Be careful this New Year’s Eve. While you have the licence to party till there is no room for drunk driving and as celebrations for the year gone by begin today, the Mumbai police are adopting a tough stance against drinking and driving. But with agencies like Party Hard Drivers (PHD) around, most Mumbaikars can ditch plans to drive altogether. “Our past experience has taught us not to plan anything for D-Day. The demand superseded our arrangements because we had not foreseen such a huge response. We have put that behind us and have planned and organised our structure for better services this year. We have increased our database of drivers to cater to the rise in demand,” says Ankur Vaid, founder of PHD. Currently, the agency is booked till January 1 and is arranging for more drivers to facilitate the increasing number of partygoers.
The brainchild of Mishal Raheja, an aspiring Bollywood actor, Saurabh Shah, a stockbroker and Ankur Vaid, the PHD came into existence in 2007. Incidentally, the reasons for starting this service were twofold. With all the accidents happening in the city because of inebriated driving, its founders thought that a chauffeur service for people who go out drinking would be a brilliant idea. “Our drivers would then drive them home safely in the comfort and privacy of their own cars,” says Vaid. Also, the crackdown by the Mumbai Traffic police really motivated and convinced the partners to work on the model. Since they began the anti-drunk driving campaign two-an-a-half years ago, the traffic police have convicted a whopping number of 20,000 motorists. In 2008, the last week of December saw 793 motorists being booked for drunk driving while returning from New Year and Christmas parties. Vaid says, “Today, the Mumbai Traffic Police have heard of us and have appreciated the work we do. Mr Harish Baijal, who was the initiator for the drinking and driving law, has gone out of the way to appreciate PHD and the work we were doing.”
The workings
The PHD has a team of experienced drivers who arrive liveried in black to drive clients safely to their homes, hotels, the airport or any other destination after a party, festivity or meeting. The minimum charge is Rs 500 for six hours. Set up with an investment of about Rs 5 lakh and about 25 drivers, the agency now has nearly 200 drivers in its roster and plans to add another 100 by the yearend. It generates a monthly turnover of Rs 4-5 lakh. A registered organisation, each of its uniformed chauffeurs is trained to deal professionally with drunken behaviour. While 50 of the drivers are permanent employees, the rest work on a part-time basis.
The workings
The PHD has a team of experienced drivers who arrive liveried in black to drive clients safely to their homes, hotels, the airport or any other destination after a party, festivity or meeting. The minimum charge is Rs 500 for six hours. Set up with an investment of about Rs 5 lakh and about 25 drivers, the agency now has nearly 200 drivers in its roster and plans to add another 100 by the yearend. It generates a monthly turnover of Rs 4-5 lakh. A registered organisation, each of its uniformed chauffeurs is trained to deal professionally with drunken behaviour. While 50 of the drivers are permanent employees, the rest work on a part-time basis.
All encompassing
Their clients comprise businessmen to models and even bankers. This often includes women who prefer to be driven home after a party. So, if it’s an all-women group, the older, more responsible drivers are assigned even though all our drivers have strict instructions on how to behave and the speed of driving. The drivers even have strict instructions to not sleep in the car while waiting for the client. All the drivers carry a mobile phone and are expected to respond to the client’s call immediately. Says Vaid, “We had plenty of apprehensions during idea generation and execution of our business model — if people would like our concept, our rates, if people would trust us and our drivers with their cars, if this model would work only seasonally or would end up being just a short-lived model. But we got an overwhelming response from day one and saw a transformation in the people of the city.”
At present, PHD operates only in Mumbai but plans are on to launch it in Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune and other cities as well. Also in the pipeline are plans to expand geographically to an online portal, organise events and chauffeur luxury cars.