to adequate rigor employed in the case. Expert interviews,
depth interviews & focus groups are some of the tools that can be employed.
Solutions will be judged based on feasibility and application
Do-not exceed 8 slides (excluding cover page)
Creative renditions, if any, to be highlighted
Video(s) to be separately sent in .mp4 or .wmv format only

For more information, refer the exhibits.