Taxi drivers hit streets, oppose new Ola rate card

Members of the Dakshina Kannada Online Taxi Drivers’ and Owners’ Association staged a protest against the new rate card of Ola cabs in front of the Ola office in Mangaluru on Saturday.

Addressing protesters, in front of the Ola Cabs office at Manasa Towers on Saturday, Dakshina Kannada District Online Taxi Drivers’ and Owners’ Association Honorary president B K Imtiyaz said, the drivers are suffering loss with the new rate card introduced by the Ola cabs and demanded that the district administration should interfere or else drivers’ have to commit suicide in front of the DC office.

“The company which started its service in Mangaluru in February this year offered Rs 32,000 for every 3,000 km for mini taxi and Rs 36,000 for Sedan. Around 280 taxis registered with the company. But the company has started harassing drivers in the name of 24x7 taxi service,” he accused.

Since last August, the company introduced new rate card, based on the booking where the minimum charge for a taxi is Rs 49 for the first two km. Extra kilo metre charge will be Rs 10 per km in taxi and Rs 12 in Sedan.

Ilyas, one of the drivers complained that, “With the new rate card, if a driver works for 14 hours he can earn a maximum of Rs 700. The driver has to pay 15 per cent commission to company, 5.6 per cent service tax and one per cent TDS. We are not able to pay bank loan installments since last three months. Sometimes, we get bookings from faraway places like Adyar. The taxi driver has to manage the maintenance cost like mobile recharge, water bottles etc.”

Ola Manager (Operations) Suraj Karkera said, “Ola is trying to give additional benefits to both drivers and customers. The new, Rs 49 rate card was introduced to improve the short distance bookings. Their demands are not as per our business standards. A particular group of drivers have planned the protest.”

“Customers are happy with the new rate card, while owners have a few issues with it. So the company has offered a minimum guarantee of 40 bookings (Rs 7,000) for mini and 40 bookings (Rs 7,700) for Sedan. The Bengaluru branch will take the final decision,” he added.

General Secretary Sadik Kannur, Treasurer Aravind, Joint Secretary Yogish Ammunamogru were present.