Suresh's Route Times

Drivers guess how many minutes their first route will take before they turn the key, and that guess is how they mark themselves present.

Who this is for

Suresh Kadam runs fourteen cabs out of a yard behind a petrol pump in Nashik. Nine drivers are full time, five share shifts. At twenty to seven every morning he stands with a register and a chai, calling out names while men wander in from the road. By the time he has ticked everyone, the first airport run is already late.

How the job is done today

Suresh keeps a long register with names down the left and dates across the top. Half the drivers mark themselves in by sending present to the fleet WhatsApp group, but Ramesh sends his at half eight from inside the car, and Nitin's phone is always on silent. Suresh ends up ringing three people every morning. Nobody looks at the register again after it is written. When a driver claims he was there on the fourth, there is no way to settle it except shouting, and Suresh usually gives in because the man has to drive that day anyway.

The screens, in order

1. Morning call — Shows the driver his first trip of the day and asks only one thing, how many minutes he thinks it will take, which is what marks him in.
2. The yard board — Puts everyone's guesses for the morning side by side so the drivers can see who has backed himself and who has not turned up yet.
3. Reached — The driver taps this when he arrives and the real time appears next to his guess, which is the whole moment the thing is built around.
4. Off by a mile — Collects the day's worst guess and gives that driver a title he will hear about at the tea stall until tomorrow morning.
5. Suresh's roll call — Lets Suresh see in one look who has guessed today, who has not, and who has been missing for three days running.
6. My record — Gives a driver his own run of guesses over the weeks so he has something to argue with.

What it keeps track of

• Drivers — name, phone number, which cab he is on, when he joined the fleet
• Routes — where from, where to, a short name everyone already uses like Gangapur Road or airport
• Guesses — who guessed, which route, how many minutes, what time in the morning he put it in
• Trips — who drove, which route, when he started, when he tapped reached, how many minutes it really took
• The day — the date, who marked in and who did not, who was closest, who was furthest off

The one decision that matters

The ranking can be built on who drove fastest or on who guessed closest. Fastest is the obvious one and it is the wrong one. The moment a board rewards speed, a man with a fifty minute run to the airport will try to make it in forty, and Suresh has a fleet to answer for. Closest rewards knowing the road. A driver who says fifty two and comes in at fifty three has beaten the man who said forty and came in at thirty five. It also makes losing harmless and funny, because being twenty minutes out is a story about traffic near the flyover, not an accusation. Go with closest, and never show a fastest column anywhere.

What to leave out of the first version

Leave out any automatic timing from the phone's location. Let the driver tap started and reached himself. The tap is the point. If the app times him quietly in the background, it stops being a game he is playing and becomes a thing watching him, and drivers will find the mute button by the second week. Also leave out any link to pay or fines. The day a missed guess costs a hundred rupees is the day nobody guesses for fun again.

How you would know it worked

Three weeks in, Suresh has not opened the register or rung anybody at seven in the morning, and two drivers are standing at the tea stall arguing about whether the Gangapur Road run really took fifty two minutes on Tuesday.

Build it

Paste this in and let it run.

I run fourteen cabs in Nashik and every morning I stand in the yard shouting names off a register. Build me something where each driver opens his phone at half six, sees his first trip of the day, and types how many minutes he thinks it will take. That guess is his attendance, I do not want a separate present button anywhere. When he reaches he taps done, and the app shows him his guess next to the real time and how far off he was. Everyone should be able to see the whole board for the morning. Whoever is closest gets called out by name, whoever is furthest off gets a silly title for the day. Keep each man's record over the weeks so they can argue at the tea stall. Rank only by who guessed closest, never by who drove fastest. Send me a list at seven of who has not guessed yet.