Ask any fleet controller in a cab company where tomorrow's roster is. He will tap his phone. The airport duties are in one WhatsApp group, the staff shuttle in another, the outstation trips in his call log. A few drivers are promised in voice notes. When he is off, the next person starts from nothing.
How the problem shows up at 4 am
The airport pickup is booked for 4.30, a 4-hour 40-km package. The assigned driver finished a night outstation drop at 2 and is asleep. His cab is parked in a lane the dispatcher cannot reach. The standby is on his weekly off, though nobody wrote it down. The passenger stands at the Terminal 1 kerb while the app shows no cab.
- Two drivers arrive for the same duty, and one is sent home unpaid.
- A cab sits in the garage because its driver thought his off day had moved.
- An outstation trip is accepted for a driver who is already on a corporate pickup.
- A relief driver is called from the stand at 5 am and has never driven that vehicle.
- A driver ends at 11 pm and starts at 5 am, and no one counts the gap.
These are not rare accidents. They are what happens when a roster is a conversation and not a record. The hub page on taxi, cab and passenger transport names this as a pressure point of the trade.
What it costs
The loss is spread over many small items, so owners rarely add them up. Late pickups lead to cancelled corporate bookings. Dead-runs lengthen when cars drift to the wrong zone. CNG, FASTag tolls and the driver's bata are spent with no fare against them. Tired chauffeurs drift across lanes, miss the garage-in time and skip the vehicle walk-round. One bad night can mean a bumper repair, an insurance form and a week without the cab.
There is a quiet loss of trust too. A driver told on Thursday, by phone and with no record, that his Friday off is cancelled will remember it. He may be the man who is missing on the festival weekend when you need him most.
Why it keeps happening
- 1
The dispatcher holds the roster in his head
He knows every driver's habits, so it works until it does not. Nobody else can check him.
- 2
Demand moves by the hour
A flight delay, a client change or a cancelled shuttle shuffles three duties. The quickest fix is a call.
- 3
Driver leave is informal
A driver pings at dusk and the dispatcher answers with a thumbs-up emoji. No sheet is touched.
- 4
Pay follows trips and kilometres
So drivers bargain for good duties by phone, and favours replace rules.
- 5
No one reviews the week
Without a review, the same uncovered shift returns every Tuesday.
Building a roster that holds
- 1
Write down the fixed duties first
List the staff-transport shifts, the airport slots, the school runs and the monthly-rental cars. These repeat each week, so they can be settled once.
- 2
Make one weekly sheet
One page. A row per vehicle and a column per day. Each cell carries the primary driver and the standby. A shared spreadsheet or a printout pinned in the garage both work.
- 3
Add the rest rule
Set a minimum gap between the end of one duty and the start of the next, and a maximum run of days before a weekly off. Shade any cell that breaks it red.
- 4
Name a standby for each shift
Standby drivers receive a small retainer. They keep the phone on and have a vehicle assigned in advance.
- 5
Set a cut-off for changes
For example, changes after 7 pm for the next day go through the fleet head and are written on the sheet. A change that is not typed is not a change.
- 6
Review every Saturday
Count no-shows, late garage-outs, edits made past the cut-off and duties that broke the rest rule.
Driver-side rules that make it stick
A sheet fails if drivers do not trust it. Give each driver a copy of his own week by Thursday evening, in Hindi, Kannada, Tamil or whatever he reads. Quote the duty slip number for each trip so the sheet, the toll receipts and the trip-sheet agree at month-end. Explain how standby retainer, night allowance and outstation bata are counted. Disputes shrink when pay rules are written beside the roster.
- Show the weekly off in a fixed colour so nobody argues about which day is free.
- Print the badge number and vehicle number on the same row to stop mix-ups.
- Keep the standby list short, with names, home areas and the nearest garage.
- Log swaps between drivers on the sheet with both names and the dispatcher's initials.
If you want the design done formally, see the shift and leave process work. See also how taxi companies handle attendance and shift planning, and employee transport providers where shift timing drives everything.
Five duties to put on paper first
Do not try to roster the whole fleet at once. Take the five most valuable duties, such as the airport slots and the staff shuttle, and put them on the sheet. Watch them for two weeks. Add the rest once the dispatcher trusts it. The dispatcher must feel the sheet makes his life easier, not that it is a check on him.
