Many Calcuttans are now hiring drivers to take them home from pubs, clubs and private parties.

Police clampdown on drink-driving and the availability of drivers for one-way trips have contributed to the trend, said driver agencies and those who hire them.

Ranadeep Mukherjee, a Jadavpur resident, watched the T20 World Cup semi-final clash between India and England at a friend’s place in New Alipore on June 27. He drove his car to the friend’s place.

The group drank beer and snacked on pizzas as they watched the match. Shortly after midnight, Mukherjee booked a driver from an app. The driver reached the New Alipore house in 15 minutes and Mukherjee was home around 1am. It cost him around ₹350.

“Earlier, I would have had to hire a driver from the local driver centre. I would have had to pay the standard rate for five hours plus extra night charges. Now, I regularly use this app for one-way trips,” said Mukherjee, who works with an IT services company.

The app-based driver rental platform was started by a group of Calcuttans almost five years ago.

Drivers4Me now sees around 400 daily trips on average, compared to around 15 in 2021, when it started getting some traction.

The pick-up locations of the trips are often party zones.

“One in every three trips is a one-way trip. A sizeable percentage of the one-way trips are from places like Park Street, Camac Street, Theatre Road, Sarat Bose Road and Salt Lake. The number goes up from the evening and on Friday, Saturday and Sunday. This suggests many of the users are using our app because they do not want to drink and drive,” said Rajarshi Nag, 26, one of the founders of the app.

The app, available on IOS, Android and Web, offers drivers for private or commercial vehicles.

On any given day, vehicles are checked by Kolkata traffic police at around 50 crossings for prosecuting motorists for drink-driving.

The checking is carried out between 10pm and midnight and then again between 3am and 5am every day.

The punishment for the first offence of drink-driving is a fine of ₹2,000 or six months imprisonment. Repeat offenders are to be fined ₹3,000 or jailed for two years.

“We always encourage the bars and nightclubs to promote their guests either to hire drivers or cabs to return home if they have consumed alcohol,” said an officer of the Kolkata traffic police department.

The Drivers4Me app has collaborated with some clubs, including the Calcutta Rowing Club.

“The app is very useful. Several members who frequent the bar use the app to hire drivers when they go home,” said Chandan Roy Choudhury, the club
secretary.

Several women also use the app, some of them at night.

“A driver has to go through seven layers of screening before getting on board. Apart from driving tests and medical fitness, there is a detailed background check and a psychometric test by a qualified psychologist. Of every 100 driver applicants, 60 to 65 get selected,” said Paramartha Saha, 27, another founder of the start-up.

The app has around 30 female drivers now. An algorithm tries to assign female drivers to female customers subject to availability.

“We want to increase the number of female drivers and add a feature in the app to
select female drivers,” said Nag.

The city is brimming with pop-up “driver centres” in almost every neighbourhood but Drivers4Me offers tech-based solutions to several teething problems in hiring a driver from conventional places.

The app offers various conveniences such as getting to see a copy of the driving licence, hiring a driver for a minimum of two hours or hiring a driver only for a one-way trip.

Around 5pm on Monday, the cost of a one-way trip from Park Street to Ballygunge Phari was ₹290 on the app.

The standard rate of hiring a driver from a centre is around ₹400 for five hours. Driver centres are numerous but one thing is common — the rate is fixed for five to six hours. Even if a driver is needed for just a few hours, the rate is non-negotiable.

Shantanu Das, who runs a drivers’ centre that caters to areas like Behala, Thakurpukur, Parnasree and Taratala, said he now gets one-way trip offers, especially on Friday and Saturday. “I can provide a driver for a one-way trip. But I have to charge for a round trip. If the car location is far away, then the driver’s travel expense has to be borne by the owner,” said Das.

In 2020-21, the Drivers4Me platform had around 600 drivers and 20,000 users. Now, the platform has over 2,000 active drivers and more than 2.5 lakh customers.

A user has to mention the segment of the car — hatchback, sedan, SUV or luxury — at the time of booking
a trip.

A driver is assigned accordingly.

“A lot of app cab drivers have joined us in the past two years. Many drivers who have fixed duty hours join our platform after their work. We keep a commission of around 18 per cent per ride. The standard cut for aggregators is over 25 per cent,” he said.