Contrary to popular perception that autorickshaw commuters in the city are miffed with auto drivers, data given by commuters analysed by Sugama Savaari — Happy Auto, an initiative of the Bangalore Traffic Police, reveals that over 40 per cent of the commuters have given high scores to their auto experience.
Sugama Savaari is an initiative that seeks to collect feedback from the commuters and reward the autos with a Happy Auto sticker if they consistently get high scores.
As many as 400 autos have been rated since its launch on December 18, 2013 till February 3 2014, and have obtained an average rating of 6.64 on a scale of 10.
An analysis of the data reveals that 41.13 per cent have got a score between 8 to 10, 26.48 per cent have got a score between 5 to 8 and 32.39 per cent have received a score between 0 and 5. M.A. Parthasarthy, who conceptualised the idea of the app, said the traffic police department plans to start issuing Happy Auto stickers from April after each auto receives a minimum of 350 ratings with the average rating of more than 8.
Good response Mr. Parthasarthy said that the have received a good response as they have got more than 1,400 downloads on Google Play store. He said that the ratings fluctuated from 0 to 10, depending on the user experience. “The ratings go to the owner of the auto even though we know that there might be multiple auto drivers for one auto,” he said.
Several commuters have vented their unpleasant experiences also. If one said the driver’s behaviour was rude, another said the auto driver was talking on the phone. Some even said auto drivers asked three times the fare and their meter was not working properly.
“One commuter even said that the auto driver had fudged the new rate list after the revised prices and was duping the customer. The complaints will be forwarded to the department concerned based on the nature of the complaint,” he said.
However, some commuters and users of the app said that they made it a point to praise the auto driver if their auto ride was smooth. Nikhil Nadiger, a final year engineering student, who has rated around 30 autos so far, said that he was lenient in his rating.
“I feel that it is my responsibility to rate the autos and encourage good auto drivers. If an auto driver makes my journey memorable, I make sure that I comment and tell them that there was a need to motivate the drivers,” said Nikhil who said that 60 per cent of his responses have been positive so far.
Another regular user of the app, Aparna Achar, mathematics teacher and a regular auto user who has rated around 25 autos, said that 20 of them were positive. “Most companies have performance evaluation that is used to assess employees. Similarly, there is a need to evaluate auto drivers and reward and recognise the good auto drivers,” she said.
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