by Surajit Das
Indias burgeoning BPO, KPO, and IT/ITES industries with 24/7 work shifts have necessitated the need for corporates to provide cab services for the safety and security of their employees. The transportation sector in India is currently valued at a whopping USD16 Billion, of which about USD2.5 Billion is spent directly by Indian corporates. Yet, the domain still suffers from a lack of tech intervention.
Most organizations still follow a paper-and-phone-based transportation process. This comes with a diverse set of challenges, most notably the difficulty of scaling such models as an organization grows. Apart from skyrocketing costs and revenue leakages, confusion, lack of accountability, and unnecessary expenditures also loom large. Transport Automation Systems are aimed at overcoming these challenges.
Essentially, these systems are tech-focused and end-to-end Transport-as-a-Service tools that facilitate seamless solutions to employee transportation issues such as rostering, routing, and tracking cabs. By utilizing cutting-edge technologies such as cloud computing, Artificial Intelligence, and automation, such companies can offer a host of benefits for corporate organizations, some of which are mentioned below.
Reduced financial burden
Conventional manually-managed transportation systems can lead to financial losses at multiple levels. Traditional cab services employed by corporates charge on the basis of location and duration of trips, which can vary greatly due to ill-planned routes. This results in companies paying exorbitant sums significantly higher than what an optimal route map would cost.
Transport Automation Service providers, on the other hand, offer favorable billing mechanisms based on kilometers traveled from point-to-point. This can help corporates save a considerable sum of money, which can then be invested towards other critical functions.
Saves human effort
One of the most widely-appreciated benefits of automation is the fact that it saves labor. A manual transport system takes more time and effort, and is prone to operational inefficiency. This makes automation a much more attractive alternative. Transport Automation Systems offer simple rostering, fleet planning, fleet deployment, and billing services. Driver trip-sheets and employee boarding/de-boarding information can be maintained with a click of a button through mobile- or web-based applications. Further, data and insights collected on a day-to-day basis from drivers, employees, and transport managers can be consolidated and interpreted in an efficient manner through automated processes, leaving human agents with sufficient time to focus on more pressing concerns.
Increased employee safety
The safety and security of employees is the overarching goal of company-sponsored transport systems. Owing to rotational shifts and increasing focus on women safety procedures, it is essential for companies to provide cabs that ensure the safe pick-up and drop of employees. Transport Automation System providers come equipped with robust security features such as SOS calls, built-in panic buttons, real-time vehicle tracking, number masking, and driver profiles. They also provide employees with one-click conformation options to notify their employers when they board cabs and finally reach their destination. Through these features, corporates can ensure the utmost security of their employees and ward off untoward incidents, which can cause severe damage to the organizations reputation.
Increased employee productivity
Often, employees reach late to work due to delayed cab pick-ups and multiple pick-ups from locations that do not fall on the shortest route. This significant loss of productivity is particularly undesirable in high-intensity, time-sensitive sectors such as IT/ITES, BPO, and KPO. Moreover, longer travel times per day can lead to poor health and fatigue among employees, while extreme cases can lead to attrition. Automated Transport Systems utilize innovative technologies such as artificial intelligence to predict the number of employees who would travel on a particular route by factoring in cancellations and identifying routes with the least traffic, based on the time and day. Post such analysis, these systems automatically create the shortest and most time-efficient routes for employees. By reaching to and from work on time, employees can enjoy the much sought-after work-life balance and offer their 100% at work.
Monitoring driver behavior
The cab sector in India is highly unorganized. Fleet operators employ undocumented and unverified drivers, putting the safety of employees in jeopardy. Transport Automation Systems allow companies to integrate driver profiles into their system in order to have access to detailed information about them. These systems also provide an efficient feedback system through which employees can rate drivers and leave comments about their behavior and driving skills. Advanced technological systems integrated into cabs can keep a track of driving speeds and identify instances of rash driving. All these options ensure employee satisfaction with company transportation services, along with better employee safety.
Transport Automation Systems benefit the management as much as they benefit employees. With an end-to-end transport management system in place, companies can increase profitability while ensuring that theirs is an organization completely compliant with the employee safety and security norms. Companies offering superlative cab services also have happier employees who feel a sense of security while traveling to and from work, day after day.
Surajit Das is the CEO and Co-Founder of Route