How does the corporate cab system for employee transportation work

Most of the common vehicles used are Mahindra Xylo, Chevrolet Tavera, Toyota Innova and Etios, Tata Indica and Indigo, and Hyundai Xcent.

BHPian efuture recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Hello all, I am creating this thread to clear a bug that comes to my mind every time I cross an IT park in Chennai. There are a lot of cabs - hatchbacks, sedans, SUVs / MPVs parked outside the parks and a lot more cabs coming out of the gate.

I was curious how the business is working, who is making money out there, how much corporate companies are paying to transport the employees and why not big buses and vans and why small hatchbacks or some 7-seater SUVs.

I have many friends in IT, but none of them knows how it works even though they avail the service every day. Most common vehicles are Xylo, Tavera, Innova, Indica, Indigo, Etios and Xcent in Chennai. Also, there are not many affordable diesel vehicles available in the market. With this, how this industry's future is going to be without affordable fuel-efficient machinery?

I'm reaching out to the forum members to throw some light on employee transportation in the corporate sector with small cars and MPVs.

Here's what BHPian am1m had to say about the matter:

In Bangalore, usually, the pick-up and drop is from/at the employee's house, so to better navigate the small side roads and to better distribute the pick-up and drop in different parts of the city, I guess they opt for smaller vehicles. The bigger IT companies like Infy do use buses, and I guess for common pickup and drop areas on main roads, a bigger vehicle would work.

On rates- at one company I used to work at, the transport bill used to cost the company 10L a month.

Here's what BHPian Everlearner had to say about the matter:

Our company uses small hatchbacks and sedans for employee transport in Bengaluru since the BLR population is small compared to other locations. Sometimes I chat with the drivers on my way to office/home. Below are some pointers I heard from them.

• The organization has tied up with a vendor who has an app to provide booking/cancellation and also live tracking of cabs.
• The actual contract of the organization is with a large vendor who in turn hires multiple individual cabs.
• Most of the cab drivers are owners as well and they get paid around 55k as a monthly package for a 12-hour daily shift. So, the actual billing rate from the vendor to the org will be more than this.
• There is no separate fuel or maintenance allowance. The driver/owner needs to take care of the expenses within this package. Most of the drivers say the fuel expenses are easily managed with this package.
• Daily workload for a cab involves 2-3 pickup trips and 2-3 drop trips spread across the day. My very crude guess would be around 150-200 KM running per day.
• Most of the cabs are either diesel or CNG.

Additionally, transport via small cars is more expensive for the company. Our Mumbai office provides only TT/minibus type of vehicles with designated stops only on very major roads. Since the BLR population is small, larger vehicles may not get completely utilized. I have heard that BLR office will also follow Mumbai model once we reach a substantial population.

Here's what BHPian raptor_diwan had to say about the matter:

There used to be an agency that partnered with IT companies to provide such services.

Even one of my friends working in IT bought a Toyota Etios car through EMI and leased it to the agency for use as a cab. They provided a driver, and the car was used extensively for about 3 to 4 years. My friend received monthly payments, which not only covered the EMI but also generated a decent profit. When the car reached retirement age ( According to IT companies, they generally do not use cars that are older than 5 years. ) my friend handed it over to another agency, continuing the cycle.

As mentioned by others, not every company is as large as TCS to afford and utilize big buses. Besides, they might lack sufficient parking space. Opting for smaller cars enables them to conveniently pick up and drop off employees even in narrow streets, while also reaching more locations efficiently.

Here's what BHPian condor had to say about the matter:

Many larger IT companies offer a free drop during the night time - say, for people working in the afternoon shift. Night shift folks get a pick-up and drop. 2nd shift folks will need to pay for the pick-up since it is in the daytime, and they often use public transport for this part.

In such cases, they can make do with smaller cars, like hatchbacks.

Others -esp larger companies - do a pick-up and drop for even day shift folks, and these companies would use the larger vehicles.

Pick-up /drop being at door-step, they often have to go into smaller roads - hence here again a smaller car will be better.

I guess it's all about logistics - the number of people on the trip, & the location that will decide the type of vehicles.

Check out BHPian comments for more insights and information.