Maruti Suzuki Joins Hands With Ola To Promote Entrepreneurship

The driving training initiative will benefit 40,000 individuals

Maruti Suzuki India Ltd (MSIL), India’s largest carmaker, has signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) with Ola, the online cab service company, to train individuals who want to become driver-partners. Called the Maruti Ola Training Program (MOTP), the collaboration aims to train 40,000 individuals over a period of three years.

The first phase of MOTP will be rolled out in Hyderabad, Chennai, National Capital Region (NCR) and Bengaluru. The training program will be gradually rolled out in Mumbai, Ahmedabad and Pune. While MSIL has experience in running such training programmes, Ola will help create opportunities for these trained drivers by giving them access to infrastructure, financing and constant revenue.

R S Kalsi, executive director, marketing and sales, MSIL shared his thoughts on this initiative by saying that in India, ‘driver’s fault’ is the biggest reason for road accidents and to ensure that our future drivers are perfectly equipped with all the required skills, MSIL has developed a comprehensive training program comprising simulators, theory and practical sessions. The course structure comes with the help of 370 Maruti Driving Schools and six IDTRs (Institute of Driving and Traffic Research). The program will also offer soft skills grooming, manners and work ethics.

Pranay Jivrajka, COO, Ola said, “This partnership falls in line with Ola’s goal of skilling 5 million drivers in the next 5 years and continue to build a conducive ecosystem for them to grow as entrepreneurs. We are delighted to work with a trusted Indian brand like Maruti to create a unique solution to skill tens of thousands of aspiring driver-entrepreneurs realize their dreams.”

The training program will be spread over a 30-day period, which will include a pre- and post-assessment tests to check the driving skills of all the candidates. According to the MoU, MSIL will help driver-partners to obtain commercial license and also assist in vehicle financing. Ola will help provide leads of potential driver-partners to MSIL for the commercial driving training.