India’s highways need smarter freight infrastructure, not just smarter trucks

India’s highways need stronger safety infrastructure, smarter monitoring and better driver support to improve freight movement and reduce accidents.

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India’s highways are the backbone of the country’s freight economy, carrying nearly two-thirds of all cargo movement.

Yet, a growing pattern of roadside truck parking, unsafe halts, driver fatigue, infrastructure gaps and weak enforcement has exposed deep structural cracks in the nation’s logistics ecosystem. The recent Supreme Court observations in the Phalodi accident case have once again brought the spotlight on highway safety, illegal parking and the urgent need for systemic reforms.

Industry experts believe that while electrification and connected technologies can support safer freight movement, the problem is fundamentally larger. The solution, they argue, lies in combining infrastructure development, technology-led monitoring, stronger regulation, and driver welfare into one integrated framework.

“Connectivity exists on paper more than in practice. Despite the AIS-140 mandate requiring GPS, emergency buttons and real-time data connectivity, many commercial vehicles still lack end-to-end monitoring and tracking, leaving fleet managers with fragmented visibility,” says Alpna Jain, Co‑Founder & CBO of Drivn.

Limited telematics adoption

Agreeing that there is a clear gap between policy and on-ground reality, Praveen Pothumahanty, Partner, EY-Parthenon, says, “Telematics adoption is limited to large, organised fleets, covering features like real-time tracking, fuel monitoring, and driver behaviour analytics (currently available in newer models).”

With around 10 million trucks on its roads, Pothumahanty points out to the key smartness gaps in Indian trucks today. These include “no mandate to monitor compliance with hours-of-service (HOS) requirements (unlike EU/US); no mandatory electronic logging devices or tachographs linking driving hours to legal limits; absence of automatic alerts for stationary vehicles on highway shoulders; and limited adoption of ADAS — currently only seen in select newer models.”

Jain adds that in 2025, 88 per cent of fleets used telematics for safety, yet far fewer leverage the data deeply enough to anticipate unsafe behaviour. While indicating that highway parking incidents are largely avoidable, she says fatigue-driven stops, breakdowns from deferred maintenance and extortion-related unscheduled halts all have technology solutions. The gap is enforcement and data utilisation, not hardware.”

“Mature markets treat this as an infrastructure and compliance problem simultaneously,” adds Jain. In the US, the FMCSA (Federal Motor Carrier Safety Administration) mandates electronic logging devices on all commercial trucks subject to HOS rules, automatically recording driving and rest time with data accessible to law enforcement during inspections.

Mandatory rest periods

The EU’s tachograph system enforces mandatory rest periods across member states. European highway authorities have developed a tiered truck parking area framework with Level 5 facilities offering restaurants, secure parking, truck wash, and 24-hour services, creating commercial incentive for drivers to stop legally.

Australia enforces mandatory rest break legislation with roadside fatigue cameras. The common thread: mandated logging, designated infrastructure and technology-backed enforcement.

Reflecting that one of the major reasons for trucks stopping on highway shoulders is mechanical failure, Pothumahanty says EV trucks may indirectly enforce safer stopping behaviour. “EVs, with far fewer moving parts (no engine, gearbox, etc.), and supported by telematics-driven predictive maintenance, can reduce breakdowns by up to ~75 per cent.”

He adds that a shift to EV trucks also reduces noise, vibration and heat, thereby reducing driver fatigue and the urge to stop on highways. Moreover, charging infrastructure is location-based by design. Charging points function as designated stopping locations and the longer charging cycle (compared to the refuelling cycle) naturally enforces rest periods.

“EVs carry a structural compliance advantage here. With no need for engine idling, they eliminate a key driver of unsafe shoulder stops. More critically, EV fleets are purpose-built for telematics integration, enabling real-time enforcement of designated parking mandates,” adds Jain.

Judiciary in alignment

According to her, courts have already directed that “non-BS6 trucks be phased out of Delhi with EVs listed as a compliant alternative, indicating the judiciary’s alignment with electrification both as a safety and emissions solution.”

EV penetration, however, remains limited in India’s truck segment. In LCVs (trucks), e-trucks constituted 2.1 per cent of wholesale volumes in FY2026, with diesel-driven ICE trucks dominating the segment with 78 per cent penetration. Other powertrains such as CNG-LNG (13.9 per cent) and petrol (5.9 per cent) had higher penetration than e-trucks.

In the M&HCV (trucks) segment, diesel-driven ICE trucks have unequivocal dominance with 95.4 per cent penetration in FY2026, followed by by CNG-LNG driven vehicles with 4.4 per cent. E-trucks formed a paltry 0.2 per cent of segmental volumes in FY2026.

On the issue of infrastructure readiness, Ashwini Bagga, Road Safety Innovation Leader, says, “MoRTH and NHAI have proper guidelines for developing truck bays, bus shelters and wayside amenities on highways. “In many cases it has been seen that the facility had been constructed but is not functional.”

Secondly, he continues, other roadside establishments are not as per standards. Most of the time, they violate norms and also have illegal encroachment.

“Access to these establishments is not proper, hence they are unsafe to enter and exit. Adequate infra at regular intervals, regular operation or functioning and pocket-friendly prices is of great concern for commercial drivers,” adds Bagga.

Supreme Court’s directive

The Supreme Court has directed NHAI and MoRTH to construct truck lay-bye facilities every 75 km on all national highways, with all wayside amenity stations to include rest areas, food services, washrooms, safe parking, and first-aid facilities. The architecture already exists in policy.

“NHAI’s plan involves approximately 600 modern wayside amenity stations across 22 states, including multi-cuisine food courts, dormitories, medical clinics, and EV charging stations. The missing piece is speed of execution and private sector participation,” says Jain.

According to her, Integrated rest-cum-commercial hubs, designed around truck driver needs rather than passenger convenience, can absorb the dangerous informal stops that define India’s highway margins.

As of April 2025, 501 wayside amenities (WSAs) have been awarded with only 94 operational. Pothumahanty says the plan is to scale this to 700+ WSAs by FY29, but given ~146,000 km of highways, India would realistically need ~3,000 WSAs. He adds that the most viable model is an integrated freight services hub (IFSH), designed to address multiple needs at one location.

“Complete highway coverage using PTZ (pan-tilt-zoom) cameras with special focus on crash-prone areas and blackspots, satellite-based sensing to detect encroachments or illegal construction within the right of way (RoW), and vehicle-location tracking devices to identify illegally parked or halted vehicles are critical,” adds Bagga.

Identifying alarming situations

Advanced AI-based algorithms integrated with PTZ and other cameras can identify alarming situations such as illegal parking, movement of vulnerable road users, animals, crashes, or fires in real time, enabling faster intervention.”

“It is to be noted that the Government of India has issued regulations mandating advanced driver assistance systems (ADAS) for CVs, with the implementation of the same expected in a phase-wise manner starting from 2027,” said Kinjal Shah, Senior Vice President and Co-Group Head, Corporate Ratings, ICRA.

According to her, within ADAS, driver drowsiness and attention warning systems (DDAWS) are a core component which will be mandatorily installed once the rollout takes place”. Lane departure warning, automatic emergency braking and blind-spot detection are few of the other features of ADAS.

At the same time, notes Shah, the authorities and OEMs also remain aware of the price hikes that typically follow such regulatory interventions, with vehicle cost being a crucial factor in determining buying behaviour in “a cost-sensitive automotive segment like commercial vehicles”.

Deeply fragmented ecosystem

India’s trucking ecosystem also remains deeply fragmented. “Process fragmentation leaves fleet managers mired in bottlenecks, misplaced trailers, unverified handovers, and limited proof of movement, making it harder to fulfil commitments to customers,” explains Jain.

Unwarranted stoppages, driven by check post delays, extortion at state borders, and informal broker arrangements, remain endemic and largely unquantified. Long-haul drivers often equate telematics with surveillance and small-fleet owners view app-based freight platforms as threats to decades-old broker ties, slowing adoption of the very tools that could improve accountability. Downtime management is reactive, not predictive, she adds.

“Trucks in India typically cover 250–300 km/day versus global benchmarks of 500–800 km/day,” adds Pothumahanty. He points out that around 40 per cent of trips run empty, increasing both costs and emissions.

“Despite FASTag and ULIP (which addressed tax-related stoppages post-GST), trucks still lose 6–8 hours per trip due to manual processes. Ports continue to see dwell times of 3–4 days compared to global benchmarks of 1–2 days.”

Three-tiered roadmap

Pothumahanty believes that India needs a three-tiered roadmap to make its highways safer and smarter. Tier 1 should focus on mandating existing systems. “Ensure compliance with the recent Supreme Court ruling mandating ATMS deployment; but less than 10% of highways currently have full coverage.”

Tier 2 should involve digital HOS enforcement, ensuring strict enforcement of statutory HOS requirements, GPS-based driving logs (digital, not paper) and integration with ATMS.

Tier 3 should aim at building a fully connected ecosystem with mandatory real-time vehicle health telematics through OBD-II streaming, smart parking availability systems across WSAs, AI dashcams with fatigue detection for long-haul trucks, and single digital platform to integrate GPS, toll, ATMS, e-way bill data and WSA information.

Pothumahanty also recommends introduction of a mandatory electronic logging device (ELD) standard that continuously records driving hours, rest, speed, and location; tamper-proof and linked to VAHAN; automated compliance flags for enforcement authorities, and focus on predictive maintenance and vehicle health monitoring.

Dedicated trucker helpline

On the need for a dedicated trucker helpline, Jain says NHAI’s toll-free number 1033, launched in 2018, covers highway emergencies including accidents, breakdowns, and ambulance coordination but it serves all road users generically.

Organisations like the Indian Truck Drivers Welfare Consortium have built toll-free trucker-specific support lines and are engaged with NHAI on roadside amenities and driver welfare, demonstrating demand for something more targeted.”

“A dedicated trucker helpline, covering extortion complaints, medical emergencies, breakdown assistance, and route-specific safety alerts, would address a critical service gap. Multilingual, 24×7, and integrated with AIS-140 location data, it could function as the sector’s first real-time welfare infrastructure,” adds Jain.