Cab aggregators, particularly Ola and Uber, have always prioritized building up their driver network to one-up each other. Both companies aggressively hire drivers, sometimes regardless of their background (which caused immense trouble in the past). They’ve also been reported of bypassing mandatory tests quite often. Complaints with regards to the said matter were raised by protesters who stood against the ride-sharing apps just recently.
To regain the faith lost due to logged charges, Ola and Uber have now signed a deal with National Skill Development Corporation (NSDC) to train drivers operating with them. Under this tie-up, NSDC will be training about half a million drivers for Ola and Uber in the next three years.
The memorandum of understanding (MoU) stating a public-private partnership under the ministry of skill development & entrepreneurship for the initiative has already been signed by these competitive cab aggregators. NSDC is also planning to impart skills to over 30,000 cargo delivery persons for an online marketplace, in addition to the training to Ola and Uber drivers.
Talking about the same, Shiv Agrawal, managing director at ABC Consultants commented,
It is a win-win situation for all. Training people in segments that has enough jobs makes it easier for the government to place the trained manpower. At the same time, cab aggregators, with huge expansion plans, can get trained manpower easily and achieve their growth targets.
Drivers will be educated with basic parameters and specifications as suggested by the operators. Moreover, NSDC will be enhancing English skills of the cabbies, helping them operate the apps well. Mobile handling, first-aid as well as customer communication will also be included under the program.
Ola has already stated its considerations towards investing Rs 100 crore under the partnership with NSDC. The investment will assist NSDC with the needed capital to train 100,000 drivers, nurturing micro-entrepreneurship. An official from the cab operator further added,
We have also launched India’s first state-of-the-art dedicated training centre for drivers, in partnership with Rise India and NSDC, at Chapra, Bihar; and plan to launch more such training centres in other parts of the country as well.
While Ola is mulling a 100 crore investment, Uber categorized the initiative under its UberSHAAN program. The program was launched last September only in hand with the partnership with several entities including NSDC. It aims to create more than one million livelihood opportunities in the country by 2018. Uber lending out the details for training said,
UberSHAAN supports driver training, delivered through NSDC’s training centres nationwide, and helps trained drivers receive commercial licenses, vehicle financing, and leasing solutions.
The training will not pace up expansion for Uber and Ola but will also re-create the tarnished image of the giants. It will help the companies channelize drivers to their partner network in a better and safe way.
