[AdityaH]

Dear all,

We own a 2013 Vento 1.6 P Comfortline and we require a driver as my father isn’t comfortable driving anymore. We have always had a company provided vehicle.

Now I am planning to hire a driver for their car. What are the things I should install to ensure that the car is driven properly? Any tips or advice on finding a good driver?

I will be needing the driver in Mumbai around Belapur. If anyone has any good recommendations please let me know.

Thank you.

Adi.

[Mr.Boss]

Originally Posted by AdityaH

What are the things I should install to ensure that the car is driven properly

1. Dashcam - to evaluate the driving sense
2. GPS tracker - can tell you a lot, including location, quick acceleration, deceleration, idle time

[Axe77]

1. Pre hiring:

1.1: Check number of years of driving. I'm generally not too hot on people who have a very new license and very few years of driving. Check his driving history as well. Very often, people who've driven cabs or generic drivers for office pool cars can tend to be hard on the cars, specially if their jobs involve ferrying different employees. These are of course watch areas - not necessary this will hold true.

1.2: Take a trial, if needed even for 2 - 3 days (on a daily driver paid basis of course). My approach is not to say anything about how I like my cars to be driven but instead observe what are his natural tendencies. I recently tried a driver who was VERY hard on the car (wouldn't slow down for anything), and was even WAY too fast on narrow slum occupied roads with small children walking around as is usually the case. Massive red flag.

1.3: Ask headline questions up front of what is important to you. For instance, smokers and paan masala users are a NO GO for me. I just can't tolerate the smell of either even if they've consumed this while they're waiting while on duty. These are addictions and habits that are unlikely to change.

1.4: Check his residence and commute situation and see if its realistic that he'll be able to pull the hours and reporting time you need.

1.5: Awareness of routes in your typical driving areas is handy to know.

1.6: How tech savvy is he. Depending on your needs, a driver's ability to send location pin, use google maps with ease etc can be quite handy.

1.7: Check personal hygiene to the extent important to you. I like neatly turned out drivers and if needed, am happy to assist with some reasonable clothing allowance as well periodically.

2. At hiring:

2.1: Get copies of all IDs including driving license, proof of address etc.
2.2: Get all commercial terms written down if needed and pre-agreed. Including holidays, bonus, overtime, outstation etc.
2.3: Let him regardless be on probation for a month. Its easy to fluff your way through a few days of driving but natural driving style is hard to camouflage over a month long period.

3. Post hiring:

3.1: A dash cam is handy if the costs are justified, as is a car tracker.
3.2: Its a good habit to ask them to maintain a daily log of hours spent (specially if overtime is involved, also to track leave, provide details of petty cash expenses etc.)
3.3: I prefer to top up fuel etc myself, while I'm in the car but some folks maintain fuel logs as well.
3.4: Most of all, treat them well, treat them with generosity. They also have long, hard days and I feel over a period of time, they're the one person from staff who you'd end up spending a lot of time with while being driven. Always useful to have a healthy personal equation where you tend on the side of giving more rather than less on any aspect of your interpersonal interaction.

[dicor]

My driver drives for pleasure, not because it's a job. This means if driving does not involve fun, he will choose to quit. He won't slow down on bumps, he likes to brake and then accelerate during overtakes.

Despite coaching and mentoring a lot, I realized it was not even worth spending time on this guy because of his natural tendency to drive hard.

@Axe77 has covered everything.

I have a few more things to add.

Pre-Hiring

1. His knowledge of recognizing components.
2. His basic troubleshooting skills.

Other aspects
What if he does not meet your expectation? What is your plan to deal with the situation? Managing an employee is also a very hectic job.

Once you have hired a driver, this thread may be useful for you

https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/stree...e-waiting.html

[RGK]

No knowledge of Belapur.

Try to source through established networks, is my straightforward advise. Take his licence from him just to be safe.

Unless he is being paid by your employer, etc., do not take it too seriously. Have a look at his driving style and behaviour for few months. Give him enough time to leave if he doesn't suit your requirements.

[Blackwing]

Some tips from experience:
- Should know English, as many traffic signs in NCR are in English only.
- Discuss the traffic fines liability.
- Ask not to post car pictures online.
- Not to keep the car running(AC, radio, etc.) while parked for longer periods.
- Discuss the food situation upfront(office mess or self).
- Also don't let the driver drive alone for at least the first month.
- Teach a few basic car maintenance(all fluid level check, filter cleaning, etc.)

[anjan_c2007]

An apt topic as conditions at certain times make it essential to engage a driver. Most of the points are covered in the earlier posts. A few from me here as suggestions:-

- After getting details of his identity through documents please check up with the respective traffic police for his past traffic offences, if any. Though very rare, some could have criminal records that could be checked up with the respective police authorities. These are available online for the police in most locations.

- Get your car's fuel consumption calibrated by an accredited workshop and get a document on their letterhead. This can be shown and the driver told that the car consumes this much fuel. We have had government drivers who delivered in the range of 3-9 kms kmpl (of petrol) on govt jeeps with Hurricane engines, 7-10 kmpl on Mahindra MD 2350 diesels and 8-10 kmpl on the Peugeot 540DP and the XD3P engines. For petrol Ambassadors it was a cool 9-11 kmpl for the OHV and later 9-10 kmpl for the ISZ 1800. The Bolero (XD3P engines then) and Ambassador drivers were sane and were allocated duties as such for senior officials.
Back to the topic after meandering as I usually do, would admit that there are some private drivers who also pilfer fuel.

- Next please check the clutch for play on a regular basis as these folks drive a lot with their left foot on the clutch pedal but don't realise their folly.

-Also brakes and A. C. need checks from time to time. Many of the drivers and solely depend on brakes as their saviour. And as regards the AC, many prefer to keep the car's engine on and so also the AC, while the passenger goes for his errand somewhere on a warm day. The driver is in the car with its engine and AC on.

-And quite a few of them are music fans. The music system is played and maybe odd music is blared that the is not music to the passenger's ears. The driver can be forewarned about it.

-Please note the date till which the driver's driving licence is valid. At times they are oblivious about it and hence need to be reminded.

-Lastly a law point. We follow the ancient British law of "Master and Servant",where the master is liable for the acts of his servant. Hence, any negligent act/s by him while undertaking his driving chores that results into liabilities for the employer shall be borne by the employer. Acts like drinking and driving and other such unlawful acts usually end up with punishment for the driver. But in case if accidents and so on the liability in most cases is fixed upon the owner.

[GeeTee TSI]

Many valid points being already covered, make sure the driver understands the car well from the owner's manual basics - especially warning lamps, what they indicate and what (not) to do. A driver of an Octavia in the extended family missed the battery low warning on two different occasions, resulting in a dead car requiring to be towed.

Insist on courteous driving, especially when no one is looking (through dashcam plus an OBD based tracker of driving stats)

[locusjag]

I'm a total noob when it comes to engaging a driver for my car; I simply have never engaged one, ever.

What stops a driver (regularly employed or otherwise) from just driving away with the car?

I have heard in the past that Taxi cab operators retain the original driving licenses of their employed drivers, to ensure that the drivers 'behave'. Is this true though? I mean, it doesn't take much for one to approach the RTO claiming one's license is lost and to have it replaced.

[v1p3r]

Originally Posted by locusjag

What stops a driver (regularly employed or otherwise) from just driving away with the car?

Same thing that stops any accountant or employee from siphoning off money from a company, which is nothing really. You can have checks and balances, but anyone who really wants to, can. At the end of the day most people are decent.

[speed79]

Originally Posted by AdityaH

Any tips or advice on finding a good driver

This is what I did when I was unable to drive due to hand-fracture in car accident last year, and Ola-Uber tired me out in waiting and cancellations: I hired on-call driver from driveU. I took their contact numbers. Among the first few that I liked, I engaged him directly for daily office pickup and drop. It is completely legal/morally correct as drivers are paid by driveU only for the drive hours with DriveU. They are free to do anything at other times.

Now whenever my wife needs to go somewhere (and I am not free) I call him to drive the car. Also, couple of time times when we needed to go to places where it was impossible to get car parking, I have used him. He drops us and parks the car where ever he can find parking.

One benefit of using driveU is that the drivers are sanitised and taught how to deal with customers. Also, they perform legal check and driving evaluation before enlisting anyone.

[Contrapunto]

Originally Posted by Axe77

1. Pre hiring:

AXE77 has covered almost all bases. I will just offer another tip. Ask the prospective driver to take your wife/mother / senior women in the house for a test drive. They are a good judge of how "comfortable" it is to sit for long hours with the driver. It would be deal-breaker if you appoint the perfectly qualified driver and find out that he is a creep you cant rely to drive your family around

[Sedate]

We always employ a quiet one.

Have had enough with chatty drivers - talks a lot and had less concentration on the road. I hated it when I had to be engaging when all I wanted was to sleep after a flight.

A less talkative driver means what happened inside the car has a high probability of staying inside the car - I am talking about the business conversations, calls and conversations. No, not any naughty stuff. Always prefer people who can keep their mouth shut.

[aashishnb]

A few more points I would like to add:

1. If in a big city, unless you get someone through direct references, get a police verification done. I think, there are 2 types - one is where they just take the name in the register types and other is called cid verification or something like that.

2. Ask the person not to sleep or eat in the car during idle time. They'll either keep AC (fuel) on or windows down (dust). Instead, organize a place to sit at your office/home locations.

Linked to 2, try and get someone who can multitask and do some of your other chores (simple works like going to bank, doing some paperwork, etc.) when not on driving duty.

3. Not sure if it works, but worth a shot - if the cars going to be used by your family members a lot & odd duty hours are going to be rare : there used to be lady driver cab services called Priyadarshini and Viira in Mumbai. Both have shut down now I think. See if it's feasible to hire a woman driver.

[Drivaholic@2727]

As a person having a lot of experience seeing my family hire drivers, I know how to check for a good and bad one.

1. The first thing my mom used to ask the driver was how many years of experience he has and what type of a driver he is.

2. Whether he wears seatbelts at all times or not.

3. Whether he can park our car in our parking space as it is quite small.

4. Whether he has any bad habits like smoking or drinking. Drinking is a big NO-NO.

5. Driver's License and Aadhar Card.

6. His educational qualifications and whether he is good in English and the local language.

7. English specifically as when I just came from Singapore, I had no experience in talking in our mother tongue fluently.

8. If he has good technical and how tech savvy he is.

9. Checking his previous employers and why he left.

10. And last but most important a 20 to 30 mins drive with him driving.