Cab companies like Olacabs, Meru Cabs and Carzonrent sending drivers to finishing school

BANGALORE: Gone are the days when being a taxi driver meant just having a commercial driver’s licence. Cabbies these days are expected to know smartphone basics, be courteous to passengers and also be well-groomed.

But a limited talent pool and the mushrooming of new players in the industry have made training inevitable. Taxi companies like Olacabs, Meru Cabs and Carzonrent invest heavily on training drivers to make them technology savvy and customer friendly, among other things.

This is having an impact on the drivers. Take the case of Nagaraj (no second name), for instance. The 36-year-old has been a driver for more than a decade now, but it’s only at Olacabs that he realised the importance of softskills and being courteous.

“I was always a taxi driver but I was not taught small things like opening doors for passengers, greeting them, dressing well and being helpful,” said Bangalorebased Nagaraj. “I realised that if I do all of this customers treat me with much more respect.”

It has also helped increase his monthly income from Rs 15,000 to Rs 25,000. Earlier he used to log in to Olacabs’ system at about 9 am in the morning. But during his training he was advised to log in about 4 am when demand for airport rides are at their peak.

“It’s helped me in my personal as well as professional life,” said Nagaraj. “From what time to report on duty to how to talk to the customers, everything has been taught to me.”

RM Shankaraiah’s story is similar. He had owned a juice shop on Bangalore’s MG road before construction of the Metro forced him to shut shop. That was when Shankaraiah decided to join Meru. “I has absolutely no clue on how to deal with customers,” he said. “It was all taught from scratch. Everything from how to talk on the phone with customers to first aid I learnt from Meru.”

Shankaraiah’s said Meru has helped him improve his personality as well. “Today even in my personal life I am very courteous and respectful. I have learnt to dress well, talk properly,” said the 32-year-old.

Taxi companies typically have one-week programme to tutor drivers in softskills and instill a sense of dignity about their jobs before they allowed to drive for them.

“In India, driving is a profession out of compulsion and not out of choice,” said Ram Badrinathan, founder of GlobalTHEN, an on-thejob training academy, which focuses on driver modules. “The need of the hour is to make the drivers feel that they are an important cog in the wheel of the society.”

Taxi companies agree. “We have psychological training and grooming sessions for our drivers where we teach them how to dress and talk, among other things,” said Rajiv Vij, managing director of Carzonrent, adding that it not possible to supervise drivers all the time. “The performance of a driver is shared with them on a daily basis through mobile messages. For drivers who have any particular negative feedbacks, we carry out emergency training sessions.” Delhi-based Carzonrent has more than 8,000 driver partners and spends about Rs 1 crore annually on training.

Bhavish Aggarwal, founder and chief executive officer of taxi aggregator Olacabs, on the other hand, wants every driver in his fleet to think like an entrepreneur.

A huge part of the training drivers at Ola also goes into sessions on road safety, personal hygiene, customer feedback and first aid. “The training has helped me understand customers better,” said Olacabs driver Nagaraja.

Anand Subramanian, head of marketing communications at Olacabs, said his firm has a team of 50, who are well versed in regional languages, which works closely with drivers. Olacabs, which has more than 15,000 drivers in its fleet, spends about Rs 10,000 annually on each of its drivers.

Meru set up a training academy in 2007 and since then provides psychological training, customer etiquettes classes, traffic rules awareness sessions, defensive and safe driving classes, among other things, to its new drivers using videos and role-plays by seasoned chauffeurs.

“Special emphasis is given for dealing with women passengers like maintaining at least 2 feet distance, not adjusting the rear view mirror while ferrying a woman passenger, etc.,” said Siddhartha Pahwa, CEO of Meru Cab, which has 10,000 drivers in its fleet. Taxi hailing app Uber too has a one-day training and onboarding process, where the drivers learn how to use the smartphone and read maps. “This involves educating them on how to use our partner dashboard and access emails for communication,” said Bhavik Rathod, general manager of Uber Bangalore.

While most companies are making investment in driver training, according to industry experts, there is much more that can be done. “These companies should (also) do some exchange programme and send some of their good drivers to foreign countries. This will help to create trainers to train other drivers,” said Jaspal Singh, a partner at Valoriser Consultants. “There is shortage of trainers in the country.”