Hiring a new Driver (Training, Salary etc.)

[lamborghini]

Apart from recommendations from friends and other drivers, are there any other ways to get a good driver?
We have a few old drivers who have been with us for a while, and one new one who has been here for over a year. One of the oldies has to retire, and the new one still isn't someone who I would hand over the keys of a german too. A few that we had over the last 2 years were simply incompetent to the extent of one guy working only for 3 months a year + petrol stealing (we were ok with the latter, as he was a great driver, who literally kept the car shining including polishing the dashboard and seats every now and then - would rather spend Rs. 500 on fuel extra than 5,000 for repairs). Another guy was clueless - he forgot he met with an accident the night before and actually said that I might have done it!
The current guy needs to hone his skills a little, but is a good guy. Cleans the car in the afternoon, polishes the interiors every now and then when I ask him too. Runs errands as well. In fact, once I was in office with the Skoda which had seen some bad roads and was dirty, he came for some work and saw the car was dirty, and cleaned it before leaving. All this without me asking! Imagine my shock when I came down to see the car shining! Just need to improve his skills, and luck - 4 incidents in 4 months, of which 3 weren't his fault!
Still on the lookout though for a good new guy, who can handle germans, and take care of them.

[k_nitin_r]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

He used to hold the car on half clutch on slopes and in traffic. I explained him the cons of that & regularly advised him to avoid doing that. 2) I remind him to press the clutch while starting the car, but he always forgets!

Is it easier to hire someone for a car with an automatic transmission? Whenever I lend my car, I always feel the clutch has been abused. I sometimes feel that a chauffeur for the car wouldn't change the gears appropriately (I've had most who change gears when it is almost at the red line).

[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by k_nitin_r

Is it easier to hire someone for a car with an automatic transmission? Whenever I lend my car, I always feel the clutch has been abused. I sometimes feel that a chauffeur for the car wouldn't change the gears appropriately (I've had most who change gears when it is almost at the red line).

+10.

Our next vehicle would most probably be an A/T diesel SUV.

[PPS]

Agree with GTO that the driver salaries have shot through the roof! My dad hired a new 60yr old driver last month & he is being paid 9.5k per month. Plus he is already asking for overtime allowances.
His driving is alright at the moment & his gear changing habits are also smooth but the only thing i'm worried about are his reaction times to sudden braking which are a bit slow.

[Tejas@perioimpl]

Originally Posted by GTO

On a related note, driver salaries have shot through the roof (like most other things in our country ).

My two drivers now get paid 10K. EACH. I remember getting many driver applications for 5 - 6K in 2007 - 2008.

Ask me about it! We had to let our current driver go since he was very irregular about timings and took offs without informing on a frequent basis.

Started interviewing drivers and soon realized that i was being interviewed by them.

Some funny demands:

- need one month's pay in diwali as bonus compulsory ( diwali is just a couple of months away now)

- need one month paid vacation plus 15 days paid medical leave. If i don't take those, i need to be paid for it

- i need a yearly increase in pay as per government inflation figures

- if you want me to clean the car in between (not the regular morning wash) i need 500 bucks extra

- i will need a 15 day notice before you fire me or you will have to pay me for 15 days

- i will not do any errands

- i need a 2 hour lunch and nap break everyday

- this guy took the cake: after he realized that we have 2 AT cars and one MT in the family, said that he will charge more if he has to only drive the MT


Anyone know of a good driver in south bombay, please PM me, need one for parents.

[lamborghini]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Started interviewing drivers and soon realized that i was being interviewed by them.

Some funny demands:

- need one month's pay in diwali as bonus compulsory ( diwali is just a couple of months away now)

- need one month paid vacation plus 15 days paid medical leave. If i don't take those, i need to be paid for it

- i need a yearly increase in pay as per government inflation figures

- if you want me to clean the car in between (not the regular morning wash) i need 500 bucks extra

- i will need a 15 day notice before you fire me or you will have to pay me for 15 days

- i will not do any errands

- i need a 2 hour lunch and nap break everyday

- this guy took the cake: after he realized that we have 2 AT cars and one MT in the family, said that he will charge more if he has to only drive the MT

Tejas, very similar scene all over Mumbai. Finally hired a good driver, who comes from 9:30 - 7:30. No such qualms, and has a light work load. However, some of the issues you have brought up were minor bugs.
They're even finicky about cars - one guy was told 20K/month if he has to drive around a Mercedes, and 11K/month for a Honda Civic.
Have you tried contacting a recruiting agency? Also, ask people in your building and office?

Has anyone tried the WIAA Driver's Training programme? Someone had mentioned it to me the other day - they train for defensive driving.

[noidea]

Well, the present drivers salary in Kolkata are still in the 6.5 - 7 K range, but then this is a relatively cheap city.

My old driver is presently sulking because we have hired a young fellow for our other car and he thinks it is because we plan to phase him out slowly. He switches of his mobile at off duty hours, is rude to the younger driver and will not drive if the other driver is free. It is really very difficult to cater to the ego of old folks( he is about 60) who have been with the family for quite some time and no amount of maska seems to help. We are really at our wits end, and have no idea how to deal with it short of firing him which we don't want to do in the least.

I guess we just have to wait until he get's over this phase.

[honeybee]

I am thinking of hiring a driver, at least for a few months, as it would be nice to be able to relax in the car. Work pressure has been steadily mounting and the travelling time could be used to catch up on my sleep or just doing some thinking up.

The situation is a bit weird: My commuting time is approximately one hour - one way. While I tend to be aggressive sometimes, I wouldn't mind if the driver was patient and calm. I spend at least nine to ten hours in office. So the driver would be sitting idle all day, which is something I don't need. I need someone who will drive me to office in the morning, and then drive me back home in the night. In the meanwhile he could be taking up gainful employment elsewhere. So effectively I would only be hiring him for a couple of hours or more a day, instead of a fulltime driver.

Has anyone ever been in this kind of a situation?
What precautions should I take in appointing a driver?
What is the salary I should be targetting?
Should I go for elderly people?
Should I conduct some kinds of tests to determine the driving skills as well as the physical ability - such as the driver's vision, medical history etc?

[Lukeskywalker]

Your situation is more or less like we have at our house, my wife uses a driver to commute to work as she doesn't drive a car. The driver drops her at work hangs around the whole day and brings her back home, it's a full time job for him, this has been the case for almost 7 years now.
Whenever a driver quit, we did think of hiring a part time driver, but it does not work out for the following reasons :
1. Part time drivers usually charge by the hour
2. They usually have another job which pays them a fixed income so they give the other job priority
3. They don't normally wash/clean the car in the cost you pay.
4. You cannot use his services in the event of having to go out during the day.
5. If he doesn't turn up for work you have no control as he is paid on the hour.

It's always better to hire a full time driver as he is at your disposal and can help you with other errands as well. Getting a perfect driver happens in Utopia.

[comfortablynumb]

Originally Posted by honeybee

Has anyone ever been in this kind of a situation?
What precautions should I take in appointing a driver?
What is the salary I should be targetting?
Should I go for elderly people?
Should I conduct some kinds of tests to determine the driving skills as well as the physical ability - such as the driver's vision, medical history etc?

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

It's always better to hire a full time driver as he is at your disposal and can help you with other errands as well. Getting a perfect driver happens in Utopia.

I totally agree with what Lukeskywalker has written.

A few tips off the top of my head:

1. Ask him to provide references of previous employers and check at least a couple of them. Check that he has a valid license.
2. Explain his duties unambiguously, clearly specifying what falls within the scope of his duties and what does not.
3. Make it clear that drunk driving, traffic rule violations will not be tolerated - this rule is non-negotiable.
4. Discourage asking for salary advances right during salary negotiation time.
5. Fill fuel yourself, or at least be present when he does it.
6. I guess a driving test rather than medical/eye test should be top priority.

Some threads to give you more info

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...alary-etc.html (Hiring a new Driver (Training, Salary etc.))

http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/shifti...aries-pay.html (Driver salaries / pay)

Good luck!

Cheers,
Vikram

[Mnjdnght]

Originally Posted by honeybee

I am thinking of hiring a driver, at least for a few months, as it would be nice to be able to relax in the car. Work pressure has been steadily mounting and the travelling time could be used to catch up on my sleep or just doing some thinking up.

The situation is a bit weird: My commuting time is approximately one hour - one way. While I tend to be aggressive sometimes, I wouldn't mind if the driver was patient and calm. I spend at least nine to ten hours in office. So the driver would be sitting idle all day, which is something I don't need. I need someone who will drive me to office in the morning, and then drive me back home in the night. In the meanwhile he could be taking up gainful employment elsewhere. So effectively I would only be hiring him for a couple of hours or more a day, instead of a fulltime driver.

Has anyone ever been in this kind of a situation?
What precautions should I take in appointing a driver?
What is the salary I should be targetting?
Should I go for elderly people?
Should I conduct some kinds of tests to determine the driving skills as well as the physical ability - such as the driver's vision, medical history etc?

I had tried out a similar option last year which I discontinued after a couple of months. I hired a part time driver to drop/ pick up my wife to/ from work. I had exactly similar thoughts on not wasting his time, so I bought him a bus pass to go back home after the morning drop. There was also a bit of serendipity since the driver also wanted to spend some time with his family and run some chores. So the time for himself between drop and pick up helped him too. I did take him around a couple of times to test out his driving skills and temperament and kept him on probation for two months. I also got a copy of his photo, address proof and license for my records.

The deal was that we'll mutually part ways if it didn't work for us or him. I also had the additional requirement of him to drive us back from infrequent late night dinners. As it turned out I called this off after the probation period. Main considerations were:
- Some attitude issues when my wife used to give some specific instructions
- Will not wash the car or do any other service (e.g. drop/ pick up car from service)
- Issues he had with late nights. Several times he dropped himself off near his house (a few KMs from mine) when my wife had to work late and my wife had to drive home herself.
- Due to the temporary set up, we didn't get him a pass for entering the office campus. So it turned out to be mostly pick up from my house to the office gate and back until his house (most of the days).
- Pay was almost equivalent to a full time driver (as he has to give us priority, his ability to take up alternate jobs were minimal) and didn't justify the services rendered.

I've not given any direct answers to your questions, but have stated my experience. Hopefully it gives you some pointers. If it does work out, do let me know your best practices and I wouldn't mind giving another shot at the same model.

[msdivy]

Originally Posted by Lukeskywalker

Getting a perfect driver happens in Utopia.

I know of such a Utopian situation. Driver in this case is not a driver by profession. Both the driver & owner stay close by and also their work places are within 2 Km. Driver takes the car from owner's house, drops the owner at office & parks the car in owner's office. Salary is slightly less than 1/3 of full time driver's salary. Since they close by, driver is engaged on weekends on hourly basis.

[ghodlur]

Originally Posted by honeybee

The situation is a bit weird: My commuting time is approximately one hour - one way. While I tend to be aggressive sometimes, I wouldn't mind if the driver was patient and calm. I spend at least nine to ten hours in office. So the driver would be sitting idle all day, which is something I don't need. I need someone who will drive me to office in the morning, and then drive me back home in the night. In the meanwhile he could be taking up gainful employment elsewhere. So effectively I would only be hiring him for a couple of hours or more a day, instead of a fulltime driver.

I would suggest to employ a driver full time rather than find a part time drivers as I feel it would risky and uneconomical too. If the driver is employed in between dropping and picking you, chances of leaving you high and dry when needed most is definite. Coz the driver would know that this would not be a fixed source of income, so whenever higher stakes are called, he will quit for sure and the exercise of searching would begin again.

Have you tried car pooling in such situation?

[mayankjha1806]

You are in a exciting fix. Let me share my experience with you what i did in similar situation.

We were looking for driver for last 3-4 months, some of them came and drove for few days and we did not like their driving abilities. One that came was very good but after a month had to leave to his village for something urgent. So we were frequently back to square one every time with a driver. Finding a good one is a challenge, and making them stick for longer is even a bigger challenge.

This was for Dropping kid to school and picking her up, so driving abilities were very important.

We frequently use these driver on call service, they charge about 250 for four hours. One such driver who my wife found to be very good and asked if he would be willing to take a 2 hour split job (1 hour in the morning and one in the evening). He said yes and we pay him 300 per day for that. For about 22 days (of school) it turns out to be about 6600, which is approximately half of what i would have to pay a good driver on a monthly basis.

But i would like to point out this is a temporary solution, we are sticking by it as Schools are going to close soon for 1-2 months and taking a full time driver now would be waste of money. Come july we might look at the complete thing a little differently.

So if you have a short term problem, what i did might help.

[honeybee]

Thanks all of you for the responses. The situation described by Mayank above seems to fit my requirements to a T.

It's a short term requirement, I don't care if the driver doesn't turn up as I can always drive myself to office/home so no worries on the driver ditching me. I actually prefer that he can get a meaningful employment during the period I don't want to utilize him. Also there's a dedicated person washing the car in the morning, so I don't care if the temporary driver does not want to clean the car.

The plain and simple task the driver has to perform is to drive me from my home to office, and then in the evening/night drive me back. If I stay up very late and he doesn't work late shifts, I could tell him not to come. So it offers a lot of flexibility.

The payment would most likely be based on instances. So if the driver turned up on time and drove me from home to office, he would be entitled for Rs. x, same goes for the return journey. At the end of the month, he will be paid the total entitlement he has accrued.