BENGALURU: Following back-to-back fatal accidents involving BMTC buses, the bus corporation has revised the total journey time of nearly 3,000 schedules (specifying trips to be operated in a day) to reduce stress on the drivers.
Stress is considered one of the major factors for accidents involving BMTC buses. However, drivers and trade unions complain that the stress persists because there is no change in work hours, and the extra hours they work beyond duty timings are not compensated.
General Secretary of KSRTC Staff and Workers’ Federation Vijaya Bhaskar said, “A driver must be given only eight hours of work as per the Motor Transport Workers Act 1961, which regulates the transport workers. However, our drivers are taking nearly 12 hours to complete the trips (for instance, Majestic to Attibele is one trip) assigned to them. With the increase in the running time for routes (called Form 4), they will only need more time to complete it.”
“If the working hours exceed eight hours, the driver needs to be compensated for the extra hours. But the bus corporation gives the trips in such a way that drivers end up spending a minimum of two hours extra and are not compensated.
For example, a driver who starts duty at 6 am, should be relieved at 3 pm, but he will still need some hours to complete the total trips assigned to him. Drivers are under pressure to finish the trips at the earliest, and that leads to accidents. So on what basis is the bus corporation claiming that it has taken steps to reduce stress?” Bhaskar questioned.
He demanded a periodic scientific revision of Form 4, considering all factors like traffic, road works, metro works, potholes, number of speed breakers, number of bus stops and the load factor of the buses and that the number of trips be given in such a way that the drivers can complete it in within eight hours. BMTC bus drivers, whom TNIE spoke to, also requested the above and that it will help relieve their mounting stress.
When TNIE spoke to BMTC Chief Traffic Manager (Operations) Prabhakar Reddy, he said, “Increasing traffic and number of vehicles in the city, ongoing road and metro works, road diversions have increased the travel time and accordingly, the Form 4 for nearly 3,000 schedules have been revised.”
Arguing that the timings are revised based on the Automatic Vehicle Tracking System fitted in the buses, Reddy said they have only been increasing the running time.