An Invisible Reality of Truckers in Bengal—A Field Based Study Report

The industry of roadway is renowned as a strong pillar in the world of transportation. Lots of studies are already done regarding the roadway transport and it related population in various aspects. However, nothing any specific study has been done to reflect the state of the truckers related to long distance driving in West Bengal. This study has bounded in the logistic hub namely region of Calcutta-Mumbi Tuck Terminal Ltd. (In a side of NH-6), West Bengal, India and its surrounding area. During this study it’s observed that most of the truckers are “Upper primary to Secondary (Class-V to Class-X)” qualified and “29 to 39” years aged people. It’s also noticed that they are here in this profession from “6 to 10” years. The statistical databases also indicating that highest percentage of truckers are able to drive “7 to 12” hours in a day (at a time) and mostly of the truckers do it “30 days to 90 days” in a year. However, it is also observed that with the respect of capacity of driving “Year of experience” and “Capacity of driving” both issues are related but not inter-depending.

million as of March 31, 2013" (Note 2), it's not a small number in population diagram of India.
Nowadays, "India's vehicle population is 1% of the global vehicle population" (Note 3). Definitely, many initiatives are already done from state, national and global level to improve the roadway industry including the livelihood of it related population. In the country like India, profession of driving renowned as an outstanding occupation among economically marginalized population. The population "… is estimated that over 20 million people are employed in various segments of trucking operations" (Note 4). Categorically two different kinds of truckers are observing, i.e., one who involve to drive the truck in between city or state, basically this type of truckers are continuing their profession from their home address, and the another one is involve to drive the truck in long distance, one state to another state or country. The Core objective of this study is to present a brief picture on the life of truckers who covering the journey between two states. The terminology of "long distance trucker" has interpret as "Trucks covering more than 800 kms one way would be termed as long distance trucks" (Note 5). "The total number of registered vehicles in India was 173 million as of March 31, 2013" (Note 6). A huge number of people are involved in the sector of truck driving but still have not any clear record of the inter city or state and in-between state drivers in India. During the field intervention of this study it seemed that they have driving license and life insurance but haven't any authentic evidence to justify their servicing status. In fact, lot of studies are already done regarding the health and hygienic perspective of truckers in different angle, throughout this study it's trying to represent a unseen reality of the people renowned as long distance trucker.
A fieldwork conducted from 11 th June 2008 to 10 th August 2008 under title of "Conducting A Mapping

Study Of Long Distance Truck Driver Halt Points And Identifying Transport Sector Stakeholders Who
Can Carry Out HIV Prevention Interventions Among The long Distance Truck Drivers" by Social and Rural Research Institute (RRI), IMRB International, it reflecting from the report of above mention field work that "... more than 4/5th of the respondents were currently married and living with wife whereas 17% of the respondents were never married. A small proportion (1%) of the respondents was divorced/separated/deserted or were widower" (Note 7). and "4/5th of the respondents reported that they could read and write whereas only 6% respondents reported that they could read but not write.
14% of the respondents could not read as well as write. Out of those respondents who could read or write, around 3/5th were those who had completed their primary education. Another 32 percent of the respondents were in the category Class I-Class V" (Note 8)-defiantly it is the brief scenario of India.
Underway of current study namely "An invisible reality of truckers in Bengal-A field based study report" it is trying to reflect the state of truckers in logistic hub of "Calcutta-Mumbai Pvt.ltd" and it Published by SCHOLINK INC. also clear from above mention report that "Calcutta-Mumbai Truck Terminal Ltd", situated at Sankrial, Howrah, West Bengal (Dhulagarh, NH-6) is capable to provide the facilities like warehouses for storing goods, loading and unloading, weighbridges, rest rooms for drivers and cleaners, entertainment hall, restaurants, etc. for 1,000 trucks at a time.

Research Methodology
Research designing is the spirit of successful research. In this study, the process of research had designed under following procedure:

Geographical Limitation
The geographical limitation of this study has bounded in the logistic hub namely region of Calcutta-Mumbi Tuck Terminal Ltd. (In a side of NH-6), West Bengal, India and its surrounding area.

Age Group of Respondents
No age barrier.

Data Collection and Analysis Process
The methodology of data collection, analysis and interpretation is processed as follows:

Data Collection
The study is depending on primary and secondary both database and collection process has been processed through below mention protocols: 2.3.1.1 Primary Data Primary database has been collected throughout personal interview: 1) Sample size: Collected primary data from 300 respondents.

2) Sampling technique:
Based on the objective of study and state of data liner snowball sampling technique has been selected as method of primary data selection.
3) Process of data collection: Primary data collection in this study executed through two different processes as follows: a) Interview: Personal interview has been utilized to collect the data, it's done under following manners. b) Questionnaire pattern: Open and closed both types of questions are there in questionnaire.

Secondary Data
No one can enable to elaborate a good report without the intervention of secondary database. In this study secondary data has been collected from the following procedure: 1) Literature review: Existing evidence, different journal literature, magazine, newspaper, book as well as ancient manuscript, etc., are renowned as the best source of secondary database.
2) Web searching: Web searching is a strong way of secondary data collection and its used in this study.

3) Technique of data management:
The methodology called hermeneutics has been used in this study as a method of secondary data collection. The word Hermeneutics came from the name of Greek God Hermes, the messages of the Gods. In the current context, hermeneutics has described as the interpretation and understanding of ancient literature. Hermeneutics methodology is widely applied in www.scholink.org/ojs/index.php/jar Hans-Georg Gadamer, Paul Ricoeur, and Jacques Derrida.
The perception of hermeneutic is defined as "Interpretation, in the sense relevant to hermeneutics, is an attempt to make clear, to make sense of an object of study. This object must, therefore, be a text, or a text-analogue, which in some way is confused, incomplete, cloudy, seemingly contradictory-in one way or another, unclear. The interpretation aims to bring to light an underlying coherence or sense" (Taylor, 1976, p. 153).
Process of hermeneutic cycle is as the following figure:

Figure 1. Hermeneutic Cycle
Ven Manen (1990Manen ( , 1997, suggested that there is no fixed set of methods to conduct qualitative of research. Recommend data had processed uncovering the thematic aspects by van Manen (1997). Data analysis process often performed applying the hermeneutic cycle that constitutes of reading, reflective writing and interpretation in a rigorous fashion (Laverty, 2003).

Data Tabulation, Compilation and Analysis
Data tabulation and analysis is also a major part of study, on this regards different kind of statistical tools, i.e., Table, Pie chart, Bar chart etc. has been used to describe the result and conclusion.

Data Intervention
Here in this study, it's try to highlighted the working experience, age, capability to drive and time duration to spend without family in a year, etc. of the truckers who come from different states. Apart from statistical database it is also bring notated that most of the truckers in hub of Calcutta-Mumbai Pradesh, Uttarakhand and Madhra Phrases, etc. been observed during study.
In the time of personal intervention with truckers it noticed that the position of truck is renowned as a mini home in their life. During the long journey they cooked and sleep on truck but absenteeism of medical facility, safe cooking zoon, restroom, etc. are carrying big problem to conduct long journey.
Although, below mention tables and charts are representing feature of the life of "long distance trucker".

. Age Group of Truckers
It is clear from Table 1 and Figure 2 that major numbers of truckers belonging from "29 to 39" years age group, i.e., 114 (38%). And 111 (37%) truckers out of 300 (100%) truckers are belong from the age group of "40 to 50" years. Apart from above numbers of truckers 44 (15%) truckers are from "18 to 28" years age group and 30 (10%) are from "51>" age group. However, during the study just single one respondent was found under the age group of "<18", therefore the category of "<18" age group is "0".  Total-300 100  Figure 3 have been indicating the working experience of truckers. On this regards it is observed that major number of truckers, i.e., 102 (34%) are involved with this profession from "6 to 10" years. Respectively 61 (20%) truckers are there with "11 to 15" years experience of driving, 53 (18%) truckers are with "16 to 20" years experience, 44 (15%) with "Up to 5" years, 26 (9%) truckers with "21 to 25" years and lastly 14 (5%) truckers are assured that they have " 25>" years experience.    Figure 4 related to the compilation between age of the truckers and years of experience of truck driving. Here in this table it is trying to figure-out the top age group with the respect of working experience and similarly top experience holder in every age group. On this regards it is observing that among the total number of respondents, i.e., 300 truckers, only 44 truckers (15%) are there with "Up to 5" years experience category and among this 44 truckers major number of truckers are belonging from age group of "18 to 28" years. Out of 300 respondents (100%), 102 truckers (34%) are there with "6 to 10" years working experience in driving and among these 102 truckers major number of truckers, i.e., 55 truckers are belong from the age of "29 to 39". According to above mention table and Figure 61 out of 300 trucker are assured that they have "11 to 15" years working experience as truck driver and among this 61 trucker major number of truckers, i.e., 24 are under the age group of "29 to 39" and "40 to 50" respectively. In the category of "16 to 20" years truck driving experience major number of truckers, i.e., 26 out of 53 (18% of total) are belonging from "40 to 50". Among the 300 truckers only 26 and 14 truckers are there with "21 to 25" years and "25>" years working experience in driving and out of this 26 (9%) and 14 (5%) major numbers of truckers are belonging from the age group of "40 to 50" years. The remarkable point is truckers with 11 years above experiences are mostly renowned from the age group of "40 to 50" years.

Figure 3. Working Experience of Truckers
With the respect of age group of truckers it's seemed that only 1 trucker is there under the age of 18 years. Only 44 (15%) out of 300 truckers are from the age group of "18 to 28" and among this 44 truckers major number of truckers, i.e., 23 are there with "Up to 5" working experience. Similarly among the total number of truckers, i.e., 144 (38%) out of 300 truckers in the age group of "29 to 39" and 111 (37%) out of 300 truckers in the age group of "40 to 50" years, major number of truckers, i.e., 55 and 34 truckers are there with "6 to 10" years truck driving profession. Lastly among the 30 (10%) truckers out of 300 (100%) truckers in the age group of "51>" and major number of people, i.e., 24 with "16 to 20" and "21 to 25" years driving experience in truck.

Figure 5. Academic Level of Truckers
On the issue of educational level of truckers, it is seeking from above mention table (Table 4 and Figure 5) that major number of truckers 143 (48%) out of 300 are "Upper primary to Secondary" level educational based. Respectively 119 (40%) truckers are from "Up to Primary", 27 (9%) truckers from "Upper Secondary to Higher", 3 (10%) truckers are from "Higher Secondary to under graduation" and just sing one trucker is there with "Above under graduation" level of educational background.

Figure 6. Yearly Out of Home Experience of Trucker (At a Time)
On the issue of the time spend out of home in a year (At a time) it is noticed from Table 5 and Figure 6 that among the total number of respondents, i.e., 300 major number of truckers, i.e., 196 (65%) are assured that they spend the out of home life "30 days to 90 days" in a year. Similarly 81 (27%) truckers are therewith "91 days to 180 days", 14 (5%) truckers are "181 days to 270 days" and 9 (3%) truckers are spending "271 days to 365 days" out of home in a year for driving.  12" hours in a day. Respectably on the basis of the response of the respondents 78 (26%) truckers able to drive "Up to 6", 54 (18%) truckers are able "19 to 24" hours and 37 (12%) truckers are able to drive "13 to 18" hours in a day.

Figure 8. Age V/S No. of Days Out of Home (Yearly)
To represent the out of home experience in a year with the respect of age group is the main concern of Table 7 and Figure 8. It is clear from above mention table and chart that the tendency of "30 days to 90 days" out of home is high among every age group. It means that the maximum truckers are not comfortable to prefer out of home life above "30 days to 90 days". On this regards the trend is high in every age group. Among the 300 truckers 196 (65%) truckers are assured that they spending out of home for "30 days to 90 days" in a year and among these 196 truckers 78 truckers are from the age group of "40 to 50". Respectively among the 81 (27%) truckers belong from the group "91 days to 180 days", 14 truckers (5%) are from "181 days to 270 days" and 9 (3%) truckers from "271 days to 365 days". In the category of "29 to 36" age group, i.e., 36 truckers out of 81 under "91 days to 180 days", 6 truckers out of 14 truckers under "181 days to 270 days" and 4 truckers out of 9 truckers under "271 days to 365 days" .

Figure 9. Year of Experience V/S Capacity of Driving (At a Time Hour in a Day)
Working experience of respondent and their ability to drive both are already discussed in Table 8 and Figure 9 respectively. Here in Table 8 is reflecting the driving ability of trucker with the respect of their experience. On this regards it's observing from above chart and table that most of the truckers who have "Up to 6" hours working ability are "6 to 10" years experience of driving. Out of 300 respondents 78 truckers from the category of "Up to 6" years experience and among this 78 truckers major number, i.e., 32 truckers are there in this profession from "6 to 10" years. Particularly truckers with "7 to 12" hours working ability are mostly belonging from "6 to 10" years experience category. Out of 300 respondents, 131 truckers are able to work "7 to 12" hours in a day and among this 131 truckers major number, i.e., 44 truckers are belonging from "6 to 10" years experience category. Out of the total number of respondents, i.e., 300 truckers 37 and 54 truckers are there with "13 to 18" hours and "19 to 24" hours working ability and among these 37 and 54 truckers major numbers of truckers are belonging from "13 to 18" and "19 to 24" hours working ability category.
It is also reflecting from above table that with the respect of capacity of driving among highest influential people is 54 (out of 300 truckers) who able to driving "19 to 24" hours in a day without any brake. With the respect of this only 7 truckers out of these 54 are there with 25 years above driving experience, where major number of people are from "6 to 10" years experience are 13 (out of 54 truckers). It means with the respect of capacity of driving, experiences and driving abilities are related bout not inter dependant. However on the basis of working experience of truckers it is observing that among the total number of highly experienced truckers, i.e., 14 out of 300 truckers in the category of "25>" only 7 truckers out of these 14 are there with top ability to drive, i.e., 19 to 24 hours. On this regards it's clear that based on driving experience "Year of experience and capacity of driving" is not only inter connected, even both are inter dependent.