- Why in news
- On 22 January 2026, the Ministry of Railways highlighted the Trucks-on-Trains (ToT) service on the Western Dedicated Freight Corridor as a road-to-rail modal shift for long-haul freight.
- What it is
- Trucks-on-Trains is a service run on the Dedicated Freight Corridor, where loaded trucks are carried on specially modified flat wagons for the main haul. Trucks complete only the first and last mile by road. It is part of DFCCIL's multimodal logistics plan to move long-haul freight from road to rail.
- Transit time
- End-to-end time falls from nearly 30 hours by road to about 12 hours by ToT.
- Relaunch
- The service was relaunched through an MoU with GCMMF (Amul) in June 2023, anchoring dairy volumes.
- Tariff and GST
- Freight is charged on weight slabs per wagon, and no GST is levied on milk tankers.
- Operating body
- ToT is part of the multimodal vision of the Dedicated Freight Corridor Corporation of India Limited (DFCCIL).
- Wagon design
- New wagons are being developed under the Flat Multipurpose (FMP) platform to carry trucks at higher payloads.
Don’t confuse with Trucks-on-Trains vs Roll-on Roll-off (RO-RO): RO-RO is the older Konkan Railway service carrying trucks on flat wagons; ToT is the DFC-based service on the Western DFC.
Economy terms and data: 42 Prelims questions since 2013, rising in recent years; they test what a term or instrument means. In Mains, 12 news-triggered questions.
Why it matters
- Shifts long-haul freight from road to electrified rail, cutting diesel use, emissions and highway congestion.
- Lowers logistics cost and transit time, helping perishables like dairy and farm produce.
Problems
- Limited terminals and routes, so reach is confined to a few corridor nodes.
- Truck operators must be persuaded to adopt it despite loading and first/last-mile costs.
Way forward
- Add more origin-destination terminals across the DFC network.
- Roll out improved FMP wagons and integrate with multimodal logistics parks.
Put in your answer
Cumulative performance: Since inception ToT has completed over 1,955 trips and earned over ₹131 crore.
- 2014Mains GS2 · Q8Whether a Rail Tariff Authority benefits consumers, Railways, or private container operators.
- 2022Mains GS2 · Q6Discuss Gati-Shakti's need for government and private sector coordination for connectivity.
- 2020Mains GS3 · Q3Main constraints in transport and marketing of agricultural produce in India.
UPSC’s own questions that come close to this issue, from our Prelims and Mains banks.
No practice question for this one; the card may still help an answer. Why: Lasting logistics topic with modal-shift facts (New Rewari-New Palanpur, 636 km); a question is unlikely.
Worth revising until Prelims 2027: most news questions come within two years of the event.