BENGALURU: The introduction of app-based taxi booking has led to a vast change in the way the city commutes but for many commuters and drivers, travel at night remains a big challenge. With several instances of drivers misbehaving with women passengers being reported in the past one year, commuters, especially women have become very wary about booking cabs for travelling alone at night.
Last Friday’s incident in which a woman travelling to the airport alone at night was molested by a cab driver is one of many such cases which have been reported in the recent past. While in this case, the perpetrator was arrested almost immediately, in several other cases, the cab driver manages to evade the police thanks to several loopholes in the system, drivers and taxi fleet operators say.
Perhaps the biggest problems that law enforcement agencies face while trying to trace drivers of taxis in Bengaluru is not being able to trace the right perpetrator. With taxi driving becoming a 24-hour job, there are a lot of vehicle owners who choose to employ multiple drivers to operate the same car. However, taxi aggregators will have only the owner or one driver on their record. “Two of us drive the cab to ensure that it keeps running through the day. The owner gets a cut of the earnings. While both of us have the correct documentation, I drive under another login ID,” said Rajesh, who drives a sedan for a popular aggregator in the city.
A similar case last year in which a cab driver locked the doors of the taxi and trapped a woman inside led to the police arresting the wrong person initially only to discover that the actual accused was just using the car to earn money without registering. According to drivers, companies are often unaware of such arrangements and often the second driver does not go through the process of getting a police verification certificate or other security clearances.
The introduction of an SOS button within the app was also introduced as a safety measure last year but many people are yet to try it to see if it works. According to the complainant in last Friday’s incident, the SOS button did not yield an immediate response. In such a situation, many commuters are just loath to take cabs alone in the night. “Even if you do manage to reach your destination safely, not many drivers are polite. There are many ways in which they make you feel threatened. From driving rashly, to commenting on how you are unsafe at nights to diverting from the main roads citing a shortcut, one has to watch out for many signs,” said Valerie Joseph, a resident of Banaswadi.
In fact, the threat is not just to commuters but to drivers as well. “I hate driving in the nights even though there is not much traffic. Drivers are at risk as well of having our mobile phones or even the car stolen. I have had to refuse trips which take me through NICE road or other abandoned stretches so many times as I am scared that I will be robbed,” said Ganesh, a driver.
With aggregators loathe to take actions beyond blacklisting the driver and providing their records to the police and law enforcement still a step behind when it comes to being able to accurately trace these errant drivers, for now, travelling at night seems set to remain a scary proposition for all involved.