Cab fares hiked by 90% but drivers still don't earn much

Three weeks after the state government hiked the fares for cabs attached to online aggregators, drivers say their earnings haven't improved much.

On April 1, the Transport Department hiked the fares by 90% for cabs attached to Ola and Uber. The revision, due for more than a year, had come after a taxi driver distressed by low earnings reportedly killed himself at the Kempegowda International Airport.

Taxi drivers' associations had appealed to the government to consider the rising prices of petrol and diesel to introduce a model whereby they can share revenue with cab aggregators. The government, however, limited itself to the fare revision.

It divided the cabs into four categories based on the price of the car. The base or minimum price (for the first four kilometres) was fixed at Rs 44. A bandwidth of minimum and maximum fares for every subsequent kilometre was fixed at between Rs 11 and 36.

But cab drivers say the fare revision hasn't quite translated into the real world.

Abhishek D, an Uber driver, says he's effectively earning just Rs 4 more per kilometre. While the final bill shows Rs 18.90/km, Abhishek says he gets only Rs 14/km. Before the hike, his take-home earning per kilometre was Rs 10. "It's nowhere near to meeting my daily needs but I’m happy that I am earning Rs 4 more, which reduces the need to borrow money,” he explains.

Tanveer Pasha, the president of Ola, Taxi for Sure and Uber Drivers' and Owners' Association, said the cab aggregators' failure to implement the hike, coupled with rising Covid-19 cases, was pushing the drivers to the breaking point.

According to him, the aggregators did raise the fare up to Rs 18/km for a few days before bringing it down to Rs 10-12. "The low earnings and Covid have hit us hard. The average daily bookings have halved because of the second wave," he said. "We had requested the government to fix a minimum earning per kilometre to ensure the drivers' earnings are higher than the operating cost. But that was not considered.”

The Transport Department has issued a show-cause notice to Ola after a driver filed a complaint along with the receipts regarding the mismatch, an official said and promised to serve notices on other aggregators in case of complaints. The aggregators could face disciplinary action.