[mayankk]

Originally Posted by AtheK

A friend who works in shell told me that it is compulsory to have a car with ABS & Airbags to be able to get car to office and also security guard won't let you in or out, until you are wearing a seat belt.

Pretty nice i should say, it's a different story that my friend had to buy a new car because his old car did not have ABS or Airbags :P

My BIL was employed with shell. He didn't mention this, but it may well be true.
You cannot accept calls on the handset or through handsfree while driving. Apparently repercussions are defined to be enough of a deterrent.

[GrammarNazi]

I think most of the fortune 500 companies have a strict rule that the top executives / managing directors / key person's are not allowed to drive within the city themselves & must compulsorily be chauffer driven.

Also they're not even allowed to travel cross country by highway roads & must compulsorily take a flight unless absolutely impossible.

People may think this is taking things too far, but given how much shareholder money & how many people's livelihoods depend on the decision of such people, IMO it sufficiently justifies such a rule.

[Rehaan]

Cross-linking to another interesting thread on the subject:

Cars of CEOs / Senior Employees of Multinational Companies : Rules & Restrictions

[Jeroen]

I'm actually not aware of any rules/restrictions we put on our employee- or our own vehicles, other then the usual around compliances with local regulations/law. I know we have a requirement to have seatbelts for all occupants.

And our expats are not supposed to drive their company cars, no matter who you are, irrespective of position, you will get an assigned driver. (I circumnavigated that one by buying myself a 1975 Royal Enfield Bullet). Nothing stops me from doing stupid stuff on my day off.

I have worked in countries where there were some more specific rules. Not necessarily weird ones though.

Sharing one funny stories about how we broke some company car rules.

Many years ago I worked for one of Shell Gabon contractors. We were part of the team that helped developed a huge oil field in Gabon, late eighties. This was smack right in the middle of one of the most dense jungles in the world. Everybody got his/her own LandRover or LandCruiser assigend. And you had to follow a 2 day compulsory course on how to drive these things, how to use the winch, first aid etc. Only dirt tracks at best! So a bit of off road instructions definitely useful.

Anyway, after about half a year there was a substantial road network opened up throughout the jungle, to all the various wells, pumping stations etc. All dirt tracks. This oil field was huge, hundreds and hundreds kilometers in all directions. So you had to cover massive distances on these tracks. So people started driving really, really fast, we had a few accidents and Shell had speed limiters installed on every car out in the jungle. Speed limit was set to 40 km/h.

Sort of understandable, but a bit of a bummer too. Than somebody found out if you managed to get these cars up to about 55 km/h the speed limiter would not work. The minute your speed dropped below 55 km/h it would kick in and you get stuck on the 40Km/H.

So we took some bulldozers and created huge mountains at various strategic places near downward stretches of hills as well. You would back up your LandRover and then drive down as fast as you could and hopefully get it through the 55 km/h barrier and then just keep the metal to the pedal all the way!! At all cost keep it above 55 km/h!

It was great fun until some Shell busy bodies found out. So they flew in a bunch of speed guns. They deployed security staff with speed guns all over these dirt tracks all over the jungle. I kid you not!

Anybody caught speeding was immediately dismissed and was never allowed to work for Shell Gabon ever.

That got us sticking to the speed limit.

Jeroen

[GTO]

Originally Posted by VW2010

Not sure about the time saving here. It takes the same time to actually park in that position and Time wise its all the same.

If you park your car with its butt outside, you have to make a 2-point turn to get out. With the face out, you can just turn and zoom away. It's quicker and especially helpful in an emergency.

Originally Posted by GrammarNazi

I think most of the fortune 500 companies have a strict rule that the top executives / managing directors / key person's are not allowed to drive within the city themselves & must compulsorily be chauffer driven.

The reason for this could be:

1. The company not wanting its top executives to get stuck in a court matter (relating to a road accident).

2. The company doesn't want its top executives to waste a single minute of their time. During the commute (easily an hour in the metros), the CEO can work on his laptop, take calls etc.

This thread reminded me of Vodafone's rules.

If you are a Vodafone employee, using a mobile phone while driving will earn an official reprimand from your employer over and above the traffic ticket. Any more violations of a list of seven absolute rules drawn up by Vodafone and you could lose your job.

At last count, three Vodafone employees have been fired for drunken driving and 27 reprimanded for such violations of its 'Seven Absolute Safety Rules'. This apart, 37 employees of vendors have been barred from working for Vodafone and over 60 have been warned. Most such violations are at junior levels.

Full Economic Times Article

[verma_rahul]

Originally Posted by GrammarNazi

I think most of the fortune 500 companies have a strict rule that the top executives / managing directors / key person's are not allowed to drive within the city themselves & must compulsorily be chauffer driven.

Also they're not even allowed to travel cross country by highway roads & must compulsorily take a flight unless absolutely impossible.

People may think this is taking things too far, but given how much shareholder money & how many people's livelihoods depend on the decision of such people, IMO it sufficiently justifies such a rule.

Just to add to it, top level executives/key personnel are not even allowed to travel in the same flight, in case all of them are travelling to the same destination.

[vijit.gangwar]

Originally Posted by saket77

I heard from someone that a Tata motors office at some particular location allows only Tata cars to be parked inside the premises.
Cars of other brands are supposed to be parked outside!

I think this is more weird than your friend's experience with L&T!

This is absolutely not weird.

Tata Motors Pimpri only allows Tata cars to enter.
MSIL Gurgaon only allows Maruti cars to enter.

Something like this is very common. It is a way of promoting their own cars among employees.

[iamahunter]

Originally Posted by turbodude

One of my friend works in L&T Infotech and recently had to change the registration of his car. Reason? He needed a vehicle sticker and L&T Infotech does not issue a sticker unless employee owns the car . This rule applies to both 2 wheeler and 4 wheeler. Now he has become second owner of his own car. Also he cannot take any other family vehicle to office.

Firstly IMHO its not very good to take the name of the organization on a public forum, especially if you are going to talk about its policies.
All the company policies are strictly CONFIDENTIAL.

Coming to the parking issue. The rule of only allowing to park the car/bike, inside the stilt parking is from a long time.
I too think that the rule pointless.
But its probably the company's way of asking employees to use the bus/cab transport provided.

Saying that, the company would not have allowed your friend to park in the stilt parking,
but would definitely allow to park on the open spaces around the building.

Originally Posted by turbodude

Another rule in the company that you must park your car in such a way that it faces the road in between. It cannot be parked in a position in which headlights are facing the compound wall.

As GTO rightly pointed, its a way to quick exit. As the cabs leave at similar timings, it may cause a congestion if you take a 3 point turn.
Plus you get a clear view of the oncoming vehicle while exiting from parking spot.

[mallumowgli]

Hyundai also has a policy of not allowing other make cars inside. My colleague in my previous company visited their Paint shop Sriperumbudur works - he was in an Indicab. They took him inside in their own Santro leaving the cab parked outside

Originally Posted by iamahunter

Firstly IMHO its not very good to take the name of the organization on a public forum, especially if you are going to talk about its policies.
All the company policies are strictly CONFIDENTIAL.

OT: If an employee publicizes his own company policy then the employee may be in trouble. If it is confidential, it is their duty to keep it so - the rest of the public are not bound by it. I don't think any company can take action against any outsider or independent portal posting about their actions in a public domain!!

[Lambydude]

My company at Embassy golf links, Bangalore has some good rules regarding employee parking. You can't ride a bike or ride pillion without wearing a helmet. Same with wearing a seatbelt. Also,it is good to see that the security in modern office spaces are empowered to make people adhere to the rules. I have seen on multiple occasions where new employees try to throw the 'Do you know who I'm' attitude while breaking parking rules. It's hilarious to see how they have to bow down at the end and obey the security.

[sidparekh]

Originally Posted by verma_rahul

Just to add to it, top level executives/key personnel are not even allowed to travel in the same flight, in case all of them are travelling to the same destination.

This too me seems very logical, if not the most practical. It may be in place to avoid incidents where in case of a crash/accident, all the top decision makers' lives are at risk.

Past Occurrences:

http://articles.latimes.com/1993-12-...top-executives

http://community.seattletimes.nwsour...7&slug=1323517

[Eddy]

In my previous organisation, entry was prohibited for:

1. Two wheelers without riders wearing a helmet.
2. Cars running on illegal LPG cylinders (this was a rage in Delhi once).

Both rules made perfect sense to me !

[pedrolourenco]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

See this from a safety point of view. Parking the car facing the road/gate will enable quicker exit than say reversing the car. It's a good practice to reverse the car into the parking slot. While going out (incase of some emergency), you'll not waste time.

This procedure was first developed by oil companies for their refineries. Today is is a common practice in many industries. Also it is a common practice for emergency vehicles (Ambulances, Fire Trucks etc) to be parked this way

Originally Posted by AtheK

A friend who works in shell told me that it is compulsory to have a car with ABS & Airbags to be able to get car to office and also security guard won't let you in or out, until you are wearing a seat belt.

I heard from a Shell employee that this rule is applicable even outside the their premises. It is even applicable if you are driving you own car even for non work purposes and if you are seen by another employee and it gets reported they take is very seriously. This rule has probably got something to do with the insurance as employees are covered by insurance even when off duty.

[Carz77]

Originally Posted by vijit.gangwar

This is absolutely not weird.

Tata Motors Pimpri only allows Tata cars to enter.
MSIL Gurgaon only allows Maruti cars to enter.

Something like this is very common. It is a way of promoting their own cars among employees.

this is quite common across many Auto companies. I have seen this happening even in Chrysler and GM in US. I believe it is the same at Ford too.
I think this policy is mainly to encourage the employees to buy their own products. They often have employee discount programs to promote their cars

[saket77]

Originally Posted by vijit.gangwar

This is absolutely not weird.
Tata Motors Pimpri only allows Tata cars to enter.
MSIL Gurgaon only allows Maruti cars to enter.

Only because if it is a rule or if Maruti or VW does it, does not makes it any lesser weird.

Originally Posted by vijit.gangwar

Something like this is very common. It is a way of promoting their own cars among employees.

Disagree with this way. There are better ways available to promote their cars with their employees like giving easy and attractive finance and discounts. Restricting to park in the premises is like pushing vehicles down the employee's throat. It may be a rule with some corporates, but it simply doesn't make any ethical sense.
High flying corporate bosses might feel happy to see their brands parked everywhere though.

Regards.