Rohit Singh, CEO & MD, Daakiyaa Marketing & Logistics took the initiative last year by signing a pact with Bangalore based Urban Ladder to empower more women in the logistics industry. In an interview with Jasleen Kaur, he shares the initiatives taken by Daakiyaa, saying that this pact will create lots of opportunities for women in the industry.
What prompted you to tie up with Urban Ladder for hiring women in logistics industry? How do you think that this initiative will help the employment of women in the male-dominated industry? Daakiyaa symbolises the shift from ‘logistics’ to ‘customer experience’. We bring the last mile connect in delivery by educating and engaging with customers. Women have a knack for connecting with people and we were sure from the beginning that at Daakiyaa, women will play a very important role in creating the desired last mile connect. In the current business scenario, all male-dominated bastions are breaking and stereotypes are being removed. As women get more and more empowered, traditional industries, which have proven to be a roadblock for women, are becoming more receptive to having women in their workforce. Traditionally, women were never the front-runners in the logistics industry but we are sure that our success with this initiative will help open up more opportunities for women in the industry.
How do you find the current situation of women in the logistics industry? Is the logistics sector still male-dominated or do you have seen any increase in the number of women in logistics? The logistics industry is still completely male dominated with women being less than one per cent of the current work force. Overall, there hasn’t been much of a change in the situation for women in the industry.
What are the opportunities for women in logistics? Like every other sector in the country, logistics industry is going through a metamorphosis of sorts. Women as a workforce can’t be ignored in the current dynamic business scenario. We need to understand and respect the strengths women bring to the table and create ways to integrate these strengths into a larger business plan. Daakiyaa is an equal opportunity employer and we believe the productivity is not determined by the sex of the person but the expertise of the person. Apart from the back-end operations like analytics and route planning which traditionally women have been a part of, Daakiyaa has opened doors for women to lead the front-end as well in the logistics industry. There are challenges in the receptiveness of such a service but we are invested in making this a success, as we understand that challenges are faced by the first-movers in any industry.
How one can assist women to build a professional career in logistics? Is there lack of support from educational institutes to promote the industry to women? The industry is just warming up to the presence of women in the workforce. Unfortunately, at present, there are no educational institutions assisting women in making a career in the logistics industry. Daakiyaa has introduced a completely new concept wherein logistics is not just the movement of a package from point A to point B, it is a complete education & engagement concept which requires customer service & engagement skills. For the skill sets we need, we find that hospitality & air-hostess training institutes can come in handy towards training women for the required soft skills.
How to make the industry more accessible and attractive to women? The key challenge for women in this industry pertains to their safety concerns. We have created and enforced SOPs to ensure a safe and secure working environment for them.