POSTCARD from Hosur-3

Ramesh Kumar

In the run up to the Drivers Day Utsav-Second Edition held at Leyland Management Development Centre, Hosur in Tamilnadu, on February 15, 2017 Transport Mitra Selvan Dasaraj and team literally burnt the proverbial midnight oil. With the team spread across cities - Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai - Thomas Alva Edison's one of several discoveries was deployed via conference calls to chalk out innovative driver engagement planning.

From the word go, Transport Mitras were clear that the Event has to be absorbing and has to have a higher driver engagement. "We don't  want them sitting in the venue like dumb dolls," said Selvan in one of the first curtain-raiser calls.

Having seen driver engagement programs conducted by corporate once a year under some pretext or other - good thing, anyhow - over the years, our objective was to involve them. Hyderabad-based Raghuram Sharma, who spent several decades training Air India cabin crew on smart behavior towards customers, was harping "when phones can become smart, why not our long haul truck drivers?" Solid reasoning.

Seven years, more than 100,000 truck driver handshake at highway dhabas, transport hubs, interstate borders, pockets of villages infested with drivers and their parivar, and deep understanding of their psyche and behavior turned me into an ethnographer. One thing was crystal clear: drivers are good at their core competence. That is, driving with very minor flaws. What they lack or need seriously is a sustained course on soft skills.

As an aside, the big difference between a city-bred and non-citybred is their attitude & behavior. Cocky and confidence, one can say about city-bred. Others will be shy. Same thing holds good for long haul truck drivers as well. In terms of appearance/dressing, knowledge of papers they carry, emergency responses, hygiene, manner of speaking etc.  they are found wanting majorly.

Like Asghar Ali, Head of Driver Training Institute at Jajpur/Odisha of Ashok Leyland once told me that such behavorial changes cannot be brought about in a single session of imparting gyan to them. Why only for less privileged long haul truck drivers? It holds good for anyone - including you and I.

That's  why I get literally 'put off' when big boys of logistics and supply chain of late realizing the importance of Driver Relationship Management (DRM) pose the following question: "We are ready to sign you (Transport Mitra) up to conduct one day session with our contracted drivers. Can you give a guarantee that their behavior will  change after that session?"

Honestly, I have never met a dunce character like that in my life. When I narrated this type of incident to Ali over phone, he laughed at the idiocy. Behavioral change process needs a sustained effort over a period of time. This goal cannot be achieved in one sitting or overnight.

I can understand the pressure from the top management and budgetary consraints. We spent so much of money on one day program. What is the outcome? is the conventional approach. Many a time, told the top honchos that what is being attempted is something like the "toilet training" of one's own kid. Children do not imbibe toilet usage habit from Day one. It takes time.

So, we decided to frame a Smart Driver Contest wherein long haul drivers will be tested on their smartness. One, it will be an engagement with them. Not a dumb charade but an active item. Sharma was assigned to prepare a set of questionnaires on what needs to be asked. This exercise went on for three days before we froze the Questionnaire.

Then, Selvan came out with the bright idea of involving transporters as Jury. "Why not? Let them be involved as much as their drivers," was his take. Luckily, transporters gave their consent.

After the traditional lamp lighting ceremony followed by National Anthem (Supreme Court advisory, remember!) and the Speeches and presentation by Ashok Leyland top bosses and transporters, the stage was set for the Smart Driver Contest.

Vipul Nanda, Jugal Baweja and Manoj Goel agreed to be on the Panel of Jury.  Bhy the way, these three transporters are no babes. Collectively this trio owns - repeat, owns - a little over 3,000 car carrier vehicles servicing the niche segment for several decades. This number is crucial because it exposes them to handling that many number of drivers (long haul, of course) at any point of time, criss-crossing the national veins viz., the highways ferrying mint fresh passenger cars/trucks from automotive manufacturing plants to dealer points or regional stock yards. Therefore, this trio's readiness to be judges to ascertain the "smartness" of long haul drivers was a master stroke. Who  knows the pluses and minuses of drivers better than this group?

 

Master of Ceremonies Raghuram Sharma, who also scripted the Questionnaire for the Contest, briefed the team captains of six transport companies: each team would depute two candidates who would be put through the grind. Considering the fact that the chosen 12 drivers belong to the Juries themselves, no quarter was given. nothing spared. The Dozen got grilled thoroughly by Sharma and the Jury. At times, the Jury posed more questions and expressed their displeasure at not getting right responses. Simply put, there were no biases.

Transport Mitra team surprisingly gave slates (writing pads) and markers to print their score by hand and display them to the audience at the end of grilling of every single candidate. Selvan, Suresh and Vinod kept the Score Board busy writing down marks awarded for each candidate by the Jury.

 

While the top score of 46 being declared as the winner of the Smart Driver Contest, the second and third spots became tricky because there was a tie at 40 points between two candidates. Believe it or not, we did explore this probability and devised the solution well in advance. The tied candidates (two in this context) were called back to the dais and one single question was posed to both. Whoever gave the right and smartest answer would be declared as the Runner Up. This formula worked well.

The Smart Driver Contest was so riveting and engaging, none stepped out of the hall throughout the one hour duration. At the end, the Jury gave away the prizes to the winners.

"Bas? Aur ek round kare?" asked a driverbhai.

Well, in terms of responses, most of them gave decent answers. There were funny moments too. Are they Smart? You bet, they are. But they can be Smarter and.... Smartest too. Remember that their quick responses were based on their real life experience and not text-bookish. Every little nugget of gyan they revealed was of their own learning. That's why we feel they were "smart". A little bit knowledge-sharing with experts in a sustained basis would be beneficial. It is also pertinent to draw attention to the grim fact - yes, grim fact that NONE of them had gone to a proper driver training school. All their learning was self-learning. Why? Because no driver training school existed when they started their career. Moreover, or perhaps they gave more weightage to "on the job training" than class room pedagogy.

Talking about "smartest", it is a moving target and hence needs a long  term commitment from all stakeholders. The route to reach that goal (of Smartest) needs sustained involvement by fleet owners, 3PLs and OEMs. "Sustained" is the operative word. Engage drivers when they wait for loads outside plants by "imparting" them smartness in a driver-friendly format. 

Everything is possible. Transystems Logistics practice of making it mandatory for truck drivers servicing their client Toyota Motors on Bengaluru-Mysuru road to sit through two hour classroom training on road safety etc. with a free breakfast thrown in by them before every trip is worth mentioning. If you skip this classroom session, you get NO load. Yes, it is possible.

OEMs should change their own mindset too. Outsourcing does not mean abdication of responsibility. Let them spend some portion of their CSR funds in ushering in behavioral change of their stakeholders: I mean the long haul drivers serving them - from the sustainability point of view. This ought to be priority number one. Adopting remote villages can wait.

To read POSTCARD from Hosur-1, click :
http://driversduniya.blogspot.in/2017/02/postcard-from-hosur-1.html

 To read POSTCARD from Hosur-2, click :
http://driversduniya.blogspot.in/2017/02/postcard-from-hosur-2.html