BENGALURU: Two weeks after the state government notified maximum and minimum fares for taxis, customers are feeling the pinch as both major players Ola and Uber have hiked their rates. However, while this change seems to have come into effect within a few days, the firms are yet to stop charging customers for the time spent travelling, which the new fare rules outlaw.
The new fares, which set a range of `11 per km and `20 per km depending on the vehicle cost, were expected to significantly push up prices as aggregators were charging lesser than the minimum for quite some time. But, while the rules clearly state that a time-based fare (`/minute) cannot be charged from customers, both aggregators continue to do so. Uber charged up to `2.69 per minute on Tuesday evening. For a ride booked on Uber’s ‘Go’ class of taxis, their most affordable rides, the actual price per kilometer for an 8.2km journey worked out to `26. According to the Transport Department fares, this would be more than the maximum fare for taxis costing up to `10 lakh.
Speaking about the issue on Tuesday, Transport Commissioner B Dayananda said companies would have no choice but to comply with the new fares. “There is no question of not complying. These fares have been fixed after a detailed procedure. The companies had asked for some time to make the changes to their applications and this has been granted. We will soon hold a meeting with them.”
Another issue with aggregator taxis is the wait time charges currently being levied. While the new fares allow for up to 20 minutes of free wait time, on Tuesday, Uber was charging `5.27 per minute after a free wait time of 5 minutes, while Ola did not advertise a waiting charge at all. All of these issues are expected to be taken up by the department.
However, the companies maintained that they have already complied with or were in the process of complying with the rules. According to an Ola spokesperson, the company was in compliance with the new fares. “All customers are being charged within the minimum and maximum fare slabs set under the new policy.” Uber said that it was in the process of implementing the revised fare structure but did not discuss ride time charges.