Black and yellow taxis now ferry memories
Till a few years ago, the congested roads of the big Indian cities were not complete without the black and yellow taxis adding to the confusion. But no longer. Uber and Ola have taken over. The new taxis are reasonably priced, cleaner, airconditioned, and available on call. You couldn’t say that about the ramshackle black and yellow Ambassadors and Fiats.
Regular Uber consumers could expect rebates and reward points in the long run. The new cars are safer and the radio phones in them keep track of the car. That, too, guarantees a certain measure of mental comfort for the commuters, especially women and children.
Mumbai, where I used to work, black and yellow taxis are still more visible than, say, in Bangalore or Delhi.
Traditionally, taxi drivers in Mumbai have offered a more reliable service. They have been also fair and courteous, and could be banked on to get you to your destination by the shortest route. Of late that has changed, though.
One reason for that is that over the years, Marathi drivers, who are familiar with the lanes and by-lanes of the city have been replaced by migrants from states like Uttar Pradesh and Bihar. Now, there are, visibly, more young drivers than old. And their grasp of the roads and routes is little better than the frustrated passengers’.
On the other hand, Uber and Ola, equipped with satellite maps, have parked themselves pretty neatly in the slots left by the falling efficiency of the traditional taxis.
In Delhi, the black and yellow taxis are largely a Sardarji trade. The father passes the barely moving family heirloom to the son, and if you take a look at the make-shift taxi stands with their caved-in cots and broken chairs, you will see most men are elderly, third generation exponents of the same set of skills.
More than Mumbai perhaps, Delhi’s black and yellow taxi drivers are a truly endangered species. There are over 6,000 black and yellow taxis on the city’s roads. And they are on the verge of being sold for scrap.
One of the drawbacks of Uber and Ola services is that the relatively young drivers, despite the maps on their phones, are often at a loss to find their way about the city.
If you think rationally, they have invited their doom themselves. The traditional taxis had a great network. They had the trust of the customers. They had the monopoly in the sector. And they could be hailed anywhere on the road. What went wrong? It is probably their resistance to change.
Both Mumbai and Delhi taxi unions have done their bit — with little effect — to keep Uber and Ola off the roads, saying their trade practices are unfair. They have filed cases against Uber and Ola for lowering fares, for example. No matter, the new cabs continue to be popular with differential pricing, passengers sharing the fare, and other innovative services.
Instead, the taxi unions would have done themselves a favour, had they invested their energy and money in modernising their vehicles.
Nothing really prevented them from installing an air-conditioner in the cars. Again, nothing prevented them from installing software like google maps on their dashboards; or the Unions facilitate soft loans to buy fuel-efficient cars.
There are many places in Mumbai and Delhi where traditional taxis — much before Uber and Ola — introduced a share-fare system. For instance, four passengers in a car from Mumbai’s Churchgate to the business district of Nariman Point. Nothing prevented the taxi unions from adopting the measure across the board. There was just no flexibility at all. And now the competition has got to a point where it just might be too late to prevent a total annihilation. That would be a pity. It would have been a pleasure to see sophisticated black and yellow taxis on the fast Uberising Indian city roads, offering exactly what they used to offer — fast, efficient, safe commuting — with a little more style and panache.
One of the drawbacks of Uber and Ola services is that the relatively young drivers, despite the maps on their phones, are often at a loss to find their way about the city. The black and yellow taxi drivers of Delhi know the city like the back of their hands.
All these would have been plus points in the traditional taxi’s fight to stay on the road. But to win, the least you must do is to join the battle, not walk?