LOTS (Lawyer on the spot) a product introduced by Lawyered, in partnership with AITWA for the welfare of the Transport and Logistics Industry, is on a mission to ensure that the drivers are empowered and get good treatment on the road this Driver’s Day which was on 17th September.
In India, truck drivers are probably the most unaware or uneducated group of people about their rights and laws, which benefits the personnel at the check posts and entry gates. The drivers here face severe legal and illegal issues, where the checker stops them at the checkpoint and checks them as if they are criminals while entering into a state. Personnel stop them at the gate for hours just to get some money, if any accident occurs on the road, truck drivers are always blamed and punished.
This Drivers Day on 17th of September, LOTS thanked the truck drivers for their service, work, and efforts they put into our well-being, mentioning their contribution to ensuring that essential goods were available during the covid pandemic, under extreme situations and the duration of being away from their family.
As per the data compiled by LOTS and the All India Transporters Welfare Association (AITWA), 99% of the transporters face legal issues while commuting on the road, with every second transporter facing traffic challans across the country. The common issues faced by the transporters from the calls received on LOTS were 60% for Traffic Challans, 54% for GST/ Eway bills, 53% for Accidents, 36% for Overload, 32% for Theft, and 26% for Document Validity.
“LOTS is our initiative to help the drivers who are suffering on the road while commuting and are forced to pay extra money in the name of taxes and tolls. We hope more transporters join this initiative and empower their drivers”, says Gautam Saraf, Chief Strategy Partner, LOTS.
LOTS (Lawyer on the spot) is on a mission to ensure that the drivers are empowered and get good treatment on the road. They are in an attempt to make the roads happier and more dignified for the Drivers. The Association (AITWA), along with Lawyered, a legal-tech company, had launched an on-road legal assistance service for truck drivers. The service, lawyer on the spot (LOTS), receives calls from drivers on the toll-free number 99-88-44-1033 whenever they face any issues on the road. LOTS received 6,920 incidents where drivers needed legal help on the road till August 2022.
To make this a success, LOTS is urging the logistics industry to extend the LOTS subscription to their drivers. Many transporters are joining the initiative and taking subscriptions to empower their drivers. Associations like AITWA, BGTA, and CGTA have already joined and are supporting the initiative.
Abhishek Gupta, general secretary of AITWA, says, “LOTS is an amazing theory and is needed because drivers are suffering on the roads, they are being forced to pay illegal taxes, wait for hours at the entry gates and checkpoints because they are unaware about their rights and laws. So LOTS is providing proper legal assistance to the drivers so that they don’t have to face any such issues on the road.”
“These officers forget that we provide them with meals at their home. If we stop transporting goods, no one can even eat a bite of food.” says a driver while talking about the problems they face. LOTS shared a video of the drivers sharing their problems, which was heartbreaking to hear. Among them, there was also a driver with a LOTS subscription and he describes how easy it is to commute on the roads as the problems are solved by LOTS (lawyer on the spot).
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