[shrinz.vivek]

Few months ago, me and my friend (both TUV300 owners) came across a person who was regularly distributing food kits to poor families spread across multiple villages around Bangalore. We decided to help him out by contributing some money.
Then we realised he was travelling 100s of kms every day on his humble Honda Activa to personally deliver one month's worth of dry ration to the families' door steps. We immediately pressed our tanks into service and scaled up considerably.





One thing led to another and now we have taken up the responsibility of delivering ration kits to over 300 families at their doorsteps every month.
Thanks to god and many kind donors, everything is running smooth.

But I am getting the feeling that we are abusing the TUV a lot.
We usually move 20 kits/day/car every weekend. Each kit is around 30kg + 2 people on board is around 760kg of payload
TUV being a 7 seater may be designed to carry around 560kg weight (7adults*avg 80kg/person)
That's around 200kg overload. The engine pulls like a charm, but the rear suspension will be significantly compressed. Almost like the car is doing a wheelie. Notice how the silver car is sitting lower than the red one. The silver TUV is fully loaded while the red is partially unloaded.



Plus after each trip we will have to carefully vacuum the car in order to avoid attracting rats and other rodents to the little qty of rice and other food particles which invariably gets spilt from the sacks

Now...
1. Is this overload OK? what will be the long term implications of this?

2. Will it be better for us to buy a dedicated leaf spring suspension vehicle like the Omni or Qualis or Sumo? Maximum we can spend on this is 1 lac.
At this price will we end up buying 20 year old cars which will have to be slaughtered soon; owing to the scrappage policy?


3. Will it be sensible to buy a yellow board goods vehicle like Tata Ace or Bolero pick up? Can it be converted to white board easily? Since all of our distribution happens in villages far from Bangalore we will be using the highways a lot. We would not want to be stopped by the cops frequently as they do seeing a yellow board vehicle. One trip on an avg. will be 400km up and down.

4. What other options do we have? Is there any social media platform where they giveaway old cars for a discount for charitable causes?

I know I am asking a lot, but we really do not want to ruin our TUVs by being over enthusiastic and disrupt the good work which is going on.

At the end of the day we want to operate sustainably and not end up spending more time and money on car repairs than on charity.

[tunedv8]

Hey Vivek!

I am Vivek too!

Firstly, let me take the time to say what a great job you are doing! Lot of good karma points to you!

Coming to your cargo challenges -

1. I've had the experience of delivering supplies to wage workers last year near Hoskote, Bangalore. However, we had access to a Tata Winger and a 407 mini lorry. I don't think you should be overloading your personal car on regular intervals. It will surely wear out the suspension and your tires unevenly.

2. Looking to rent/buy a vehicle specifically for these purposes is surely the right way to go. I would advice on renting because a Eicher Canter (15ft) costs about 10,000. If you have enough supplies to last a household for about 3 weeks, you could do this once in 3 weeks. In my experience, it takes about 1-2 weeks to arrange for ration supplies anyway. Not sure how you are doing it.


3. We were stopped at checkpoints when we did this during the last year lockdown. We showed the cops pictures of wht we were doing and they let us be. It helps to pack supplies in equal sized boxes and label them. We arranged them in this way -
Cooking oil in bisileri bottles, rice, dal, jaggery, tamarind and vegetables in cloth bags, salt packets and dry red chillies in transparent covers. All this went into boxes with our name and address on it. The pictures I have attached are screenshots from a video I for documentation. The second, third and fourth runs were sponsored by few people after seeing our first run.

4. If you still want to pick up a workhorse for cheap, you can PM me. I can try and help you with something.

To summarise,
If you want to use your TUV, consider buying a trailer hitch with wheels - I think TUV is rated to tow 600 Kgs, please correct me if I am wrong.
Or, rent Tata Aces, Wingers or Canters to do the job for you.
Or, if you want to buy a cheap car like a one of the few you have mentioned, which are all good choices for this kind of work, then PM me. I will surely do my best to help you out.

All the best!

[ike]

Originally Posted by shrinz.vivek

Now...
1. Is this overload OK? what will be the long term implications of this?

2. Will it be better for us to buy a dedicated leaf spring suspension vehicle like the Omni or Qualis or Sumo? Maximum we can spend on this is 1 lac.
At this price will we end up buying 20 year old cars which will have to be slaughtered soon; owing to the scrappage policy?

Wouldn't changing the tyres and or suspension systems on two vehicles 10 or 15k KMS earlier than "usual" be less costly than spending a lac on a vehicle that is near the end of it's life, especially when considering the maintenance that an old vehicle will invariably need?

[silverado]

Buy a EECO Cargo CNG and get a factory fitted AC fitted.

[ramnaresh_2000]

First of all let me take this opportunity to congratulate you on the great job you are doing. I am 100% sure you are not doing this for recognition or fame, so I will stop here even though you earned my immense respect.

Now my 2 cents as an ex-TUV 300 owner

• TUV is tough as a rock. I don't think 700 kgs will be any issue.
• I don't think it will break a sweat. As you already mentioned that it is pulling smoothly.
• I traveled 3,500 kms once with 6 adults and 1 kid + 7 luggage bags on roof carrier for 1 week. No issues what so ever.

If you are planning to buy a beater vehicle for your great cause then I would suggest below used vehicles

• Eeco
• Tata Sumo
• Omini
• Xylo
• Bolero Pick-up
• Tata Ace

Best of luck

[neofromcapone]

Noble initiative, may your efforts bring everybody, what they need.
I would also suggest the Ecco, though I would request you to remove the floor carpet, of whichever vehicle you buy and replace it with a PU-Waterproof flooring. This will ensure its easier to maintain, with food or grains that may fall off.

All the best.

[BlackPearl]

Any vehicle with rear leaf springs will be ideal for loading. If you are looking for yellow plate then Tata Ace, Bolero pick-up etc will do. If you are going for private registration, I think a used Bolero will be the best option. You can go for the longer version and it has got a lot more loading space than the regular Bolero.

[CEF_Beasts]

More respect and power to you buddy!

I would suggest a vehicle with leaf springs, they perform much better once loaded up.

My suggestion would be a Bolero private reg or a Bolero Pick-up. Only issue I find with the Tata Ace (an otherwise competent pick-up/tempo) is that the tyres are extremely weedy and they just don’t have the power to pull when loaded!

[Thilak29]

Vivek, great job and I hope your tribe grows.

Few inputs-

- Why not buy from shops closer to localities where you deliver ? Also, in such a case renting a locally available goods carrier vehicle may work out better too. That way you also help small scale players locally.

- Buying a vehicle is CAPEX, instead, think of switching to the OPEX model. This way the money you intend to spend at one go can be invested in a lump sum and the return may also help to cover OPEX costs.

- If you are open to donations please DM me details and I will do my bit.

[hserus]

You lose out on wholesale purchase discounts if you buy locally in each area that you service.

If this is done over a longer term, a cheap used vehicle isn't as much capex at all, and can be let go without too many emotions tied to it once it reaches its end of service life.

You don't even need a yellow board license to drive a LCV like a Pikup or Ace.

https://www.carandbike.com/news/lmv-...icence-1842287

If you are doing this over a longer period of time, my suggestion would be to work with a charity that already has 80G certification, or register a charity of your own and obtain 80G. Else the donation money you source might attract questions from the taxman eventually.

Originally Posted by Thilak29

- Why not buy from shops closer to localities where you deliver ? Also, in such a case renting a locally available goods carrier vehicle may work out better too. That way you also help small scale players locally.

- Buying a vehicle is CAPEX, instead, think of switching to the OPEX model. This way the money you intend to spend at one go can be invested in a lump sum and the return may also help to cover OPEX costs.

- If you are open to donations please DM me details and I will do my bit.

[Thilak29]

Originally Posted by hserus

You lose out on wholesale purchase discounts if you buy locally in each area that you service..

Not really, since lockdown I have moved to a small village, I am aware of small traders who offer discounts comparable to wholesale traders if you commit the recurring business to them. In fact, I know instances where extra discount is offered when they know the intention of such purchase. This is purely out of my own experience.

In small towns and villages Kirana shops still treat repeating customers significantly better than the way supermarkets in cities generally do.

[condor]

Vivek, congrats and cheers on what you and your friend are doing.

Originally Posted by tunedv8

I would advice on renting because a Eicher Canter (15ft) costs about 10,000.

I dont think the canter will come that cheap. Even moving a house items for about 13-14 km inside city costs 14-15k (but includes labour). A one-way 400km hire (when you can get someone for one-way) is about 25k.

Typical Tata Ace charges are about 20-25 rs per km. In summary, hiring will work out expensive for the work Vivek is doing.

**
If OP Vivek wants to look at a Tata Ace, I can put you in touch with my neighbor who does the buying-selling as a secondary activity apart from his transportation work (he has his own trucks - Eicher / Tata Ace).

[hserus]

Originally Posted by Thilak29

Not really, since lockdown I have moved to a small village, I am aware of small traders who offer discounts comparable to wholesale traders if you commit the recurring business to them.
.

Nobody will buy bulk groceries at a supermarket anyway. Plenty of kirana shops in big cities itself that offer comparable to wholesale rate and even reduce costs a bit more when they figure out you are going to be a recurring customer + it is for charity.

Back at my last employer (100+ year old IT MNC) I and some colleagues got together to source donations from across the company’s employees in Chennai on the occasion of the company’s 100th anniversary. While people mostly donated in kind as per HR guidelines, some offered cash collected from across their teams instead so that I did this sort of thing quite a few times that year and the next two or three years till I left the company.

Each time we got enough donated material to fill a 407 and all of it went to a charity that provides free food and accommodation to below poverty line cancer patients being treated at the Adyar cancer hospital.

[GTO]

IMHO, you should stick it out with the TUV300. Mahindras are built for overloading. If at all, rope in a 3rd car from a good samaritan to split the load. Buying, maintaining & driving a cheap UV on the highway isn't recommended. It'll entail too much headache.

Please, please, please share an online link so we can also donate to your superb cause . Keep up the great work, buddy.

[shrinz.vivek]

Originally Posted by tunedv8

Hey Vivek!
Firstly, let me take the time to say what a great job you are doing! Lot of good karma points to you!

2. Looking to rent/buy a vehicle specifically for these purposes is surely the right way to go. I would advice on renting because a Eicher Canter (15ft) costs about 10,000. If you have enough supplies to last a household for about 3 weeks, you could do this once in 3 weeks. In my experience, it takes about 1-2 weeks to arrange for ration supplies anyway. Not sure how you are doing it.

Thank you so much. As of now we are doing a total of 7 runs in a month. Each run will not have more than 25 kits. A canter or a bolero pik up it self will be too much for this volume. In fact i have used my dad's Ritz many times with 15 to 18 kits in it.

It will be impossible to consolidate all 7 runs into a single trip for the below reasons
a. Donations come on multiple days. We have lower middle class donors who wait for salary day to donate
b. We have already started delivering on a particular day. So if we have to alter the date, we ll need to compensate part quantity one time for all families which will again be a logistics nightmare. Once i delivered one day late, and the lady was in tears because she had exhausted the last grain of rice the previous night.
c. With our current practice, expenditure is being spread out across the month and into small amounts. So its easy to find donors.

Originally Posted by ike

Wouldn't changing the tyres and or suspension systems on two vehicles 10 or 15k KMS earlier than "usual" be less costly than spending a lac on a vehicle that is near the end of it's life, especially when considering the maintenance that an old vehicle will invariably need?

This is the dilemma which made me start this thread. And im getting a feeling that you are right. Probably this is what we will do eventually. Buying an additional car for 7 to 10 days of usage in a month maybe not feasible. Plus we ll have to find space to park it. I would not like to occupy the footpath.

Mathematically, if we compare buying a car for 1lakh vs an additional expense of 10k/car/year will lead to an ROI of 5 years.

Originally Posted by ramnaresh_2000

First of all let me take this opportunity to congratulate you on the great job you are doing. [list][*]TUV is tough as a rock. I don't think 700 kgs will be any issue.

TUV is awesome. In fact I had read almost all of your posts before buying it last year.

Originally Posted by BlackPearl

Any vehicle with rear leaf springs will be ideal for loading. If you are looking for yellow plate then Tata Ace, Bolero pick-up etc will do. If you are going for private registration, I think a used Bolero will be the best option. You can go for the longer version and it has got a lot more loading space than the regular Bolero.

We would not like to use a yellow plate. Half of our time will be spent with the cops. And you never know, some cops might even ask for the invoice for all the food we are carrying.
A longer bolero would be great, but will be a pain to navigate in narrow village roads. We visit places where even a Santro wont fit.

However; just for information, can i convert an Ace or a Bolero Pick up into white plate in order to avoid the frequent RTO visits?

Originally Posted by Thilak29

- Why not buy from shops closer to localities where you deliver ?

- If you are open to donations please DM me details and I will do my bit.

We have tried it out and we do have some local shops supplying successfully. However, having one single vendor ensures consistent supply, consistent quality and opportunity to buy on credit

And thanks for the donation offer. But sorry; I would not like to use TeamBHP for asking any donations. Your advice and tips are much more valuable

Originally Posted by hserus

You don't even need a yellow board license to drive a LCV like a Pikup or Ace.

Really? This is good news.

A couple of transporters had offered to lend me their goods vehicles without drivers on sundays. I had refused, assuming that I will need a new license and will have to wear uniform. I will now explore this option seriously.