BOCI, along with Networks for Humanity (NFH) and WRI India, unveil Driver Network to enable trusted hiring, portable credentials and workforce mobility across the transport sector.

Gandhinagar, 10 July 2026: In a landmark step towards strengthening the future of India's transport workforce, the Bus & Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI), supported by Networks for Humanity (NFH) and WRI India, launched the Driver Network platform – India's first Digital Public Infrastructure (DPI) for the mobility workforce – at Prawaas 5.0.

Designed as shared infrastructure for the mobility sector, the platform enables the secure exchange of workforce credentials and employment opportunities among operators, drivers, training institutes, verification agencies, insurers and other stakeholders. This allows drivers to build trusted digital professional identities that carry their verified skills, training, certifications, and employment history across employers and geographies.

Built on the Beckn Protocol, the platform has been co-designed by more than eight organisations from across the mobility and technology landscape, led by NFH, Cityflo and IOUX, with support from WRI India and participation from industry partners.

The launch comes amid mounting workforce challenges across India's transport ecosystem. Even as demand for passenger and logistics services grows, the country faces an estimated shortage of more than 22 lakh commercial vehicle drivers – reducing fleet utilisation, affecting service reliability, and constraining business growth.

At present, hiring tends to rely on personal referrals, with fragmented databases and manual verification processes, making it difficult for operators to identify qualified candidates and drivers to showcase their experience. The challenge is not only to train more drivers but also make driving a profession that people actively choose – by enabling clearer pathways to employment, recognition, career advancement and financial inclusion.[AS1.1] The Driver Network bridges this gap by enabling portable, verifiable credentials that can be accessed across employers, reducing hiring friction and improving trust in workforce discovery.

By making professional achievements and qualifications easier to verify and carry across jobs, the Driver Network aims to improve access to employment opportunities, attract more people to the profession, and create stronger incentives for continuous skill development. Over time, the initiative has the potential to expand the pool of skilled drivers while improving safety, professionalism and service quality across India's mobility ecosystem.

Prasanna Patwardhan, President, Bus & Car Operators Confederation of India (BOCI), said, “Every operator in this room has lost a business opportunity, simply because there was no way to find a trusted driver, or no way for a skilled driver to find you. Driver Network changes that. A driver’s training and track record now travel with them, much like a credit score travels with a person, so trust doesn’t have to be rebuilt from zero every time the driver and operator find each other. This is how we start manufacturing the skilled drivers India needs, at scale, and BOCI fully supports this initiative. We invite the entire mobility ecosystem, operators, training institutes, financers, OEMs and innovators, to build this network together.”

Sujith Nair, Co-founder, Networks for Humanity, said, “At NFH, our mission is rooted in a simple belief: access creates opportunity. Whether it's mobility, livelihoods, financial inclusion, or essential services, we're building interoperable pathways that help people participate more fully in the economy. Access needs to be unlocked through networks on open, universal, AI-native infrastructure. India's next phase of growth will be defined by how effectively we connect people to opportunity.”

Pawan Mulukutla, Executive Program Director - Integrated Transport, Clean Air and Hydrogen, WRI India, said, “India's mobility sector has invested heavily in physical infrastructure and digital systems, but workforce infrastructure remains fragmented. The Driver Network addresses this gap by creating India's first DPI for mobility workers—enabling trusted, portable and verifiable professional identities that can move with drivers across employers and geographies. Just as DPI has transformed payments and commerce, open networks can help transform workforce mobility by building trust at scale.”

About WRI India

WRI India, an independent knowledge organisation registered as India Resources Trust, provides objective information and practical proposals to foster environmentally sound and socially equitable development. Through research, analysis, and recommendations, WRI India puts ideas into action to build transformative solutions to protect the earth, promote livelihoods, and enhance human well-being.

Know more: wri-india.org

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