LOGISTICS MONITOR
Salaam to my driver bhais across India! I am sure some of them may be aware of May Day Celebrations – commemorating the role of labour. Yes, the organised labour under various trade unions with political affiliations may engage in some form to celebrate May Day. Not long-haul truck drivers. For many of them on the job – ferrying goods to help in nation-building activities either to the manufacturing plant or to the marketplace of the finished items – May 1, 2017, is yet another ordinary day. Like any other day.
Maybe he is resting outside some factory gate or warehouse/distribution center while collar babus are busy with their chores. Or maybe resting inside his “coolest” truck cabins under the 40-plus Celsius Indian summer on the edges of Indian highways or maybe a dhaba with several other truck drivers en route to his destination.
Is he aware of the significance of May Day – celebrated as International Labor Day since 1886? May Day began in the citadel of Capitalism, the United States, not the erstwhile USSR. It all began with Chicagoans demanding 8-hour work at Haymarket on May 1, 1886.
Is he aware of his rights and duties as a truck driver? After all, he is a labourer. Rather strangely, in India, a major chunk of them are owner-cum-drivers: put it differently, capitalist-cum-labour – owning two factors of production, yet clubbed mostly as labour and treated like one! Nowhere in the world this sad spectacle is on display! Intermediaries exploit them to the hilt.
Do we, in India, have any special legislation for truck drivers? Good question. Please permit me to introduce S P Singh, Senior Fellow and Coordinator of the Delhi-based Indian Foundation of Transport Research and Training (IFTRI).
On April 24, 2017, this is what he posted on his social media space: “At a time drivers on highways are painted as the villain of peace by all and sundry with suggestions to impose stringent PENALTIES, very little attention has been paid to encourage to open this vocation of commercial vehicle drivers to be educated, well trained and skilled, but can happen if, for the laborious and responsible job, the truck driver is paid wages, emoluments and working hours inconsistent with THE MOTOR TRANSPORT WORKERS ACT WHICH MANDATES THAT TRANSPORTERS EMPLOYING 5 or MORE WORKERS must adhere to the law. As conservative estimates, out of 2.5 Lakh transport firms/ Transport intermediaries/ fleet owners, hardly 5-7? of them follow the minimum wage and social security rules.”
- Hence, the move to check fatigue and performance through an intelligent seat device developed by IIT-Madras is a step in the right direction. The IFTRT suggests that this Intellseat must have a system to check if the driver is drunk or under the influence of drugs, apart from its important intelligent features.
- Though it may not be directly connected to this new Intelligent Seat by IIT-Madras, it should be mandatory for OEMs to supply goods carriers with a full factory built-up driver cabin with this Intellseat, which must have an alcohol detection alarm as well.
- A missing factor is to ensure truck drivers have potable clean water through their regular long journey on highways. OEMs must fit. WATER PURIFIER IN DRIVERS’ CABIN AS MANDATORY REQUIREMENT, SO HEALTHY DRIVER IS SAVED FROM WATER-BORNE DISEASES AND SHALL HELP TO IMPROVE DRIVERS’ PERFORMANCE AND REDUCE DRIVING FATIGUE.
- While Government is keener to have air-conditioned truck drivers’ cabins, it must issue ORDINANCE to have mandatory fitment of Water purifiers in driver cabin and the existing trucks be directed in a time frame to retrofit water purifier, which is a low-cost solution to keep healthy and save him from regular water-borne deceases, they suffer, and it’s affecting their performance.
- Unfortunately, the Government is intriguingly silent on ensuring minimum wage, social security benefits and working hours, providing water purifiers in driver’s cabins; instead, the Government is keener on removing educational qualifications for procurement of CV licenses to “ensure” low-cost drivers {read Motor Vehicles (Amendment) Bill, 2016}, and indirectly making The Motor Transport Workers Act redundant to suit the designs of fleet owners’ powerful lobby.
The fact remains that when basics are misplaced with transport workers being used as “bonded labour”, then mere modern transport intelligence systems like having Intellseat by IIT-Madras lose their relevance and sincere digital effort to judge drivers’ accountability, fatigue, and performance when transporters/fleet owners remain out of the mandatory ambit of Motor Transport Workers Act and also Carriage By Road Act, 2007.”
Today is May 1, 2017. For more than 50 years, a piece of legislation in this regard was passed.
This is what I wrote in the maiden issue of DRIVERS DUNIYA (September 2015), titled “Just on Paper”: Fleet owners will be ready to procure several lakh worth of heavy commercial vehicles, paying usurious interest rates. Ask them about what kind of social contract they have with their drivers, and they will be dumbfounded because they don’t believe – yes, that is the right word – in social obligations. Otherwise, long-haul drivers should be on the master payroll of these companies with social security benefits such as provident fund, medical/healthcare, retirement plan, etc. This is not the case. Forget about all these long-term bonanzas. When executives of companies travel on duty, they have a Dearness Allowance and Travelling Allowance structure, etc. But for long-haul drivers who are euphemistically called ‘business partners’ by some at least, there are no such basic facilities.
One motor malik brusquely asked: “Where is the need? Is he not supposed to drive always?” How does one respond to such indifference except with a look of pity at the questioner? Rich, he is money-wise but bankrupt otherwise. Is the long-haul driver supposed to be behind the steering of the moving truck for 24 hours? Considering that motor maliks are bludgeoning the move to go in for double driver format for national permit vehicles with the Government playing benevolent brother or turning a blind eye, citing that they find it difficult to hire even one driver, don’t the existing drivers need rest for a few hours daily when they are on the move? Are there not any legislative sanctions in this regard? Good question.
Actually, there is a piece of legislation aptly titled The Motor Transport Workers Act 1961. Yes, this is the statute passed during the first prime minister Jawaharlal Nehru’s era. Since then, we had half a dozen political worthies occupying the hot seat in Lutyen’s Delhi. National Highways have come up. Vehicles got upgraded. The quality of fuel has improved considerably. But status quo as far as driver comfort is concerned. Despite the 1961 Act categorically discussing wayside amenities, there is nothing on the ground.
The Act, gazette on May 20, 1961, after being passed by both Houses of Parliament and came into force as Act 27 in Circa 1961. Why such a piece of legislation in the first place? “There are at present certain enactments like the Motor Vehicles Act, 1939 and the Factories Act 1948 which cover certain sections of motor transport workers and certain aspects of their conditions of employment. There is, however, no independent legislation applicable to motor transport workers as a whole or for regulating the various aspects of their conditions of employment work and wages. It is considered desirable to have a separate legislative measure for motor transport workers which would cover matters like medical facilities, welfare facilities, hours of work, spread-over, rest periods, overtime, annual leave with pay, etc. on the analogy of similar enactments for workers in factories, mines, and plantations. The present Bill is intended to achieve this object,” (emphasis mine) the Government said in its statement of objects and reasons while seeking Parliament approval.
Chapter IV, under the sub-head of ‘Welfare and Health’, reads as under: “In every place wherein motor transport workers employed in a motor transport undertaking are required to halt at night, there shall be provided and maintained by the employer for the use of those motor transport workers such number of restrooms or such other suitable alternative accommodation, as may be prescribed.
“The restrooms or the alternative accommodation to be provided under sub-section (1) shall be sufficiently lighted and ventilated and maintained in a clean and comfortable condition.
“The state government may prescribe the standards for construction, accommodation, furniture and other equipment of restrooms or the alternative accommodation to be provided under this section.”
Yes, yes. These provisions are well scripted and etched in our legal framework. But who bothers? Not motor maliks. Not Government. Truck drivers, being unorganised (which motor maliks love the most!), are voiceless. Being nomadic in a manner of speaking, they don’t constitute a solid vote bank, and hence politicians have no interest in them.
At the drop of a hat, many transporters would point to Ramesh Agarwal’s Dudu/Rajasthan Driver Seva Kendra. Yes, he is doing a fantastic job. But one, Ramesh Agarwal, does not make a summer. His tribe is not ready to emulate him regarding driver welfare.
That’s where I see a silver lining in the burgeoning online freight exchanges. These IIT-IIM grads, entering the unorganized transport segment, are talking about driver welfare right from the word ‘go’ because they know in the heart of hearts that unless and until you take care of this specie (read drivers), your future is bleak.
Rivigo, owning 2,000 trucks, is on massive driver-friendly activities. Wish others follow this new babe. Sooner the better.
Well, that’s enough for this May Day, 2017.
Main/Featured picture on top: A file photo of the author with truck drivers and booking agents in Nashik. Pic courtesy the author
Also read by the same author: A world-in-a-hurry for anything and everything opens up job opportunities for millions – THE NEWS PORTER
