(PHOTO: Vehicle ready with load at Jamshedpur Transport Yard)
I ran into Driver Anil Pandeyji at Credence Logistics' Jamshedpur branch office around noon on Valentine's Day.
He was introduced to me by Kalol Roy, Client Service Manager at the branch. Significantly, I could not figure out Anil was the driver till I met him at the Jamshedpur transport yard where the 40 gross tonne Tata vehicle with 27 tonne Tata Steel wire rod was waiting for us to leave. He was immaculately dressed.
"Drivers invariably are expected to wear dirty clothes. Why? We are also professionals. So why not wear decent dress?" he raises a rhetorical question. Good one. Pandeyji claims that his clothes are stitched out of Raymonds' suitings at Raymonds' showroom darjis (tailors). Nothing less. That shows in his dressing sense. Over the next 6 days, I notice his 'uniqueness' at various dhabas en route where he stands out like an odd man even among the drivers' fraternity.
Hold on a sec. He's possibly one of the well educated professional driver. He takes time off to attend safety and driving courses - spending out of his own pocket - conducted by the likes of Volvo.
Due to entry/exit restrictions, we could not depart in the early part of Valentine's Day (Feb 14) from Jamshedpur. The young Roy pillion-rode me to show off Dhamla lake and other vital places in the steel city.
(PHOTO: Kalol Roy @ Dhamla Lake, Jamshedpur)
We passed through Mango area - believed to be a naxal spot over the years. Arup Chanda, ex-Telegraph political correspondent, asked me pointedly about Mango on my return to Delhi later.
(PHOTO: Mango area, Jamshedpur in the afternoon)
The road divider in this area is occupied by vendors - vegetable and poultry items. The central area is sizeable width-wise. People literally cross road from both sides for buying vegetables etc, causing traffic snarls at peak hours (morning and evening). Tatas, who literally own and run the steel city, have managed to barricade whatever is left out.
Over lunch, Editor Ritwik Sinha called up from Mumbai where he had gone for meeting CHEP India topbrass (President Pranil Vadgama and company) to give an update.
By 4.45 p.m., we left (Kalol and self) for Jamshedpur Transport Yard from where we would depart. Ramesh, who would be instructing the crew, had already reached the venue. Post lunch session, the man from Hissar with a long career in crew management at leading transport companies in the country, had given a glimpse of his challenging assignment. It's tough to be a driver in the present time. Once upon a time, fleet owners used to treat drivers as the extension of their families. "There was a lot of respect those days," he says and adds that that crucial element had evaporated, with a tinge of sorrow.
His is 24x7x365 job. While family lives in Hissar, he lives out of Jamshedpur office. He knows the inside out of each crew member: their likes, dislikes, behaviour pattern, crisis management skills and what not. He is cool as cucumber. Drivers talk about their past experience of landing themselves in trouble spot and how Ramesh had extricated them each time with finesse. "Once the accident had taken place, there is no point wasting time poring over the past. What next should be the agenda," he explains.
However, he hastens to add that he studies each accident minutely to figure out whose fault was it and how to avoid such repeats. "No driver deliberately gets into accident. ... You may be driving with utmost caution, but can you vouchsafe for the same safety norms for the driver in the opposite direction?" he asks. Good questions.
Pandeyji puts it succinctly when he claims that he drives on roads with a clear perception that the vehicles in the opposition are "without drivers" and therefore, it is his responsibility to drive with "maximum care". Sounds logical.
What's the psyche of drivers once they hit someone and or killed? Whether you mow down one or more, the punishment is the same under the law is what I understand from my talks. Ramesh's advice in every such incident is to rush to the nearest police station and surrender. "This alone will save you (the driver and his assistant), the vehicle and the load," adds he.
It is not difficult to fathom his logic. Whenever a moving vehicle hits someone on road, a crowd collects and invariably they pull out driver for beating. Besides, they damage the vehicle and loot the goods if it were white goods (fridge, tv, cooleres, washing machine etc). "So it is better, you reach the nearest police station and save everything," says he.
Pandeyji, who had a brush with an accident couple of summers ago, is in total agreement with Ramesh. He had the experience of being chased by a group of locals chasing him on their motorcycles after the accident somewhere in Uttar Pradesh when he was driving away from the accident spot to the nearest police station - 19 kilometres away. He would not have minded even knocking off his chasers-on-bike to save the valuable goods he was carting.
The station officer booked his case and said something which Pandeyji recollects in detail even today. "If drivers don't cause accidents, thiefs won't steal what role the police would play?," is sum and substance of what the law-enforcing officer mouthed at that critical juncture. Needless to say, the chasers were reprimanded when they landed up for trying to cause damage to the vehicle. After paying the penality through a lawyer roped in by his company, Pandeyji walked out. Of course, the case dragged on towards final settlement.
Drivers are psychologically hit the first time. The fear of being lynched by the irate mob is their major worry. Having gone through the experience once, they are adept because they know what's in store and how to handle such crisis. Post accident, Ramesh prefers to send the offending/accused driver back home for a few days to enable him recover psychologically. Proximity to their family helps them recover quickly.
It's time to move. Before Pandeyji and Pervez hop onto the vehicle, Ramesh briefed them on a variety of issues: route plan, delivery time etc.
Sharp 5.45 p.m., we rolled out of Jamshedpur Transport Yard for the 1650 km journey to Ludhiana. The first night we would be crossing the naxal-infested Jharkhand terrain and hope to be in Bihar before daybreak next day.
But it did not happen. Man proposes, God disposes. We were stranded in the middle of Jharkhand's forest area with a huge presence of heavy armoured vehicles on NH 33 and dhaba owners advising us not to proceed overnight but to stay put.
More about it in the next despatch...
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