Most BPOs clueless about driver info

GURGAON: Under fire for not being able to provide safe transport for employees, particularly women, at night, BPOs in their defence have claimed that they are following emerging best practices. However, security experts feel the greatest threat to employee safety is from the drivers themselves. In most cases, the credentials of the drivers are not known to the transport vendors since they subcontract the work to smaller players. Industry insiders said about 90 per cent of the BPOs depend on such vendors, who don’t have enough cabs to meet the demand. "They start attaching the service of those who own only a couple of cabs. Until this is done away with, there would not be much improvement," said a major transport vendor, who did not wish to be named. Infrastructure managers of some major Gurgaon-based BPOs said they were following best practices to improve safety of employees. Thousands of women report to work at BPOs at night. And going by track record, most of the crimes against women were committed when a lone woman employee had either been picked up first by the driver or had been the last to be dropped. "People in the organisation should be held accountable in case they are responsible for negligence resulting in any loss to employees. Those heading the organisations and looking after the operations are not just there to take the bonus home," said Raman Roy, CEO of Quatrro. However, he added that the state government and police must also be held responsible for their negligence. "Safety and security of all of us is a state subject. The government issues licenses to drivers and even to vehicles. There has to be an all-inclusive effort to achieve safety and security of everyone," he added. However, industry players insisted that they were adhering to the best norms. "The focus is more to put a process in place which will make women more secure from the time they are picked up from their homes and till they are dropped back home. Driver verification has been made compulsory. There is 100 per cent compliance to the installation of GPS and speed governors in cabs," said the infrastructure head of a BPO. Some of the BPOs have even started calling up women employees who are dropped at night to ensure they reach home safely. "Since it’s not just drivers who get drunk, we have started breath analyser tests for housekeepers and security guards. But the biggest challenge is to get the right kind of drivers," a BPO source said. Meanwhile, all this has put the onus on transport vendors. Major cab fleet owner Manav Bahri said his company has started keeping photographs of drivers and recording fingerprints to track them down in case they committed any crime. "We even keep the contact numbers of their family members and relatives," he added. Bahri also pointed out though most of the BPOs were deploying security guards in cabs to ensure the last woman employee was dropped safe, it was desirable that the last person to be dropped should be a male employee.