Commuters feel the pinch as cab drivers stay firm on ‘fare by meter'
Avinash Jatav, a bank professional, landed in Pune from Delhi on Friday morning. He had to go to Hinjewadi Phase-1. He said, "The cabbie accepted my ride, and a fare of Rs480 reflected on the application. But the man told me about the pay-by-meter rule and demanded Rs560. I somehow forced him to cancel the ride and took a prepaid autorickshaw for Rs530. I have never heard about such a rule in any city," Jatav said.
Commuters trying to book cabs from Uber and other aggregators echoed Jatav.
They said most cabbies remained firm on charging "fares by meter", resulting in many cancelling rides because of high fares and few budging under pressure. Cabbies term the Regional Transport Authority (RTA)'s rates "fare by meter".
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Wagholi resident Ashish Deokar said authorities, particularly the Pune RTO (Regional Transport Officer) officials, were responsible for the cabbies' stubbornness. "They never took any action against this practice when it began with autorickshaws.
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Had they acted strictly, the situation wouldn't have worsened. Last week, an Ola driver demanded Rs250 for a trip from Pune station to FC Road, a distance of around 5km.
Does this make any sense?" he said.
TOI's attempts to contact the Pune RTO and the deputy RTO proved futile. Another RTO official said, "We didn't take action because we didn't want a major agitation, which would have caused more issues. The cab aggregator policy is coming.
It will settle all problems."
Magarpatta's IT professional Atul Singh (name changed on request) and his three friends are still in a shock over their nightmarish experience with an Uber driver on Thursday afternoon. We went for a team outing to Katraj and booked an Uber from Keshavnagar — our meeting point. We opted for an 'Uber for Business' ride, but the driver didn't accept it. He told us that we would have to pay by the 'meter'.
The application showed a fare of Rs280, but we ended up paying Rs500," he said.
"One of my colleagues raised an issue on the Uber application, to which the driver got agitated and forcibly took a picture of his PAN card. He threatened that if his ID was cancelled because of the complaint, the consequences would be dire," Singh said.
On Thursday, Keshav Kshirsagar, the president of the Indian Gig Workers' Front, said cabbies would be boycotting Uber indefinitely because it went to the Bombay high court against them. There was no major surge in fare in the application on Friday, but Kshirsagar said soon the boycott would have its effects. "Information is being spread to all the cab drivers at the moment," he said.
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