Chennai: Representatives of call taxi operators have resolved to maintain a web database of the drivers they employ so that they can avoid employing offenders. The decision was mooted at a meeting with the top cops of the city police held at the police commissioner’s office in Vepery on Tuesday. Additional commissioner (traffic) P. Thamaraikannan, who chaired the meeting, said the cops have advised them to speed up the antecedent verification process of their drivers. “As of now, almost 50 per cent of the verification process is complete,” Thamaraikannan said.
A police officer said the firms were worried that even if they fire a driver for misconduct, they manage to get jobs with other firms. Since it was the concern of the stakeholders, we advised them to come up with a solution when the database maintenance was suggested, the police said.The operators were told to maintain the no-objection certificates (NOCs) issued to drivers by the local police and place it in a visible spot in the cabs, too, an official privy to the meeting said.
They can avail of NOCs from the city police commissioner’s office or from the SP’s office if they are from other districts, the police said.Further, they were asked to make it compulsory for the drivers to don uniforms and have ID cards while on duty.This is the sixth meeting with call taxi operators in the past four months. The city police are striving hard to regulate the sector in the wake of the alleged rape of an executive by a cab driver in New Delhi.
More than 10,000 cabs ply on the city roads and is one of the highly-unorganised sectors.The police have also advised the operators to ensure that their vehicles be fitted with GPS tracking system as early as possible.
Transport department to set guidelines
The transport department will come out with a set of guidelines to regulate the call taxi sector by next year, say sources. Transport officials on Wednesday met call taxi operators for consultations. Twentyfive call taxi companies, plying more than 20,000 vehicles, met the transport commissioner and other officials. Presently there is no regulation on running a call taxi service in the state. Even the fare system is not regulated.
A senior official said, “At the meeting all issues were taken up and suggestions from the call taxi owners were also noted. We also took the details of the number of taxis operating with GPS.” Safety issues and appointment of drivers were discussed at the meeting. Call taxi owners who came for the meeting said they would cooperate with the department.
