Employee Speak: Mr. Ashutosh Atray, VP Training and Fleet Management, V-Link Taxis Pvt. Ltd; Jan'08
/1. Tell us something about your company and what it is trying to do in the Market.
V-Link Taxis is a service oriented company. Its main aim is to provide hassle free, quality, premium service to its commuters which is not yet available in so many cities.
2. What is your role in the company?
I am responsible for Training and Resources. Besides developing and ensuring that quality training is imparted to drivers, I am also responsible for effective utilization of resources like infrastructure, vehicles and the mobile servicing team.
3. What are the key challenges you face in your industry and specifically in your role? How do you deal with them?
Tapping, attracting and retaining the talent pool among taxi drivers is a great challenge. The second key challenge is to maintain quality in service delivery to the customer. Quality is required at several levels and departments, ranging from the call center, vehicle fitment, driver selection and training, IT systems and Recovery/Accounts. In order to ensure quality, the entire machinery needs to be well oiled and work as a single unit. Each department needs to perform as a team based on set processes in a timely manner with a firm focus on business goals. The third key challenge is driver training and attitude. Each driver reacts uniquely to different situations and to the same situations at different times. Ensuring their adherence to processes to deliver the same quality each time is challenging.
4. What kind of training do you provide to the drivers who are deployed in Meru cabs?
In a way the driver is the face of our company. A lot depends on how the driver performs on that day. Every thing becomes null and void if the driver makes the customer unhappy. We have a 5 day comprehensive training program that covers several topics like good driving, road safety, basic maintenance, technical specifications, city topography, personal hygiene, etiquette etc.
5. Is the training provided by V-Link to it’s cab drivers unique to the taxi industry in India?
It is unique. Besides being very comprehensive and covering various aspects as mentioned before, strict adherence on the part of the driver to the set processes is largely dependent on the driver since he is not just an employee but a mini entrepreneur. Our training also touches upon this aspect and raises the self esteem of the driver by making him understand the finer nuances of his new role. He not only needs to perform well but also needs to exhibit a finer behaviour and process adherence as this impacts the company as well as his business.
6. Recently V-Link was in the news regarding the training facility provided at the Regional Transport Office. How is this unique and what are the advantages for the driver undergoing such a program? Do you feel this can be replicated anywhere else in the country?
The transport department would like to groom and educate the drivers of Mumbai city. Being in the industry we would like to actively contribute towards this social cause. Whenever a driver comes to the RTO for a new license or renewing an old one etc, the RTO encourages them to meet our team specifically designated permanently for training at the RTO. The training is conducted by professional trainers in a room set up for such training. The purpose is to raise driver awareness to higher levels thereby ensuring safer roads. This training is on ongoing basis. When the driver completes this successfully he is presented a certificate as well. This initiative is 3 months old now and we are proud to say that every day about 60 to 70 drivers are trained and a total of over 6000 drivers have been trained so far. We have two more requests from the RTO and we are in the process of developing a multilingual training in Hindi and Marathi as well.
7. What are the unique challenges of training drivers?
Ensuring satisfactory levels of service is very challenging indeed. For example, our training chalks out that the driver be well dressed, clean shaven, wearing good shoes in other words very neatly turned out. To ensure the above he is also given a uniform and shoes. In addition to this he needs to display positive attitude and caring guest handling. However the driver does not consider appearance as a key factor for his success and many drivers do not realize that they can really make a day for a guest by giving perfect service. The driver is an integral part of customer experience of Meru. Our driver relations team meets this challenge by closely interacting with the drivers and putting them through periodic repeat trainings. In addition we also have a news letter as a point of contact with the drivers.
8. Can you tell us a little about the work done by the fleet management team?
The work of the Fleet management team is very specialized since there are a large number of vehicles involved. The key performance indicator is efficiency. Greater efficiency and lesser vehicle downtime results in better output and thereby translates into greater revenue. For this purpose a large database of vehicle information is maintained and data analysis is done on key parameters like servicing and preventive maintenance.
9. What are the future plans that you have for training and fleet management that you have for V-Link?
For training we would like to establish a world class futuristic training facility where anyone can send their drivers for quality training. This facility would adopt the best training methods and practices with handouts, top class professional trainers and multilingual training. The MCT (Mobile Communication Terminal) will have all routes mapped and a driver will have the discretion to use best possible route to his destination.
For Fleet management we are developing software systems and processes for data analysis. We are also planning to open multi-model service centers that will service and repair all kinds of vehicles.
10. What is different about working with V-Link?
The company is growing very fast. The operations are going to be pan-India. The company has already established a good name for itself in the market place. It is a challenge to come up to expectations. A management which provides the right mix of support and liberty makes working here extremely satisfying. I am happy to be a part of this dynamic new business initiative.