[Tejas@perioimpl]

This happened last night.

I stay in south mumbai and i had a night meeting at juhu (north mumbai) and i decided to take an uber because i would be travelling in peak hour traffic while going north.

I finished my meeting at around 1145pm and called for an uber to get back home.

The guy who picked me up asked me after five minutes if he could stop for a tea break because he hasn't had tea since morning. I agree and we stop at a road side tea stall for ten minutes.

After that we move and i doze off. After a while i could feel the car swerving a lot and i wake up (near bandra reclamation) and i see the driver sleeping. Waking him up just in the nick of time and he misses hitting a divider. He says sorry sorry won't happen again. Within 30 seconds he is asleep again and i have to wake him up again.

By now we reach the Bandra Worli Sea link toll plaza.

Now i have two options in my mind.

Either leave the cab and take a new one or drive this one.

I weigh this in my mind:

Pros to leave the cab:

I am safe (hopefully) and the next cab guy won't be sleepy

Cons to leave the cab:

I will have to wait for a new cab to come and pick me up

What if this guy accepts another fare or while driving home sleeps again and gets into an accident?


Pros to drive the uber:

I make sure i am safe (i hadn't had a drink)

I make sure that he gets 20 minutes of sleep to be able to drive back home after i get dropped.


Cons to self drive the uber:

If cops catch me, i'm in trouble because i do not have a commercial license or if there is an accident, i'll be in trouble.


______________

I'm 90% sure in my mind that i'll drive the car because it made more sense while weighing the pros and cons and i generally ask him if i should drive. Without battling an eyelid he pulls over and says yes. That means he must have been dead tired.

I told him not to take any new fare and go back home after i get dropped. According to him his house was close to my drop off.

So i take the chance and drive home without incident.

Just to be safe i recorded the entire conversation as a precaution.

As i drop him, he has the gall to ask me to give him 5 stars!

That really pissed me off.

So i write to uber about the incident and ask them two things:

1. Compensation. I drove the cab and paid for it too! Refund my money

2. Since drivers are online, don't they have a system to track how many working hours drivers are putting in at a stretch?

The answer from uber was typical and they skirted the 2nd question:

Hi,

This is ******* from the Incident Response Team at Uber!

Sorry to hear that the driver-partner was falling asleep at the wheel. I understand that this is a safety concern and it’s not the experience we intend for riders.

Having said that, I hope that you did reach your destination safely. We are striving to partner with drivers who will get you to your destination safely.

Also, though we understand that money is not the issue here, we wouldn’t want you to be unfairly charged for the trip. I’ve gone ahead and refunded the fare to the original payment method.

It’s important for us to know of issues such as this in order to have it handled appropriately. Thank you for letting us know.

Hope to see you in an Uber soon!

This post is just to make sure that you are aware that your uber/ola driver is not sleepy when you get in late at night in a cab.

[Latheesh]

That was scary! My latest Uber experience was different.I took the cab yesterday evening, it was just before starting CSK-KKR IPL match. Throughout the journey driver kept calling different people and betting with them. Total amount he bet was around 5-6K within 20 min journey time.

[PrideRed]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Cons to self drive the uber:

If cops catch me, i'm in trouble because i do not have a commercial license or if there is an accident, i'll be in trouble.

Not sure, but should not your 4 wheeler driving license be valid to drive a Ola/Uber? You can get penalized for not wearing uniform though. I thought the commercial license is only for Trucks/Buses.

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Pros to drive the uber:

I make sure that he gets 20 minutes of sleep to be able to drive back home after i get dropped.

This.

I've been in such a situation twice, none with Uber though. Once, I drove the car myself (and this was Mumbai - Pune), and the other time, I kept him extremely busy chatting and stopped a couple of times for tea. I do realize that neither are really good strategy anyway.

Any time I take a cab late in the night, I make sure I sit on the front seat and keep a very close watch on his body language (to avoid him dozing off) and the speed.

I'm actually impressed with Uber's language here; they haven't come across as the typical condescending customer care that they generally are. And they won't really put anything in writing that can be held against them.

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Not sure, but should not your 4 wheeler driving license be valid to drive a Ola/Uber? You can get penalized for not wearing uniform though. I thought the commercial license is only for Trucks/Buses.

Nope; yellow board requires commercial DL.

[freedom]

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Not sure, but should not your 4 wheeler driving license be valid to drive a Ola/Uber? You can get penalized for not wearing uniform though. I thought the commercial license is only for Trucks/Buses.

Taxi/Cab needs a "transporters license" LMV license. You can't drive a yellow board LMV with the standard license.

[saket77]

Hi Tejas,

This is one strange and hopefully 'one off' incident. But going by the knowledge we have, it must not be unusual for cab drivers like Ola/ Uber to put in much extra hours of work that they can actually handle, both physically and mentally. Because this is direct money. And in the process, they put a lot of lives on risk - the pax, other road users and theirs. Including damage to properties.

The companies should design a system where it takes care of the situation where drivers cannot drive beyond a specified single time stretch. So that they can take the required rest and stay (& keep others) safe too.

It is disheartening to see the Uber mail ducking the main question- the second question. We can just hope that they will look into the matter and come out with solutions. This is as big as a problem for them as well. They surely need to look into this aspect with their expanding network.

Thanks for sharing this experience.

Regards,
Saket

[ashis89]

This has been a frequent issue for me when I take a cab (around 3 AM) to catch an early morning flight. 90% of the drivers were drowsy. This is the time when everyone should be sleeping and I don't blame them. But they should take ample rest during a fixed time every day.

I have made a habit of sitting in the back seat, diagonally opposite to the driver and strike a conversation with the driver. I keep talking to them on random topics every few minutes and keep an eye on their eyes through the IRVM. It does cost me my own sleep during the ~1hr journey but we reach safely.

My experience in Gurgaon was alarming. The driver, must be in early 60s, was dozing at 11 AM in the morning. The trip was short and I kept talking to him all the while.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

This happened last night.

Scary indeed. However there is no mechanism in systems that are designed to work in US/UK and other places to address unique issues that rise up in India. Now, ideally, the driver should have stopped driving long ago, but he's forced to drive as either he's paid too less (if a driver) or had a big Emi on his head (owner-driver).

I would have have done the same and taken over with no hesitance. I had faced the exact same issue during a trip to Goa, where our Innova driver was literally dozing off (4-5 am time). However, he respected the road enough to ask one of us to take over driving or stop for a power nap. I drove for a bit. Since then, I have got myself a TR license just incase. I know we like to be positive, but the complications that could arise incase of any fender bender or God forbid an accident would be too much.

Originally Posted by PrideRed

Not sure, but should not your 4 wheeler driving license be valid to drive a Ola/Uber? You can get penalized for not wearing uniform though. I thought the commercial license is only for Trucks/Buses.

This is partially correct. Taxi drivers have LMV license + badge.

Originally Posted by freedom

Taxi/Cab needs a "transporters license" LMV license. You can't drive a yellow board LMV with the standard license.

Yes. In case of other commercial cars, you need the LMV-TR license. Here's mine-

[pramodkumar]

This was quite a regular thing in 2006-2007, when I was working in a contact center in Gurgaon, my daily commute from udhyog vihar in Gurgaon to Gole market in Delhi was always filled with helping out those sleep deprived cabbies at really odd hours.

Back in 2004 one day there was a 2 wheeler sent for my pickup to work

The cab driver dozed off and an employee was asked to pick me up on his way to office. That was the most funniest moment in my career with cabbies.

Pramod

[Acharya]

Well, I am sorry to hear about your experience.
This is not completely surprising to me, as I have had few near misses with Uber & Ola - once going for late night international flight with whole family in tow, innova driver dozed off between hebbal to airport, which is a proper six lane road. The driver was doing 80kmph and was in middle lane, I had my eyes constantly on rear view mirror, while seated in middle row seat in Innova, as I was expecting him to sleep off.
From middle lane he slowly started moving to right lane, eyes were half open and he didn't do anything to stop his lane change movement.
We were now inches away from the divider and I shouted in a desperate reaction to this situation, by now Innova was just millimeters away from divider and I had my heart in my mouth.
Fortunately, he was back to his senses with my shouts and reacted by giving slight input to steering and we were back in middle lane.
After this, during my remaining journey in this cab, I continued to ask the driver all sorts of mundane questions about where he stays, his family, education and what not, just to ensure he does not go back to sleep.
In another instance, late night return from airport (around 0200 AM), driver dosed off and jumped a big speed braker in front of EMC on ORR, it gave a sprain in my neck, which took almost a week to get better.

After these incidents, I have completely stopping taking Ola/Uber for late night rides and prefer to drive & park at airport.
Ola & Uber have advance algorithms to bring surge prices and what not, but they just don't bother about basics - limiting work hours for drivers for safe driving, no check for driver fitness or rash driving.
They are slowly turning to a Bane from a Boon!

[akshaymahajan]

Considering the number of times in the last one year that I have had to continuously talk to the driver just so that he doesnt sleep, I would appreciate if Ola and Uber made things like this : https://www.amazon.com/detection-Vib...ant-Dangerous/ mandatory in the cabs.

[sharktale]

Possible monitoring solution :

I generally keep mint chewing gums (Chlormint) with me at all times.
Once, I felt that the Uber driver was drowsy and slow in response. I offered him the mint which he gladly accepted. His alertness too increased as he became self-aware that I was monitoring him closely.

Pros :

1. Gives him something to chew and stay awake.
2. One can monitor him chewing the gum for more effective analysis.

Cons :
1. Khaini/paan eating people often don't want to switch to chewing-gums.

[avdhesh15]

Originally Posted by blackwasp

Yes. In case of other commercial cars, you need the LMV-TR license.

OT, but what are the requirements in getting this license? I have also driven during an outstation trip when the driver fell asleep on the expressway! Would be a good thing to keep handy considering the ever increasing infiltration of Ola / Uber in our lives.

[N4Nikunj]

Dear Tejas,

I'm happy that both you and the cab driver are safe. You took a great decision by driving yourself rather than leaving the cab.

Hats off to you that you noticed that car is swerving and took necessary actions. Otherwise, it may lead to big disaster.

[blackwasp]

Originally Posted by avdhesh15

OT, but what are the requirements in getting this license? I have also driven during an outstation trip when the driver fell asleep on the expressway! Would be a good thing to keep handy considering the ever increasing infiltration of Ola / Uber in our lives.

Here are the requirements:
1. You need to have LMV license for atleast 12 months prior.
2. Approach a driving school for license - (You can't go on your own).
3. You need to be 8th Standard passed.
4. Docs like address proof, photo identity proof etc.

Driving school will apply for Learning license (LL). You might need to goto RTO to sign, but this may or may not happen depending on the RTO. Once you get LL, wait for 30 days before scheduling a driving test. The driving school will assist you again on this. At the test 99% of the times, the officer will just ask you to move front and back and ask for purpose of TR, just mention you are starting a business or something. Since you already have a full license, he won't put you through the full test.

Further, in Maharashtra, you need to show that you know the Local language (Marathi), which again is taken care of by the Driving School. Generally you'll be charged anywhere between Rs. 1,500 to Rs. 3,000 for the same.

Points to Note -
1. If possible also get the yellow card made (just a yellow ID card with your photo and details on the car you can drive)- optional. If the cops want to harass you they'll first ask for uniform.
2. From time to time a particular RTO may stop issuing LMV TR licenses if they feel there are too many drivers out there. Just confirm before you apply.
3. This will be not applying for a fresh license but endorsement of additional class on you license. You'll be asked to submit your current license and you'll get the new one after test in 30 days. Meanwhile you can drive your car, but keep the RTO fee receipt handy.