Bengaluru's angry cabbies: Watch out for our app

Bengaluru: A strike by city taxi drivers attached to cab aggregators that will soon complete a month is heading in a new direction. The protesting drivers again had a meeting with company officials and the government on Monday, and set forth four demands, instead of nine earlier.

“Ola and Uber have been given a week's time to respond. If nothing comes out, all the drivers will start our own ‘Bengaluru City Cabs’ app," said Mr Kiran Gowda, state president, Karunada Rajya Taxi Owners’ and Drivers’ Association.

“The companies should stop leasing vehicles of their own. These vehicles get preference over others, and the drivers don't get any rides. The companies must follow the fare fixed by the government at Rs 19.5 for AC and Rs 14.5 for non-AC per km," he said.

“Drivers are blacklisted without warning if they cancel a ride. This should stop and they must be reattached. The fleet must not be increased as the supply is more than the demand,” he said.

Satish, a driver who returned to driving his cab after the Freedom Park protest, said, “I have been waiting at the busy spot near Jayadeva Hospital, but I have not got a booking for the last one-and-a-half hours. This is because the companies give preference to vehicles that have been leased out by them. It has been four weeks since I received my salary, which is for the period prior to the strike. They owe me around Rs 10,000, but have been giving excuses.”

“JD(S) state president H.D. Kumaraswamy told us that he will support us financially to start an app. He told us not to succumb to the injustice meted out by Ola and Uber," said Mr Ranjit Gowda from Karnataka Jana Para Vedike that was part of the two-day protest. Mr Kiran Gowda said that if the new app is developed, it will follow the fares set by the government. “It will be available on smartphones and we will also have a proper office,” he said.

Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy said, “I have told the drivers to get together and create a new app. I told them I will support them in getting approvals. A committee was set up to fix a minimum fare. They are still working on it.”

Duplicating the dynamic business model of cab aggregators is not an easy task. Apart from funds, technology and expertise too is required. Constant monitoring, GPS, maintaining the servers, paying salaries and more have to be thought out.

Transport Commissioner M.K. Aiyappa, however, said, “If they do something like that nothing like it. It is possible and has been tried out in Maharashtra by taxi drivers. Technology in terms of GPS and monitoring is not hard to acquire."

But the business model will not quite be the same, he believes. “Right now, the issue is aggregators taking all the profits and the drivers earning lesser. If drivers start an app, there will be no question of an aggregator and an employee. It will be more of a cooperative business where profits are distributed equally," he said.