The Hindu : Andhra Pradesh / Hyderabad News : In the driver's seat, literally Literally in the driver's seat

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Monday, Feb 05, 2007
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Andhra Pradesh

Andhra Pradesh - Hyderabad

In the driver's seat, literally Literally in the driver's seat

Staff Reporter

There is a great demand for car drivers and some travel agencies are wooing them with attractive offers

HYDERABAD: Finding a reliable driver for your four-wheeler in the State capital is as difficult as finding a needle in a haystack.

Even the housekeeping agencies, who fix up a car driver for a day or two, these days are finding it difficult to recruit drivers willing to work in the domestic sector rather than the commercial or BPO sector.

The demand and supply of car drivers is so huge that these agencies are going all out to woo the drivers with attractive offers. The agencies these days are offering advance salaries to the car drivers just to retain them on their rolls.

By unofficial counts, over 5,000 car drivers are employed in various travel agencies that cater exclusively to the needs of the BPO sector in the twin cities. Apart from this, a similar number, if not less, of drivers work in other industries located in and around the twin cities.

Jump in pay

The shortage of the car drivers has also led to increase in their pay packet. "Till a year ago, we used to pay anywhere from Rs. 3,500 to Rs. 5,000 for a car driver. Now, the figure has gone up to Rs. 6,000 to Rs. 7,500. Getting a car driver for domestic needs is quite a tough job in the twin cities," says Kishore Agarwal from dial-a-driver.

A few others in the business also point out that a salary advance of Rs. 7,000 is also not proving to be good enough to retain a car driver. "We have started recruiting drivers for short term period like six months and one year by paying them a bit extra hoping that this would reduce the attrition rates among drivers," points out S.K. Singh of Space Managers.

Mr. Agarwal from dial-a-driver also points out that checking for the background of the driver has also become mandatory for recruiting agencies. "Most of the customers make it clear to us that the car driver should not have a shady background. Getting a driver tailor made for domestic purposes is pretty tough," he informs.

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Andhra Pradesh