“It feels as though someone has pushed us into the sea and we are struggling to breathe,” says S Vijayalakshmi, who runs Pavithra Driving School in Trichy. Even after the lockdown due to COVID-19 has eased, small businesses like Vijayalakshmi’s continue to suffer. The problems that driving schools in Tamil Nadu face seem to be especially difficult, given that physical contact is imperative to learn the skill of driving. However, social distancing seems to be the least of their issues.
“I had two offices in prominent locations but had to vacate them as I could not pay rent,” Vijayalakshmi said. Moreover, due to the cash crunch, she had to let go of her driver who used to train students. She now runs her office from home, while training students with the help of her daughter. Many driving schools have had to scale down their operations for survival.
Arun Kumar, owner of Arun Driving School in Chennai, said, “I am the trainer and I had one other employee who used to manage all the official admissions-related work. But since I could not provide salary during the lockdown, he resigned. Now I have to manage RTO office work, training and the admission-related work all by myself.”
He further explained that training a new person for the job is quite time-consuming. “It took me more than a year to train the other person to use the official websites and to familiarise him with documentation-related work. For a new person, I would have to start from scratch,” says Arun.
The Tamil Nadu government allowed driving schools in the state to begin operations from August 10 while adhering to state and union government-given protocols. The government had encouraged the use of online classes for group theory lessons, with sufficient gaps between sessions. They also announced that only three persons including the instructor should be allowed inside the car during in-vehicle training. All vehicles must be sanitised after every training session.
While business has been picking up since August, driving schools are faced with new challenges post the lockdown. Balachandran N S, who owns INTUC Driving School in Tirunelveli, says that more students are signing up for training because schools and colleges are functioning remotely, because of which they have more time on their hands. But the new slot system in the Regional Transport Office (RTO) is adding to their woes. Every driving school owner TNM spoke to said that the slot system is affecting their business.
“During the pre-COVID times, if you come for training, the application for an LLR (Learner Licence Registration) will be over in a day and the training will begin from the next day itself; a month later, you can take the test and get your license. In a month everything will be completed. Now it takes almost three months and both children and their parents have no patience to wait that long,” explains Balachandran.
Speaking to TNM, R K Karunakaran, the President of the Tambaram Driving School Owners Association said, “To curb the spread of corona, the government that used to allow around 400 people (200 for LLRS and 200 for tests) has reduced the slot to only 40 people per day. The current number is five times lower than what it used to be. This had pushed us to a place where we just could not run a profitable business which is when our association decided to meet the officials and take our problems to them.”
On September 19, the Transport Department, viewing the grievances made by the public as well as feedback from the Zonal Officers, decided to withdraw the new slot system and revert to the pre-lockdown practice.
Vijayalakshmi feels that, while business has been picking up, it will take a while to recover from the damage done due to the lockdown and adjust to the new normal. “It will take at least a year for us to come out of these pressures,” she says.