BHUBANESWAR: Commuters faced a harrowing time in the State Capital on Wednesday as cabs run by aggregator firms Ola and Uber stayed off roads protesting the newly implemented incentive structure.
As per reports, more than 2,000 business partners (drivers and owners) of the cab aggregators are on strike from Tuesday evening demanding the withdrawal of the new commission pattern.
As per the new structure, a cab will be entitled to get an incentive of Rs 1,100 only if it makes seven trips a day. There is no incentive for less than seven trips and this is opposed by the cab owners.
An Uber driver said as per the earlier structure, “We earned around 40 per cent profit for each trip. After implementation of the new incentive structure, our earning has been severely affected for the last one week. We are not able to recover even the fuel expenses. I spent Rs 2,500 on diesel in the last two days while my earning was a meagre Rs 900.”
Sources said the drivers were given no prior information about the new structure.
On the other hand, an official of cab aggregator Uber said the latest commission structure is a country-wide policy decision. ‘’Our partners have made significant gains in the State and the new pattern is equally rewarding. The matter will be resolved soon,’’ he said.
Meanwhile, unconfirmed reports of harassment of drivers who did not participate in the agitation and off-loading of passengers also came in from different parts of the City.
As a significant proportion of the urban population is dependant on the app-based cab service, commuters were left in lurch due to unavailability of the vehicles.
Criticising the recent developments, the commuters argued that the Government should have some control on the operation and pricing of cab aggregators.
It has been more than one year since app-based cabs were introduced in the State Capital and at present, a majority of smartphone users avail the service.