The government wants such as and to train one lakh commercial every year, majority of them women, by setting up driver training institutes in small towns to address shortage of trained drivers. The government, on its part, will ensure that the time frame for obtaining a commercial driving licence is reduced to not more than three months from about a year at present. Top officials of the road transport and highways ministry raised the issue in a recent meeting with senior executives of Uber. The government also wants the training institutes set up by taxi aggregators to train drivers on issues related to passenger safety. "Operations of Uber have grown massively in the country. There’s a huge shortfall in supply for commercial drivers. We want these technology-based app companies to train one lakh drivers a year," a senior transport ministry official told ET. Uber is available in 27 cities with over 2.5 lakh driver-partners. The company is already in aggressive expansion mode. It has committed investment worth $1 billion in India. According to a road ministry estimate, over 1.6 million vehicles in India are licensed to run as city cabs but there are not as many quality drivers. Uber did not reply to an email query sent by ET. "We have already told Uber to train drivers. Ola executives are meeting us shortly. We want them to commit to training drivers every year as they will need them too because of growing demand and also because they have their own fleet growing," the official added. The ministry will prepare a month long curriculum for these driver training institutes. The move will contribute to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s ‘Skill India’ initiative without the government spending even a penny. According to an estimate, India’s organised taxi-hailing market is estimated to grow to $15 billion by 2022 from the current $1.2 billion. "It will be like a short-term skill development course and we will ensure that all aspirants who complete this course get commercial licences in three months," the transport ministry official quoted above said. The government also hopes to amend the Motor Vehicles Act in the current session of Parliament to bring down the time period for securing a commercial driving licence to a maximum of three months after the applicant obtains a learner’s licence.
The Indian Government is urging services such as Uber and Ola train up to 100,000 drivers per annum; the majority of them women. In return, the government will cut wait times on issuance of commercial driver licenses and create a month-long curriculum. This could help the country to reach employment goals outlined in the Skill India initiative without having to spend public funds and help to plug the significant shortfall in supply of commercial drivers for the on-demand taxi services.