HYDERABAD: Sathya Narayana is an Ola cab driver under suspension for the past one-and-a-half months but on Saturday morning, Ola asked him to drive for them through a text message. The day before, on Friday, the Telangana Cab Drivers and Owners Association (TCDOA) had declared a five-day strike against taxi aggregators- Ola and Uber.
“They served me my suspension and asked me to wait for a phone call or an email, that was a month-and-a-half ago. I went to their office three times but they did not respond. They did not tell me the reason behind my suspension. But today I got an SMS saying they will give me Rs 8,000 if I drive for them today,” said Narayana. “I had a 4.8 star rating with Ola at the time of my suspension,” he added. Other Ola drivers across the city also received the same text message. ”Apart from the money they also claim there are 14,000 Ola drivers who are driving.
Their idea is to derail our strike,” alleges Shiva Vulkundakar of TCDOA. The association claims that of the 1.2 lakh cab drivers in the city, 90,000 are working with both Ola and Uber. “About 1 lakh drivers have taken part in our strike today. We have formed 1,500 teams spread across the city monitoring both the applications. If we find drivers working, we inform them about the strike and they stop service.We are allowing only those drivers to work who are doing trips to airport and emergencies,” he added.
Both Uber and Ola sent out text messages asking drivers not to trust rumours spread by other drivers. Ola in their text message to drivers mentioned that 14,000 drivers were already online in the morning. Attempts to get in touch with Ola did not illicit a response.
An Uber spokesperson said,”It’s business as usual for Uber, our operations continue to run as normal in Hyderabad”. Ola and Uber are private e-commerce companies and do not come under the Motor Vehicles Act, 1988. The move to bring all taxi aggregators under the Motor Vehicles Act, 2016 amendment Bill got cabinet nod in August this year.
The Bill was introduced in the Lok Sabha the same month. But due to frequent stalling of the Parliament’s winter session, the bill is yet to be passed in the Lok Sabha. Taxi drivers have raised a set of demands that want the taxi aggregators to comply with some of which include clearance of outstanding dues and to give valid reasons behind suspension of drivers.
The drivers are also demanding that taxi aggregators must scrap the star rating system and must remove the mandatory three trips the drivers must comply with to receive incentives during surge hours.