r2i forum

Hi Everyone

Wanted to hear about how people who have hired a driver are faring. This has been a big learning experience for me.
[LIST=1]

How they hired (ads, other drivers, etc.)

How long they have been employed

How many drivers you have changed

Experiences (good/bad); how did you deal with the bad[/LIST]My case:
1. Mainly ads in local newspapers/ mags
2. average of 3 months. for some reason, I have a way of attracting some of the worst! By no means are they underpaid or overworked. During most of the week it is maybe couple of hours of work. on saturdays, it might be more. sundays are off. pretty cool job and salary on time. also i have given drivers advances but later cut from the salary
3. 4! yes it is true unfortunately
4. good: nothing i can remember on top of my head.

bad: I have had usual issues such as talking back to my wife or not turning up to work if i am not around. advances with very creative reasons....but the worst so far is the one driver who took the car out without my permission.

i caught him and fired him. those who are interested, my sacm antenna got activated when after about 5days of filling up gas (full tank) the guy tells me that we need to refuel. so i did that wihtout any questions. now, i had not gone anywhere on a long distance drive so i started recording the meter reading every night. I stay close to work so I knew any major deviations could only mean one thing. of course since then this has been my biggest concern. i check the meter reading once in a while (random checks) and make sure it tallies up correctly.

So please add your experiences as well. Let us share the good experiences, the pain (mainly of betrayal i would say) and learn from each other!

Best

VJ

One option is to talk to drivers employed by high end auto dealers such as BMW, Merc, Audi, Honda, Toyota etc. These are the drivers that would come to your home to pick up cars for service. Usually the dealerships are very good at screening drivers since they are responsible for so many cars on a daily basis from so many different routes.

In Chennai, the typical pay is about Rs 5000 to Rs 10000 for such drivers. Merc drivers go for about Rs 10k. Many of them have several years of experience.

It is better to pay Rs 7k for a high quality driver than Rs 5k for a newbie, imo. The higher pay acts as a disincentive to do acts such as taking your car out without permission etc.

We drive our own cars (and have been doing for years) but tend to avoid places where parking is a hassle (thereby shutting ourselves out of 90% of Chennai shopping). So we are no considering a driver. And this is the option we are pursuing.

Never never never never never trust them. Let them earn your trust.
Note down odometer readings at whatever frequency you can atleast when you fill gas. Also keep track of the distance covered. You could ask them to keep track of it, including where they went and corresponding odometer readings. And make it a point to inspect it often.
Never have valuables in the car.
Always keep the keys in your posession.
Fire them when you suspect any wrong doing.
Preferably hire someone living close to you.
Make sure they have a cellphone.
Never let them feel that you depend on them.
Never give them money out of turn.
Be nice to them, but they should always know who's the boss.
No should always be your default answer. You should always tell him what you want. Never take their suggestions.
You always decide the route and timings.
You give them respect and they know you are a sucker.
Never let them in on their demands.

In just over a year I am on my 5th driver.
First one was very rash and almost ran over a small girl. He resigned the next day (thank god)
Second driver really didn't know to drive.
Third was an excellent driver but a thief (ran away with 16000 Rs. His mother in law died, His grand mother in law died, couple of times took the car without permission, was a drunk etc.)
Fourth didn't know to drive at all, hit 2 buses on the first day. Lost his job the same day.
Fifth driver is a decent guy and has been with me since December. He once talked back to my wife but what he said was reasonable but otherwise he's very courteous and does his job well. I co-operate when I can with his issues. He has a daughter who goes to school and his wife works, so he's not that flexible, but we manage.

OB1

The first four drivers were paid 4000.
The fifth one I pay 5000. But I told him that he if gets into an accident and I will start deducting his pay.

OB1.

This is our first driver ever and it has been only a week - so it may be too early to comment.

But so far my wife loves it. She used to hate the traffic and the unruly autos and motorcycles that cut in all the time. We rarely go to any place where parking is a hassle.

We hired the driver since someone we knew was relocating and wanted to find a home for what they thought was a good driver. We thought we will try this guy out and keep him if we like it.

We are paying him Rs 6500 a month.

It's been 2 months since our R2i and we are on our 3rd driver.

My basic rule is that driver should be recommended by our relatives, friends (no way for us to go through ads), hence our first driver only started three weeks after our arrival under my cousin's recommendation. It was not easy to self drive in Chennai but that the price we were ready to pay. Anyway my cousin sent a driver that he had known from his work a nice driver. However, handing over the salary i asked whether he had anything to say re driving for us (timing, wages etc..) he only said no he was pleased. There was my turn to let him know that he should reduce speed in ECR, he said yes no probs. The following day he resigned pretending too far from his working place, guess he was short tempered could not take any critics.

The second one came under the recommendation of my neighbour's car driver, approximate 50 good driving skill, polite man. One thing I did not tell we were still using my f inlaw's a flashy Maruti 800 A/C. During the same time I was still looking for our R2i car, Innova, Scorpio or Endeavour. Finally we went for Innova as it's a spacious with a good mileage car. The day we got delivered our driver asked permission to leave. The following day when I gave the key he just refused and said he does not feel comfortable driving a brand new 11.5lakhs car. We were quit stunned as his driving skills were good (for Maruti definetely, and we did not foresee any further driving difficulty for Innova) and suggested that we looked for a driver of "our level", I don't know what's our level :confused:. At least he was straight forward enough to share his fears and finally we have our third driver from local place. We hope he can stay as he he seems polite with very good driving skills.
We were paying 5000 INR / month for all three.

One thing is sure, finding a good driver is a very difficulty exercise in India.

I fired my 5th driver. He was OK, but on weekends (i.e. Saturday) I had to adhere to his timings. Anyways this is the only way for me to get driving on my own.

OB1.

my parents mentioned there is some agency in chennai which provides drivers on a as needed basis. You can hire them by the day or the hour also. Is that pretty common.

yes. we use to hire drivers thru an agency whenever we visit cbe. but we get references about drivers & their location etc. i always insist the agency on sending a local guy.

but there is a risk always. & there is no way or law to blame the agency if something goes wrong!!

nand;39932my parents mentioned there is some agency in chennai which provides drivers on a as needed basis. You can hire them by the day or the hour also. Is that pretty common.[/quote]

How long do the drivers work each day? And do they get holidays on Saturday or Sunday?