BUS DRIVERS VS. PILOTS QUALITY ISSUE

Bus and coach drivers move passengers safely to and from destinations which can be local, national or overseas. Road safety is an important part of the job and bus and coach drivers must always drive with the safety of their passengers and other road users in mind. He might also work in community transport, ferrying schoolchildren, hospital patients and the elderly to their destinations. Their day-to-day duties  include:

• Taking fares and issuing tickets
• Checking transport passes
• Giving timetable or route information
• Assisting passengers who may be having difficulty getting on or off the vehicle.

Driving is very backbreaking job as it includes long hours driving as well as driving in problematic weather situations. Drivers, in our country are unqualified, untrained and also paid very low . They are customary of bad habits like alcohol, smoking etc. and make use of obnoxious dialogues, rash driving and  compete in driving just for fun and plays with their as well as other’s lives. In fact, they don’t know the worth of life. This is one  reason for  increasing  road  accidents  all  over   highways  and  cities  . Delhi city  is  witnessed  to  daily  accidents  by bus  drivers  that  occur  because of  their   illiteracy , unprofessional  behavior  , unprofessional training  and  rough  driving . 

It is the need of the hour to  have  strict  regularity  and  they should  have  following  minimum  requirements:

• University  Graduate 
• Excellent driving skills and knowledge of traffic regulations
• Special  Drivers  Test   to  cross  check graduation skills
• Special  Driving  test  to  check  driving  Skills .
• An understanding of health and safety issues
• Good customer service and clear communication skills
• An assertive but polite approach to unruly passengers
• Good geographical knowledge
• A willingness to work flexibly.

Along the accomplishment of above mentioned criteria, their salary should be augmented to  make  this  profession  more  attractive .

When we  can  have  high  paid good  pilots  ,why we  cannot  have  graduate  bus / truck drivers .We  talk of unemployment  in  the  country  and millions of  graduates who are underemployed . If  we  make driving  an attractive  profession , all such under  employed  and unemployed  graduates will rush to driving schools  for  a decent  jobs .

Commercial pilots get attractive remuneration and incentives  which  runs into  few lacs a month .But in case of bus drivers, they just get merely a sum of  six to  ten  thousand sans any other benefit so it is the need of the hour to employ trained and educated drivers and pay handsome salary to them as it is crucial for:

• Safety of passengers.
• Curtail Accidents.
• Gracious relationship between driver and Passengers.
• Crack the problem of   illiterate  and  unprofessional ,and alcoholic drivers