Drivers’ income drops as Ola, Uber cut incentives
The money is reducing every week. Till 6 pm on Thursday, I could earn only ₹513 even when I started at 5.30 am.
Uber and Ola have done away with the incentive plan, which drivers said will make matters worse. “At least the incentive ensured that we made some additional money apart from the fare, which is very low,” said Sumer, an Uber driver.
For now, Uber has stopped charging its 20% commission of the fare, and is offering an additional 20% of the billed amount, but Narendra said this is nowhere close to what he made with the incentives, and fears the additional 20% is “temporary”.
The company had signalled to the end of the incentive regime. “Uber rolls outs incentives and promotions to introduce the service in new cities. As more riders use Uber, drivers are busier and can earn more. It allows us to adjust incentives over time,” wrote Amit Jain, president of Uber India, in a blog on March 3.
The situation is not different for Ola drivers, who are becoming all the more agitated. Bijender Kumar, a driver, said the situation has become even worse after the strike. “The money is reducing every week. Till 6 pm on Thursday, I could earn only ₹513 even when I started at 5.30 am. I got all shared rides that took me to Ghaziabad, Delhi and Gurgaon and they were all ₹40-50 per passenger. It was never so bad,” he said.
Ravish Dev, another Ola driver, said that the new rule to get some additional amount on the total bill is “worthless”. He said that drivers who leased the cars from Ola get preferences on booking, even if they are in the same area. (Narendra said of a similar situation with Uber).
“This has severely impacted the total bookings we get in a day. From thousands, our daily earning has come down to a few hundreds,” Dev said.
Both Ola and Uber have partnerships with carmakers such as Mahindra, Maruti Suzuki and Tata Motors for cab leasing.