Crackdown on autos, aggregators bristle
After years of being associated with ride-hailing apps Ola, Uber and, more recently, Rapido, auto rickshaws were taken off the platforms by the Karnataka government, which issued an order declaring their operation illegal. The order also imposes a fine of Rs 5,000 on the aggregator if any auto is found operating on its app. According to the government, cab aggregators have permission to operate cabs, not auto rickshaws, under the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rule (KOTTAR), 2016. Despite this, nearly one lakh autos used the platforms as the arrangement was user-friendly.
The government’s tough stand is a step in the right direction and comes after consumers complained of exorbitant fares, and driver-partners charged the aggregators with short-changing them. There was a huge difference between fares: while autos with meters charged `30 basic fare for the first 2 km and `15 for every km after that, aggregators had dynamic pricing with the basic fare, access fee, surge fee and taxes layered in, bumping up the final bill. Increasingly, hailing an auto was going out of reach of the commoner, as those off the aggregator grid, too, refused to ply at government-fixed rates and worked out bargains with commuters. Invisible aggregators were calling the shots and laughing all the way to the bank.
Auto driver-partners have welcomed the order, set the government a seven-day deadline to ban the three aggregators and come up with a newly regulated aggregator. Commuters, too, are relieved as the move is in the public interest. Ola and Uber have remained silent and are taking refuge in a Karnataka High Court order of 2016, which restrains the state government from taking action against them. The aggregators challenged the rules governing them, and the issue is still pending in court. In the meantime, it was business as usual, and hailing a cab grew into a public habit.
The companies continued to violate rules, but the transport department was helpless. With complaints continuing to roll in, the pitfalls of the gig economy are becoming apparent. Transport and food delivery aggregators, which once combined convenience and speed, have come to symbolise the exploitation of their partners and consumers and have jockeyed themselves into the position of greedy intermediaries. Companies foraying into the public transport sector should realise that convenience is key and cannot be dictated only by business interests.