BENGALURU: The Transport Department has asked cab aggregators Ola and Uber to suspend their cab-sharing services and also to resolve issues raised by their protesting drivers by Monday.
On Wednesday, Transport Department officials held a meeting with representatives of app-based aggregators and taxi associations after Ola and Uber's drivers threatened to go an indefinite strike.
Speaking to Express, Transport Commissioner M K Aiyappa said they have asked Ola and Uber to suspend share or pool services with immediate effect. “We have received complaints from the drivers’ association that Ola Share and Uber Pool are operating in violation of rules. Only stage carriers are allowed to pick up passengers from different points,” he said. Stage carriage permit in the city is BMTC’s exclusive right.
“We have also asked app-based aggregators and taxi associations to sort out all issues in three days. We cannot interfere in all issues as some of the demands raised by the taxi associations are outside the purview of the department. We will conduct another round of discussions with representatives of both sides on Monday evening,” he said.
Tanveer Pasha, president of Ola, TaxiForSure, Uber (OTU) Drivers and Owners Association said, “Bengaluru has now more taxis than its actual demand. We are not getting enough customers because of too many cabs and share services in the city. We also want the Transport Department to cap the number of taxi permits in the city”.
“We are facing severe financial crisis after the app-based aggregators reduced the incentives and increased their commission. Many drivers took loans and bought vehicles after these companies promised earnings up to `1 lakh a month. We are now unable to earn even `20,00 even if we work 24 hours without any break,” he said.
Pasha said the Labour Department is also refusing to interfere in the issue as these companies have mentioned drivers as ‘partners’ on the contract. “Labour department officials says they can only interfere only if it’s a drivers’ issue. We are not getting minimum wages and also working more than eight hours per day in violation of rules”.
Apart from increasing the incentives, cab drivers are demanding hiking the airport fare and providing toll charges. Their other demands include stopping harassment of drivers, decisions should not be taken without consulting them, no new cabs should be added, scrapping sharing system, ending daily and monthly targets, a stop to imposing fines on drivers for denial of duty, daily trips for incentives should be reduced from 18-20 to 10-12, basic facilities for drivers should be provided at the airport and a 24X7 grievance cell.