Office cab@ 2am. How safe?
Office cabs are the lifelines of graveyard shift workers. But just how safe are they?
By Saba Shaikh, TNN |
Delhi’s population of graveyard shift workers is going up everyday. While these GenXers are getting in the groove as far as working till early in the morning is concerned, there is one part of the job which scares them nonetheless. It deals with going back home everyday.
Recently, a call centre exec Helene lost her life on the Noida-Greater Noida Expressway on account of rash driving . Some months back, another BPO worker was raped and then murdered by the cab driver in Bangalore. In Delhi, a car carrying two girls from a news channel was chased by hooligans around midnight.
Are the cabs carrying staffers home after a long night of work safe?
What is prescribed
According to the internal safety programme, a list of guidelines is given by the organisation to the cabbies. Explains Satish Rajoura, transport executive at HCL, Noida, ‘‘ Six thousand people board the cabs everyday at HCL. We stress on cleanliness and a neat appearance as the driver needs to look dependable and decent. We also ensure that the driver has had ample rest and is alert enough to drive.’’
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Most of the call centres and media organisations prescribe a speed limit for cab drivers. ‘‘ We install speed governors in the cabs to make sure they can’t go beyond 80 kms per hour speed limit, even if they want to,” says Rajoura . The safety of women is of prime importance, authorities claim. PK Agnihotri of the BPO Agni explains, “A girl is never the last one to be dropped even if it means extra kilometres to travel for the cab. Drivers can also send SOS through a special system if anything goes wrong.” Choosing the drivers
A lot depends on the driver. So, how do companies find the right candidates for the job. “It’s not the headache of the company but that of the thekedaars ,” says Rajoura. Kamal Jha of Unique Tourism — which provides cabs to various organisations — replies, “Verification of the driver is a very tough task but we have managed to devise a system of our own. When applying , the candidate has to provide us with three references, which are verified. I don’t think we can do anything beyond this.”
What really happens
In reality, the drivers usually belong to a floating population, hired on recommendation of ‘someone’ . And there are many considerations driving them too. “A lot of pressure comes with this job. To begin with, sleep is a major problem. I never get more than four hours of sleep and the thekedaar shows no compassion even if you tell him this,’’ says a driver. As a result of which, accidents happen . Officially too, Rajoura accepts there are an average of “two accidents per month”.
Cars being chased by hooligans is another eventuality the drivers have to face. ‘‘ If women are travelling by cabs, at times we have to stave off eve teasers. At such a time, you just have to go by your instincts,’’ says another drive Shamim Khan.
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What staffers face
Even the passengers are not happy. A senior associate with HCL tells, “Once on the road, we have a 50-50 chances of reaching home safely. There are times the drivers fall asleep on the wheel!” Neha, an employee of Max New York Life, says, ‘‘ Many times I am dropped last. Mostly a guard is not provided to us” .
In big call centres like HCL, Spectramind, Daksh etc, the number of staffers taking office transport home in the early hours is as high as 6,000
The number of workers taking such a drop home in Delhi is approx 50,000
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