The approach to a Transport Nagar is a distinctive one, with smell of diesel and dust engulfing it and long queues of parked trucks outside with faded and dented bodies narrating a story of their long arduous journeys. Our visit to Transport Nagar, Pahadi, Patna in Bihar was no different and matched the scene with familiar landscape. We walked the maze of noise and pollution, with the marks of tyre tracks crisscrossed the muck on an uneven ground, to find out about well-being of drivers. What initially seemed like a harsh journey surprisingly unfolded into a pleasant experience, buoyed by the positive feedback we received about the Healthcare Centre.
At a distance, we spotted a group of transgender volunteers conducting an awareness session for the truck drivers and their helpers, explaining the importance of condom usage and distributing pamphlets in the local language as reminders of the conversations.
Beside the canopy stood a tea stall vendor, who had been at the same corner for nearly a decade, knowing drivers by their names. As he poured tea from one tumbler to the other to create froth before serving, we asked him about his customers’ healthy habits. He shared with us that he often encouraged the drivers and his other customers to visit the Healthcare Centre to promote health awareness. When drivers, mechanics, helpers gathered for their ritual sweet ‘chai’ break, and a brief camaraderie before setting off on their long journeys, he nudged them to visit the Apollo Tyres Foundation Healthcare Centre. He explained to us his reasoning “A healthy customer is more likely to continue visiting my tea stall”. The Centre is likely the only healthcare facility in the vicinity for the drivers as Hospitals are away from the Transport Nagars, so for us the location serves as a strategic spot offering various services for the Trucking Community.
We made our way down the dusty lanes past the welding sparks and repair shops, hoping to understand more about the health seeking behaviours of trucking community. Our next stop was at a Fleet owner’s shop along the way, where we learned about a free health checkup camp just a week earlier.
During the camp the drivers had been given healthcare card enabling them to seek treatment at any Centre along their routes in case of emergency. Our Foundation runs 34 Healthcare Centres across 21 States, offering services such as vision care, HIV-Aids and Tuberculosis awareness and treatment, non-communicable diseases treatment and generic health care assessments for the Trucking community.
In the course of our field visit, the Trucking Community provided the most positive feedback regarding the service and its accessibility. The extensive reach of our service coupled with its impact of touching over 12 million beneficiaries in the last 25 years is a significant milestone for us. Through our conversations, the Community suggested expanding service availability across all routes and eliminating an in person visit, wherever possible.
This feedback resonated with the findings of our White Paper Research “Truckers – the Backbone of Our Supply Chain”, released in October 2025, which highlighted key aspects of trucker’s lives, including the challenges faced by them on a day-to-day basis and the overall quality of their lives.
By focusing on building trust and strengthening the backbone of our supply chain, the study seeks to highlight actionable pathways that can improve the lives of truck drivers and the efficiency of the entire transport ecosystem.
Some key insights from the research reveal that medium to large fleet owners manage an average of 63 trucks each. This underscores the complexities in managing driver welfare, communication, dispute resolution, and compensation systems within the industry.
Notably, the survey also highlights the growing digital engagement within the trucking community, with 74% of drivers owning smartphones. This opens immense potential for leveraging technology to provide healthcare and support services on the move.
Drivers’ expectations from technology are clear: 74% expect access to medical assistance in transit, 72% seek rest area information, and 85% look for prompt emergency support, all facilitated through digital tools.
The insights derived from this research have also formed the basis for policy recommendations, which stakeholders and government bodies can use to develop effective strategies that will further improve the well-being and safety of India’s trucking community.
The launch of ‘Swasth Saarthi’ App, providing health care service at the fingertips of the driver is an outcome of this White Paper. The App is designed to provide truck drivers with medical support on the move. Key features of the App include video consultations with doctors and locating the nearest Apollo Tyres Healthcare Centre.
In the last 25 years, our Healthcare service has evolved and transformed from various consultations with its stakeholders to truly provide a positive impact for its key beneficiaries, the trucking community. Our work has been lauded by the Ministry of Health and Family Welfare given its unique model to serve the hard-to-reach population, mobile beneficiaries. Together, we continue to ‘Go The Distance’ and serve our key stakeholders.