City taxi drivers face dry season

Taxi drivers of all types — individual taxi drivers, freelancing drivers and also those attached to cab aggregators — are badly hit by the lockdown. Everyone has the same bitter story to share.

According to the Cab Drivers’ Association, cab bookings through aggregators used to be around 5,000 a day before the lockdown, but now it is not more than 300 per day. Some freelance drivers are not getting even one call for a trip, while individual taxi drivers have no customers. The two months of the lockdown have been the worst days they can remember.

There are no clear instructions from the government. Customers are not okay with 1-plus3 rule in the cab, and insist on adding one more, saying it’s just a small child.

Chukkaiah, 49 years old, is a private taxi driver, lives near Errum Manzil and drives his own car. He used to make trips within the city and also outside the city. During the lockdown, his car has been parked for two months, and without an income it is difficult for him take care of his family.

Kothapalli Saidulu is 37 and has a wife and one-year-old son. He drove mainly within the city, often showing tourists around. Even after the slight relaxation of the lockdown, he has no customers but the price of fuel has increased.

“If this continues, it will be hard for us to lead our lives,” he says bitterly.

Shripal Reddy, who drives for a cab aggregator said, “Before the lockdown, it was going good for us. Now it’s hard to even get back the money spent on fuel. We have received no help from the aggregator’s end though it is a huge multinational company,” he says.

There are 1.2 lakh cabs in the city of Hyderabad, some of them attached to IT companies.

Shaik Salahuddin, national general secretary, Indian Federation of App based Transport Workers, said, “Aggregators or App based cab companies have promised to help but the help reached only 20% of drivers. There is no protection for the drivers during this Covid-19 pandemic.”

He said the registered cab drivers with an assigned company should be insured, cabs should be sanitised regularly by the company, PPE kits should be provided to drivers, sanitising lotion should be provided, a transparent film or fibre-glass should be fitted between front seat and back seat and only the rear seat should be allowed for passengers for the safety of the driver.

Md Farooq, who is 50 years old, is a pre-paid taxi driver at RGI Airport. “There are 180 prepaid taxis which run from RGI airport. Mostly each car is driven by two drivers on a 24 hour shift. Each one makes around `20,000 per month. But the two months of lockdown was dreadful.”