Autorickshaw unions welcome new service

NEW DELHI: Auto-rickshaw unions across Delhi welcomed Uber’s Auto service as many believe the platform will allow the registered drivers to make extra trips in a day helping them earn extra.

“We were contacted by Uber executives to tell us about their new service. They explained the service and told us about the benefits that we are likely to get by persuading drivers from our union to register with them. Apart from what we generally make in a trip we are promised `40 per trip and an additional bonus if we manage to complete a minimum number of trips in a month,” said Kuwinder Singh, auto rickshaw union leader from Kashmere Gate.

“We knew about a similar service which Ola was running but not many drivers knew about it. But Uber has done a lot of the marketing among the drivers’ circuit through word of mouth,” Singh said.

Learning a lesson from the recent rape of a financial analyst by one of their cab drivers, the cab-hailing service this time organized a two-day training session for all the auto-rickshaw drivers who registered with them.

“We were asked to mention our address in their registration form and nearest training centers were allotted to us. On day one we were asked to produce our vehicle’s documents and a thorough examination was conducted,” said Ravinder Kumar, an auto-rickshaw driver registered with Uber.

Apart from examining driver’s documents, they were also trained to operate GPS-enabled smart phones and taught methods to deal with customers and prioritize Uber bookings over individual customers. The company has through the new service tried to keep both the drivers and customers happy.