Ola, Uber passengers suffer once again as drivers protest
The users of application based taxis of Ola and Uber suffered on Tuesday as the taxi drivers participated in a protest conducted by their union.
Atleast 1,000 taxi drivers affiliated with these application based taxis participated in the protest conducted by Tourist Taxi Union Sangharsh Chalak Malak Sanghathana at Azad Maidan around 11 am. The protests continued for five hours long.
The drivers of Ola and Uber were protesting due to fall in their revenue in the past few months, increasing penalties and a cut in the incentive policies.
The users of these taxis suffered as they were subjected to surge pricing by the taxi drivers during the morning peak hours. "There is no surge pricing during the morning peak hours. However, these taxi drivers charged me double the amount today at morning 7:30am," said Priyanka Mehta, a resident of Andheri who travels to her workplace in Santacruz daily by Ola.
The drivers were also upset over the state government’s new rules under the Maharashtra Motor Vehicle Rules 2017 which would regulate the pricing of application based taxis.
"We also wrote letters to Chief Minister Devendra Fadnavis and Transport Minister Diwakar Raote requesting them to look into our demands, "Raju Patil, senior leader of Sangharsh Tourist Chalak Malak Sangh.
The drivers also threatened on conducting an indefinite strike from March 21, if their demands are not fulfilled.