Police Commissioner C.H. Pratap Reddy directed bike and taxi aggregators and food and goods delivery firms to appoint a nodal officer to redress complaints by customers and coordinate with the police round-the-clock .
He met representatives of the companies on Saturday December 3 along with Special Commissioner of Police (Traffic) M.A. Saleem, Additional Commissioner of Police Sandeep Patil, Joint Commissioner of Police S.D. Sharanappa, Joint Commissioner (Traffic) M.N. Anucheth and Joint Commissioner (Intelligence) Raman Gupta.
The meeting was held in the backdrop of the alleged gang-rape of a 23-year-old woman from Kerala by a bike taxi driver and his associate on November 25. The aim of the meeting was to ensure the safety of people, especially women and children, who are availing the services of transport aggregators and delivery firms.
The investigation revealed that the accused got work as a bike taxi rider despite being named in criminal cases. The company had not checked his background before hiring him, which, according to a senior police officer, is mandatory as per the recruitment policy of the company.
The Electronics City police, probing the case, issued a notice to the company — Rapido — seeking an explanation, based on which legal action and recommendation to the Transport Department would be initiated, said C.K. Baba, DCP (South-east).
Mr. Reddy, while giving strict directions to ensure that all companies carry out background checks of their employees, also said that the companies should mandatorily have details of their employees and get minimum two KYC documents from the employees for documentation along with copies of the documents of their vehicle.
Mr. Reddy reiterated that the company should have some technology to gather feedback from customers about the service, time taken and any other remarks .
This will no only instill a sense of commitment to the employee, but also ensure safety of passengers to a large extent, he said.
Mr. Reddy also said that the company should display emergency number 112 and display stickers on their app to create awareness . Delivery firms have been advised to ensure foolproof safety and that they are not delivering banned or contraband items. Delivery executives should be given training on etiquette while dealing with members of the general public and customers, and ensure adherence to traffic rules. The companies should ensure that the uniform and ID card of their employees are not misused.
Police assured companies that delivery staff will be helped by the police if they are under attack or are victims of robbery or mugging.
