Kochi: Taking its ongoing reforms forward, the Kerala State Road Transport Corporation (KSRTC) is now mulling to introduce single duty system under which the crew needs to work for eight hours a day. Upon implementation, most of the long-haul services will have to be rescheduled to adjust the duty timings of crew while the system will also see cancellation of many afternoon ordinary services since the crew will have to be provided with compulsory rest time. Currently, the drivers and the conductors in long haul services take double duties since their working hours in a single schedule will come to 13 to 18 hours.
“The double duty system is causing much loss to the corporation since a staff can avail it upon working 13 hours and get consecutive days off. Moreover, it violates the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) rule that a driver should be allowed behind the wheel only for eight hours with two hours of rest, before the next service begins,” a senior KSRTC officer said. Under the single duty, the crew needs to perform eight hours duty mandatorily. For instance, in the case of drivers, only the steering hours will be calculated and not the rest time, he said.
Currently discussions are at a final stage and the same will be experimented in Thrissur region initially. However, a section is opposing the move, saying the same should be initiated only after changing running time of buses. “The current running time was fixed in 1990 and has not been changed since then. It’s impossible to stick to old time schedules due to traffic congestion and more stoppages. For example, actual running time between Ernakulam and Thiruvananthapuram is five hours during peak hours. However, it takes upto six hours in reality. This additional time will be cut from the resting hours,” said a conductor with Ernakulam depot.
