Plan to launch ‘Call Auto’ service formally

Plan to launch ‘Call Auto’ service formally
Vijay Times

Bangalore: Call Auto service is already here, albeit unofficially. And most regular customers are senior citizens, even as Bangalore Auto and Taxi Drivers Association has sent in a proposal urging the Transport Department to help start such a service formally.

With nearly every auto driver equipped with a mobile phone, senior citizens not possessing a vehicle of their own are increasingly relying on calling a trusted auto driver whenever they plan going out.

This trend has become popular among senior citizens, while it is showing signs of spreading to middleaged housewives from middle-class families having just one vehicle that is taken by the man of the house to work.

Hemalatha Dighe, a housewife in Nandini Layout, has at least three such auto drivers on her list, who she trusts. She often sends her two children to her parents place in Indiranagar, escorted only by the trustworthy auto driver, who also drops them back at the end of the day.

Madhumati Rao, a severely diabetic senior citizen in Rajajinagar, says, "I have a mobile phone number of an autorickshaw driver whom I trust most and I call him. He comes from wherever he is and picks me up and also drops me back from my destination." Often she pays him over and above the waiting charge as he comes all the way to pick her up.

Most trustworthy autodrivers are those who ferry children to school and back, and parents and grandparents choose such drivers knowing that these drivers would be safe for escorting them and their children.

Sai Kiran, a middle-aged auto driver, says, "It gives great pleasure when someone not just acknowledges our efforts but also trusts us, especially when auto drivers are seen with a suspicious eye due to some of them being involved in crime." However, Somashekar, president, Bangalore Auto and Taxi Drivers Association, feels issues associa ed with autorickshaws can be addressed if a formal Call Auto facility is started in the City rath than allow it to continue without safeguards.



8 Call auto service already there

8 Auto drivers with mobiles in demand

8 Senior citizens regular customers

8 Middle-aged housewives, middle-class families trust auto drivers

8 Formal call auto facility need of the hour