Ola, Uber drivers’ forum demands city-specific cab tariff
Hyderabad: The Telangana Gig and Platforms Workers union (TGPWU), welcoming recent changes that cab aggregator Uber claimed to have brought about, has demanded a few more changes, including a city-specific tariff.
The changes made by Uber included increased fares, but the union pointed out that these could not be uniform for all cities, since fuel prices varied from city to city. So each city should have a different tariff system, it said.
At the same time, the union alleged that the ‘independent’ Driver Advisory Council (DAC) was a well-practiced ploy to set up an illegal company union that Uber was doing across the world.
“The decisions taken in consultation with the DAC are a sham. We demand that the rates that are fixed by the State government be implemented immediately. It’s the same with the claim for providing the trip information to the drivers. It kicks in only when five trips have been completed by the drivers. The stipulation for completion of rides for accessing information on the upcoming ride should be removed, the drivers should be able to know if they are accepting a safe trip or not,” the union’s president Shaik Salauddin said.
“The demands are for fare rates in proportionate to fuel rates in each city, access to information on the trip sans mandatory regulations, compensation for dry runs and roll back on back-to-back trips being dumped on drivers continuously,” he said.
The union also urged the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) consider drivers as consumers of Ola and Uber and to take action against Ola and Uber on their complaints. These were deficiency in service, including lack of proper response from customer support, customer refusing to acknowledge the fare determined by Ola and Uber app, lower amount charged despite going on the same route determined by the app and no safeguard against assault by customers.
The union also complained of inadequate consumer grievance redressal mechanisms and unreasonable levy of penalties and deductions.
