Door-to-Door, Literally

Not long ago, the biggest issue before BPO companies used to be getting an IPLC on demand. Today, and sadly for the immediate future, the Indian BPO industry has to tackle the issue of moving large numbers of employees from homes to offices and back. 

Most BPO companies–especially larger companies–have realized the ‘criticality’ of an optimized, trouble-free transportation system and are doing all that is possible to put such a system in place. What adds to the complexity of the system is that safety and security have also to be ensured, considering that there are a large number of female employees. 

With no ideal model in place, everyone is trying to create a good system from scratch, experimenting, innovating on the way.

It is to the credit of the companies that not a single untoward incident has happened concerning the safety of employees, in any of the major centers–like the National Capital Region (NCR), Mumbai or Bangalore. And this, despite the fact that crimes happen in broad daylight in these cities sometimes. 

It has, of course, not happened incidentally. Companies have taken all measures possible. They have not only put very senior executives in charge of this function–in Wipro-Spectramind, EXL, and GE, vice-presidents are responsible for it, while in Hinduja TMT, it is the CFO’s responsibility–they have managed to design really sophisticated systems for the purpose. 

Mammoth Task

In the NCR region alone, there are as many as 2,500 vehicles plying for the BPO industry. This large number is a result of the fact that these vehicles are Tata Sumos and Toyota Qualis’. Door-to-door pick-up and drop simply means one cannot deploy large vehicles. It is estimated that in the top five-six cities alone, as many as 10,000 vehicles are deployed for the purpose.

With each vehicle operating at a cost of Rs 44,000 to 48,000 per month to the BPO company, that is close to Rs 45 crore per month on an average, or Rs 540 crore per year. 

Surely an industry of this scale and size would involve several complex processes. Complexities that arise because of dynamic change in shifts and process and the sheer scale of BPO operations. “Add to that, the door-step pick ups and drops because of the odd hours and you practically have a nightmare in your hands,” says Rakesh Kumar, V-P infrastructure and strategic resources, Wipro
Spectramind. 

So how have companies coped with this nightmare? There is no magic formula. “One has to constantly innovate to address the challenges which come up everyday. Nobody can say that there is a set process that will take care of all day-to-day issues. It is a challenge but it is what keeps us going. In the end, it is a pleasure overcoming issues,” adds Kumar.

Unique Challenges

No technology vendor has been able to come up with an end-to-end solution addressing all aspects of the transportation needs. While Baan offers a solution for duty rostering, it is not capable of handling the dynamic changes required in vehicle routing. That is why, EXL Ltd, despite having an ERP software in the back-end, opted to develop in-house, a GIS-based solution for handling logistics in the front-end. In fact, the company is contemplating to offer its solution to other players in the industry. 

Besides the lack of appropriate offerings, other reasons why companies have not automated its front-end for vehicle routing with its duty rostering include lack of commensurate returns for the high investment costs. Being a volume game, processes, particularly automated processes will yield returns only after a critical mass, say 1500 employees or so.

Therefore big players like EXL and Spectramind ferrying 2,600 employees and 8,000 employees each day have automated its front-end. ICICI OneSource ferrying over 3,000 employees each day is in the pilot phase of testing software that would automate the routing of vehicles. The smooth flow of information is very critical in successful routing of vehicles. The information flow within companies is something like this: the customer service/support executive informs the team leader about any change in plans. The team leaders in turn either informs the administration about changes in rostering, shifts or updates the changes in the software wherever the process is automated. If the process is automated, routing is easily taken care of by the software and in cases where it is not automated, administration looks through the roster to decide the best vehicle to allocate the pick-up. In companies like Hinduja TMT, each employee fills a form and puts it in the drop-box informing about their pick-up and drop which the administration opens and checks each day to allocate routing.

Complex too…

If managing the backend to ensure smooth flow of information and allocating the right vehicle is important, it is even more critical to ensure that decisions are executed within expected parameters. Here the companies have the onerous task of handling real-time issues like ensuring that vehicles are on time and passengers reach destinations safely. Although all companies insist that vehicles be equipped with speed governors, a large part of the safety factor is dependent on the training and discipline of drivers. Many companies have inserted it as part of the SLA to have adequately trained drivers.

While Wipro-Spectramind gets their drivers trained at the Hubert Neber Training Institute, EXL trains its drivers at a reputed training Institute at
Faridabad.

Others like Hinduja TMT, GTL or TracMail have instituted periodic driver-training sessions, which include teaching soft skills and emergency response time among other things. Despite such provisions errant drivers do exist, since the transport industry is extremely disorganized and there is no way of monitoring the behavior of drivers. Therefore each company has to design their own safety valves. EXL for instance has instituted random checkpoints by company officials at various places in the city while Global TeleSystems routinely asks for monthly feedback about drivers from employees.

At the same time, the unstructured nature of the industry also leads to a lot of exploitation of drivers who can really be overworked. Companies therefore maintain strict roster compliance that do not allow drivers to work for more than eight hours a day. 

Having a stable list of drivers is beneficial to the companies because they get familiar with the company’s way of operations, the city’s landmarks for easy pick-ups, and also their behavior pattern becomes predictable for the company. Due to such reasons, companies like EXL have taken up negotiating benefits on behalf of drivers with transport vendors. At the same time to maintain the motivation level of drivers and supervisors Spectramind has instituted monthly awards for the best driver and supervisor.

Security of passengers is a prime concern, particularly since the industry employs a huge number of female employees. As a thumb rule, first female pick-up or last female drop back is avoided even if a male colleague has to drive a few extra miles.

In addition, most companies also provide for a security guard in case a female employee is traveling. Besides, companies which have installed radio systems require the driver to report back after each drop-back to the central base station within the office premises. EXL has also mandated its drivers to report back to the base-station every 5 km. The radio system is quite commonly used in Delhi along with mobile phones while cities like Mumbai and Bangalore have shown a preference for mobile phones. 

To ensure vehicles reach in time, drivers are instructed to wait for employees for not more than 10 minutes. They are also required to fill in a detailed arrival form, which also reflect the cause of delay if there is any. Later the delay is investigated and penalties imposed on the transporter if the cause is deemed avoidable. 

But here transporters have complained that penalties are too stiff resulting in loss of good drivers since many times delays are due to reasons like traffic jam, which are beyond the control of drivers.

Safety also entails that vehicles are in tip-top condition. Companies usually ask for vehicles which are not more than two years old as part of their SLA. They also ask for supervisors from the transporter’s side to be appointed at the company premise to keep track of vehicle condition. In addition, there are periodic vehicle supervision from the company side as well. In case of breakdowns or any other emergency, drivers call up the base station on their mobile communication system.

Senior managers insist that the most important key in the entire jigsaw is to ensure that the right transporter is selected. It is important to check the financial background of the transporter so that he is able to scale up. 

“In fact, the best way to get the maximum out of the vendor is to ensure that the vendor owns the vehicles he is plying so that his interest level in the contract is maximum,” says Sumir Anand, V-P, finance, facilities, logistics and business continuity at EXL Ltd. 

The cost of providing transport accounts for 6—10 percent of the company’s total expenditure averaging about Rs 3,000-3,500 per employee each month. In cities like Mumbai, companies are particular about the area of recruitment since it would add to the company’s cost. “Usually the recruitment takes place within an area requiring a maximum travel time of two hours,” says Melwyn Lobo, Head of BPO administration,
GTL.

Companies follow various payment methods. Hinduja TMT has opted for a fixed billing of per employee while GTL also has a kilometer-based billing system that is capped at 100 km. 

It is surprising that despite the pressing needs and the complexity of scale, BPO companies have managed transportation absolutely on their own. There has been no attempt to share resources or come on a common platform to discuss issues that the industry may be faced with. The industry may not be mature enough to share resources but there are now voices for the need for a common platform. 

Considering that companies work with a number of vendors, negotiating can become a Herculean task. Wipro-Spectramind has 30 vendors, EXL works with seven vendors, ICICI One Source works with six vendors and GTL has three vendors catering to them. “BPO players should jointly discuss rules and regulations and negotiate better terms with vendors. There is a lot of meter tampering and cheating in small amounts which becomes a substantial sum over a period of time.” says EXL’s Anand. Similar concerns have been expressed by transportation managers in other BPO companies too. 

Hopefully, the industry will realize that two heads are better than one and come together on a common forum to exchange best practices.

Balaka Baruah Aggarwal in New Delhi