Bengaluru: Cab aggregators should collect all details of drivers

The recent incident of a 15-year-old boy being kidnapped and released by an Uber cab driver has once again brought the issue of safety of cab passengers to the fore. In a city where lakhs of people are dependent on cabs and where over 80,000 cab drivers operate, no proper background verification of cab drivers done. The cab driver’s job looks lucrative for many uneducated youth as it fetches decent money and they all land in the city. Forget women, even scores of men have been robbed and assaulted by cabbies.

Networked taxi services, provided by taxi aggregators like Ola and Uber, have brought about a welcome change in taxi services, particularly in metropolitan cities. They have provided taxi services at fairly reasonable rates, increased competition in the field and made taxi hailing easy.

The sudden increase in the number of taxis enrolled by aggregators has created a huge demand for drivers. They are constrained to enlist drivers from neighbouring areas and far-flung areas.

While the expansion of taxi services run by the aggregators is natural and inevitable, the safety of the passengers using these taxis requires close attention. The aggregators should ensure that no non-Indian national is employed by them at any point of time. They should ensure that the drivers are all Indian nationals and bear good antecedents. They should get complete biodata of the drivers engaged by them and get the antecedents of each one of the verified by local police authorities. The drivers should be engaged and employed only after police clearance is done. Information like their permanent place of residence, contact numbers, their driving licence particulars, their place of residence in the city and address of their workplace should be collected in a pro-forma along with supporting documents and maintained up to date by the aggregators.

The police should designate an officer to monitor and regulate the networked taxi services. All aggregators should file updated information on the registrations and other details of vehicles run by them with the designated officer every month. Personal details of the drivers, including their contact numbers and present and permanent addresses, should also be part of it. Cab aggregators should follow mobile phone operators and hire drivers only after all the details are given. They should also extend to the designated police officer the facility to monitor the movement of taxis operated by them. These measures should ensure increased safety of passengers and help the police detect any crimes reported against drivers.

The necessary regulations may be framed by the commissioners of police in exercise of the powers delegated to them under Section 31 of the Karnataka Police Act.