| Senior officials at several auto companies said, with the "just in time inventory mode" in vogue, a 10-day inventory level in itself was a cost burden. |
| Typically, they said, auto companies maintain a several hour inventory for products sourced from their dedicated suppliers, several days for products sourced from vendors who service the requirements of various auto makers and an about a week's stock for imported components. |
| Truckers went off the road on Saturday to protest the proposed service tax on freight booking agents. |
| With the government and the truckers unwilling to take a relook at their respective stance, parleys till Wednesday evening only resulted in a stalemate. |
| A Tata Motors official said, "Following the announcement of the strike, we had beefed up our material inventories in our Jamshedpur and Pune plants to take care of the production requirements. However, we do anticipate a problem if the truckers' strike persists over the next 10-15 days." |
| This sentiment was echoed by officials at Bajaj Auto. However Bajaj expects full production to last just about seven days. |
| Ditto with Ford, its vice-president (marketing) Vinay Piparsania said, steps have been taken to sustain production for about 7-10 days. He added that usually most stock levels of components last just a few hours. |
| The other truck maker, Ashok Leyland, plagued by a strike at its Hosur plant-I, preferred not to comment. |
| With the strike showing no signs of easing off, companies are looking to make the best out of their available stocks. |
| Tata Motors and Ashok Leyland, it is learnt, are sampling alternate arrangements like moving and receiving goods by trains. |
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