Gig workers postpone auto, cab strike after commuters' harrowing experience
Keshav Kshirsagar, the president of the front, said, "We have a meeting on Tuesday with senior officials of the state transport department. If its decisions don't meet our expectations, the strike will resume."
Several commuters had a harrowing experience on roads on Friday and in the early hours of Saturday. Cabs and autos were hard to come by. The fortunate ones getting vehicles had to fork out double the average fare.
Worse, a few got a taste of unruly drivers' misbehaviour.
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Pratik Chhoriyaan, an IT professional, landed in Pune in the early hours of Saturday. "People were stranded at Aeromall's first and second floor outside the Pune airport because of the strike. Some auto and cab drivers on duty demanded over Rs1,000 for an 8km distance."
Aviral Bhatnagar, an investor, wrote on X, "Pune's having Ola/Uber/Rapido cab drivers' strike to raise prices.
What earlier cost Rs350 now costs Rs700. One asked me to pay Rs1,000 instead of Rs300. In the quest for maximising profits, cab drivers are killing the golden goose of cab aggregators."
Dinesh Tiwari, a resident of Wanowrie, struggled to find a cab to go to his office. "My car went for servicing two days ago, and it has been a big challenge finding a cab or an auto. I have been paying Rs300-400 to travel a short distance of 7km."
Anvesh Kulkarni, a resident of Hadapsar, tried to book a cab multiple times on Saturday morning but failed. "I had to take my family to Koregaon Park for a function. We tried booking autorickshaws and cabs for an hour, but failed. Finally, I called up an autorickshaw driver known to us. He dropped us for Rs450," he said.
Dilip Sonawane, a cab driver on these aggregators since 2015, said, "We are demanding the updated fares the RTO has allowed us to charge.
Since the same fares are not showing up on the app, customers do not want to pay the revised amount. Most customers say they will pay the new rates if these reflect on the app. Ola, Uber and Rapido are refusing to update the rates. This is causing major confusion among commuters."
Prakash Rajguru, the president of LV Antaral Autorickshaw Sanghatana, who operates prepaid autorickshaws from the Pune airport, said their business revived in the past two days after months of stalemate.
"The strike left flyers with no option but to come to us. We have done brisk business. Each of us made multiple trips. We charged fares as per the RTA-approved pre-paid rates. Flyers with more luggage hired two or even three autorickshaws because they didn't have a choice," Rajguru said.
Another prepaid auto driver talked about an incident in the early morning hours. "A passenger negotiating with an auto driver was stunned because he was asked for a fare of Rs2,000 for going to Hinjewadi-phase-1. When I saw him moving towards the AeroMall, I requested him to book a ride with us from the counter. He did that. We gave him a receipt of Rs525, and a colleague of mine took him to his destination," he said.
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