Most travel agencies don’t get their drivers verified due to costs involved; your safety is the casualty.
The murder of Manoj Kumar Grandhi, the jeweller from Andhra Pradesh who was killed by a cab driver, has once again raised questions as to how safe taxis are. Although this is not the first time that a crime involving a cabbie has occurred in the city, it has once again shown the risk in entrusting the safety of passengers in the hands of cab drivers in the city.
For instance, though it is mandatory for drivers working with government agencies to have a letter of verification from the commissioner of police, the same is not applicable to drivers of private agencies. T Suneel Kumar, additional commissioner of police (law and order), said: “There is a procedure for verification of drivers, which the police will do for a fee. While it is mandatory for drivers who want a job in government agencies, it is up to the travel agencies to decide whether or not they want their cab drivers verified.”
He added that apart from high-end travel agencies, private agencies do not bother with verifications. Deputy commissioner of police, VS D’Souza, said: “The procedure is not just for cab drivers but for domestic workers and gardeners etc as well.
Nevertheless, nobody bothers with getting verifications with regards to the background of the people they employ,” he said.
When contacted, various associations of cab drivers and travel agents said that they do the verifications themselves, considering the high cost involved in getting verifications from the police. According to Laxman K Ameen of Golden Travels: “We do not employ a driver unless he is referred to us from someone we know. We also check with his previous employers to know more about his track record as a driver,” he said.
One of the problems that both the agents and the drivers had was the fee charged by the police. “Most travel agents will not pay Rs2,500 for getting a single driver verified. Why will they invest the amount in a driver when they do not know how long he will remain with an agency!” asked Ameen.
According to Bangalore Tourist Taxi Owners’ Association (BTTOA), a memorandum was sent to the police commissioner last year to reduce the fee. D’Souza said the fee had been reduced after submitting a proposal to the government more than a year ago.
D’souza said that with reduced rates, making verification mandatory for private services would be looked into. “With these fares, the verification process becomes affordable. We will look at the possibility of making it a mandatory process for private services.”
According to ACP T Suneel Kumar, the final decision has to be the government’s. He added that, “While we cannot mandate them to do the verification, we will write to all the MNCs and private agencies advising verification of their drivers.”
The limitations
The procedure for verification consists of checking the address of the individual and that whether he/she has a criminal record; it does no character tests to gauge the likelihood of a crime occurring at some point in the future. According to assistant commissioner of police Sunil Kumar: “We cannot do a psychological analysis of those who come for verification. This will have to be done by the employers themselves by taking the help of a psychiatrist.”
Nevertheless, he denies that the emphasis of the verification is on ‘tracking’ after the crime. “Tracking is when someone is wanted. Considering that we cannot predict whether or not an individual is going to commit a crime, tracking is not the aim of the verification,” he said.
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