The 2-Week mandatory training for new Taxi Drivers : 9 Questions for Transport Minister Goa,Mauvin Godinho.
Ill-concieved, Ill-thought scheme, only to earn commission. The ground reality would not change by this. Minister's coffer would swell though, for sure.
On 29th of May 2023, Monday; The transport Minister of Goa Mr.Mauvin Godinho announced that, henceforth all the drivers applying for a "Taxi Badge" would be required to undergo 2 weeks of mandatory training. While little detail regarding the training was provided, it left almost 99% of the queries unanswered.
Taxis are the lifeline of Goa, and almost the entire tourism sector depends on it. In recent past there have been several squabbles with the Taxi Association and Government of Goa; notably on the installation of fare meter and launch of App based Taxi platform.
Many a times, transport in Goa has been almost paralysed, due to such agitation.
There have been also fights between Rent-A-Cab operators and Taxi operators on several occasions.
While the most sensible and burning issue, of Taxis still not plying with fares announced in Government Gazette and hardly any Taxi driver using the fare meter installed, remaining unsolved, comes this half-baked announcement, to earn nothing but money, by all and sundry involved.
Now, let's look into the scant details of the supposed training program, whose date of start was not made available either, contains :
1)Traffic Signals refresher
2)Taxi interior hygiene issues.
3)Human etiquettes, while interacting with customer.
4)Basic information about Goa.
By all means, this looks like a very haphazard announcement, where announcement was made for the sake of announcement and to earn some brownie points for the department, rather than effectiveness.
Lets look at some of the aspects concerning this announcement, which was missed in the frenzy of announcing it :
1)COST : What is the cost of this training adventure? For 15 days, full-time training, minus the establishment and allied costs, just the man-power cost could be easily Rs.1000/pax/day and may be even higher,if the batch is small. Add the refreshment, establishment cost, may be lunch etc; and this could easily go up to Rs.2,000/pax/day.
2)WHO WILL BEAR THE COST : Going by the cost involved, there is hardly any doubt that, a Taxi Driver would shell out between Rs.15,000-Rs.30,000 for the 15 day training program. If Mr.Mauvin has any of the little common-sense left, then this is going to be born by the state government of Goa.
3)WHO WILL PROVIDE THE TRAINING : Needless to say, State Government of Goa has no band-width to conduct any such training, when it's own RTOs are in shambles, and almost the entire work is handled by Touts, which pay a hefty percentage to RTO officers and clerks. So, there would be obviously and external agency which would handle the training, and that's why this becomes interesting.
4)HOW WILL THE AGENCY PROVIDING THE TRAINING WOULD BE SELECTED? : Going by the past precedent established by the State Government of Goa and the Transport department, most recently Merces Circle Computer Vision Traffic Signal project; this contract would be awarded to a crony party, with contacts with either local leaders or high-ups in party; without undergoing through the capability and past performance.
Most probably the contract would go to the agency which would be able to share the maximum commission, or has the biggest "pulling strings".
5)HOW WILL THE EFFICACY OF THE TRAINING BE JUDGED? : Wherever a serious training program is conducted, at the end, there is a test, for the qualification, before certificates are awarded. Whether there would be any such test at the end of the training program? Would the participants ie the Taxi Drivers would compulsorily take the test? Assuming such a test is employed for the certification what happens, if the Taxi Driver, fails the test? What would be the bare minimum passing marks for such tests?
6)HOW THE ROI OF THE TRAINING WOULD BE GAUGED? : While the concept of ROI (Return on Investment) is totally alien to the state administration and state government of Goa; but when public exchequer money is being spent; the citizens of Goa have a right to know, what has been the ROI of such a mis-adventure? There is no way, that ROI of such a training program can be measured, unless and until there is a plan to take satisfaction ratings and consumer feedback; which is not possible in Goa at least till 2047, for Taxis.
7)WHAT WOULD BE THE MEDIUM OF INSTRUCTION? : Considering the fact that in State of Goa, one can procure a license if she/he has passed 8th standard examination; it is presumed that most of the applicants of "Taxi Patrao" scheme would be not even Class 12th pass. Also, the communication skill of general population in Goa in English, is very poor, with "Goan English" now world famous.In such a scenario, would the trainees be able to fully grasp the material? Would the training session be expanded for the so called "weak" trainees?
8)WHAT HAPPENS IF THE "TRAINED" TAXI DRIVER IS INVOLVED WITH AN ACCIDENT OR AN UGLY EPISODE WITH A CUSTOMER : In India, mandatory training hardly works, unless there is a Damocles sword hanging over the trainees.Unless,there is a provision of hard penalty on defaulting Taxi Drivers, in case of accidents, hardly anything would change, and they shall continue to behave in the manner, they deem fit; and not what has been taught in the training.
9)WOULD THE TRAINING MAKE IT MANDATORY FOR NEW TAXI DRIVERS TO USE FARE-METER? : Well, this is a very funny and hypothetical question because, this is not possible in Goa, till 2047 at least. Also, then this would create, 2 class of Taxi Drivers in the state; and obviously the "trained" ones would rebel, because there is no enforcement on the old ones.
In all means, this new training program for those applying for Taxi Badge, is a sham and for pure optics, ill-thought out, just for the Transport Minister to get the commissions from the agency which wins this contract.
The agency is not going to have any liability on the future performance of these "Trained" Taxi Drivers, and for it, is just an avenue to mint some money.
Again, one of those announcements from the Minister of State Government of Goa, which would not change the ground reality in any way; while it sounds good and is pocket-friendly for the Minister(s).