Venture: Uber Govt to soon issue advisory to states for regulating app-based taxis
Company launches an auto-hailing service, looks at image makeover after rape slur APP-BASED AUTO SERVICES: A REALITY CHECK
NEW DELHI: Less than six months after Ola Cabs launched the option to request autorickshaws on demand, Uber introduced a similar feature in New Delhi.
If you’ve hailed a cab using the Uber smartphone app, you’ll be familiar with the experience —select UberAuto, a new option that will show up in the app, and hit the request button.
Uber has chosen to focus on cashless payments for its taxi rides in the past but you’ll have to pay for your Uber autos in cash only.
Unlike taking an Ola auto, where you’ll pay a convenience charge of `10 over and above the meter fare, taking an UberAuto doesn’t cost anything extra — you simply pay what the meter says. In a blog post on its website, Uber says that “pricing will follow the fare rules set out by Delhi state authorities.”
“We are not making any money with UberAuto,” says Uber’s India GM Gagan Bhatia. “This move is simply about reaching out to a wider user base. We are a platform, so we can potentially add any service to our app.”
This is true. In the past, Uber has experimented with using its app to deliver everything from kittens to Christmas trees on demand in countries across the world.
Uber, along with other appbased taxi services, have been in a legal grey-zone since December 2014 after regulators banned the app in the wake of a rape of a passenger by an unlicensed Uber driver. The company currently operates on a “no-profit” basis in the country till the regulatory hurdles are cleared.
“This is the reason why I don’t see any problem with us launching uberAUTO right now,” says Bhatia.
According to Bhatia, auto drivers who sign up for the new service are subject to the same set of 3:18 pm 3:19 pm 3:32 pm 4:05 pm Charges Booked the Ola auto
Received a confirmation call from the driver
The ride started from Defence Colony market to KG Marg
Reached destination
Paid `90 (R20 more than the meter reading) stringent checks that Uber applies to taxi drivers. Drivers have their licence, permit, insurance, and PSV badge verified. If they don’t own the autorickshaw outright, they are required to submit the documents of the actual owner in addition to their own. “We take photographs of every driver who signs up with us so that the app always displays the most recent photograph,” says Bhatia.
Drivers are required to sit through a three-hour training session where they are taught how to use the app, and how to “be sensitive” to customers, said Bhatia.
Uber does not, however, check 2:30 pm 2:32 pm 2:40 pm 3:06 pm Charges Booked Uber auto
Received a confirmation call from the driver
The ride started from KG Marg to Defence Colony
Reached destination. Paid `71 (as per meter) if autorickshaws have GPS units installed — a mandatory requirement for autorickshaws plying in New Delhi. “We rely on the smartphones that we provide to the drivers to act as GPS units,” says Bhatia.
Every auto driver who signs up with Uber gets a cash incentive for each ride they complete. Uber declined to give numbers but an uberAUTO driver said the company pays `40 per ride — `10 more than what Ola pays its autodrivers —and also gives a `1,000 bonus every 20 rides.
In the future, Bhatia says the company will introduce cashless payments for UberAuto. To counter competition from Ola, Uber decided to keep the rates minimal as per the Delhi government guidelines.
For every ride, the driver gets `40. An additional `1000 is paid when the driver completes 20 trips. POOCH-O: AUTO RICKSHAW WAS NOT AVAILABLE NEW DELHI: The Union road transport and highways ministry will shortly issue detailed guidelines to all states, listing the dos and don’ts for regulating app-based taxi services such as Uber and Ola, sources told HT on Friday.
It is the state’s mandate to regulate such app-based taxi services. “We will issue the guidelines. States can tweak it depending on how they want to enforce it,” a ministry official said.
As part of the guidelines, all such app-based taxi services will have to install safety features like GPS and panic buttons, and meters in their vehicles.
Road transport minister Nitin Gadkari had told HT last year after the rape involving a Uber cab driver that all web-based taxi services would be bought under the purview of a stringent new bill that is set to replace the archaic Motor Vehicle Act, 1988.
Currently, the Motor Vehicle Act framed way back in 1988 does not have any specific category covering ridesharing services like Uber giving them the leeway to get away without requiring licenses.
At present, state governments are empowered to prescribe conditions for grant of licence for public service vehicles, under Section 93 of the Motor Vehicles Act.
“The advisory would be issued in the next one month. The advisory would be an interim measure till the new Road Transport and Safety bill is finalized by the government,” said a ministry official.
The cabinet is likely to clear the bill in the next fortnight after which it will be tabled in the parliament when it meets again.
The Centre, however, will not ban such services. “It is the states prerogative to decide whether they want to ban such services,” the official added.