Days after a Rapido driver was allegedly involved in a gangrape in Bengaluru, the city Police Commissioner on Friday, December 2, directed app-based cab aggregators to get at least two photo IDs from each staff member. Commissioner CH Pratap Reddy requested cab aggregators, bike taxis, and courier service providers, including food delivery businesses to promote the Emergency Response Support System (ERSS), among other security measures. ERSS is an integrated emergency response system with a single Emergency Number -112, to handle all emergency signals sent by citizens by phone call, SMS, e-mail, panic SOS signal, ERSS online portal, etc. The recommended guidelines include background checks on potential hires and the collection of two or more photo identification documents (address proof).
Moreover, he instructed the cab aggregators to compile any relevant documentation for the vehicles used by drivers. Technology might also be used to confirm that passengers arrived at their destinations on time in case of cab and auto rickshaw services. The same may also be applicable to app-based courier services like Dunzo and Porter, to get feedback on whether the order was dropped off or delivered on time. The aggregators can use the Seva Sindhu Portal to check the background of new hires, the guidelines further state.
Further, applications like Dunzo, Porter, and Flipkart are required to ensure that none of their associates or employees distribute banned substances, and that they don’t misuse the company’s uniform.
When employees resign, the companies have been asked to take their ID cards and other company property that were given to them. The guidelines also call for the appointment of nodal representatives to respond to emergency calls at all times. During an emergency, these officers would coordinate with the police and the public. Another measure suggested by the guidelines is that aggregators must organise traffic awareness programmes in cooperation with the traffic police because the majority of delivery agents are ticketed for traffic violations.
This comes days after a bike taxi driver and his friend allegedly raped a woman in Bengaluru’s Electronic City on November 24. The 22-year-old woman from Kerala had visited Bengaluru on an assignment and had hailed a bike taxi from BTM Layout to Electronic City. The Rapido driver, Shahabuddin, took the woman to his house — which was in the vicinity of where she was staying — where he and his friend Akhtar allegedly raped her. The two accused were later arrested, along with a female friend of theirs.