The BMTC is in the process of training its employees in safe driving and soft skills and recently finished the training of 200 to 300 crew members. While a few readers had raised questions about the infamous bad behaviour and rash driving of the crew, Sathyavathi G., MD, BMTC, said that the corporation wants to ensure that the crew behaves well with the commuters.
“When there are more than 29,000 employees, it is quite challenging to manage these things. However, it does not mean that we tolerate any kind of misbehaviour or nonsense from our crew to the passengers. We have also reprimanded our crew several times. Customer is king and we do not want them to have an unpleasant experience with BMTC,” she said.
When speaking about thousands of traffic violation cases lodged by Bengaluru Traffic Police (BTP) against BMTC drivers, Ms. Sathyavathi said that most cases have now been closed after the payment of fines and that the corporation had no tolerance when it comes to traffic indiscipline. “As of today, we have some 6,800 cases pending, which amounts to around ₹68 lakh. We also recover the fine amount from the crew concerned and ensure that they follow lane discipline and all other traffic rules.”
Wellbeing of employees
Ms. Sathyavathi said that the BMTC was taking several steps to create a healthy environment for its staff in the backdrop of several allegations of harassment at many levels. “Many times, harassment would happen at the depot levels about leaves and duty cycles. We realised the need to be transparent and started an online leave management system as well as duty rota system to solve the problems about route allotment. We also have a system in place to rightly utilise the spare crew,” she said.
Along with providing a counsellor, 30 staff members were trained about the importance of positive affirmations as a pilot project at NIMHANS, she said. She also added that BMTC wanted to take up a wellbeing programme to ensure that the staff members do not take any extreme step. “We are in the process of improving employer–employee relationship,” she said.
