BYE, BYE BIRDIE
Even Rapido, a similar service provider, was asked to shut shop in November
In this lockdown, the number of two-wheelers on road is heavily visible. Among these are those two-wheelers running as ‘bike share’ on the Uber platform. However, the Maharashtra Transport department has not given any permission for such bike taxis in the state. If one remembers then, earlier in November last year, another bike taxi body called Rapido was asked to stop their services as no permission was granted by the Regional Transport Office. These bike share services of Uber are on their App which is part of the options shown to users. Although the number of two-wheelers available seems scanty as most of the time it shows ‘No Bikes Available’, one can still find them during peak hours. “We have not given any permission to any bike taxi operator,” said Avinash Dhakne, Transport Commissioner. According to RTO officials, these two-wheelers are namely plying on busy routes on which the bikers already want to travel to their destination. “What we understand is that these Appbased two-wheeler taxis operate especially on the highways, railway stations, or for dropping to a local market place or mall,” said an RTO officer on condition of anonymity.
When Free Press Journal tried this mode of transport on Uber, the booking took few minutes as initially there weren’t any bikes available but af ter some time a motorbike accepted the ridebooking. It took the rider at least 10 minutes to arrive at the pickup point. The bike seemed to be in a good condition and the driver was not rash in driving. “Even I started on this platform recently. I have my own business but as this will generate additional income, I took it up. I had been getting messages from Uber for the past few days and so decided to give it a tr y,” said the driver who received more than 80 percent of the fare at the end of the journey.
The mobile aggregator Uber didn’t respond to either of the queries, that is the number of two-wheelers running on the ‘bike share’ platform or about the permissions they have to operate them.