Law only on paper, cabbies continue to fleece passengers in Bengaluru

Bengaluru: Much to the delight of commuters and in a major blow to the app-based cab operators, the much-awaited Transportation Technology Aggregators Act 2016 came into effect from April 2 that bans surge pricing categorically among other things, however, the app-based operators continue to overcharge passengers unabated even after that.

The new guidelines have clarified that under no circumstances can the app based aggregators charges exceed the maximum fare prescribed in the act. The maximum per-km fare has been priced at Rs 19.50 for AC cabs and Rs 14.50 for the non-AC ones.

Although the act has come into effect, the implementation has not yet begun. Soon, the transport department will be issuing a deadline to all the cab-aggregators to comply with the stipulated regulations under the act, until then, the aggregators can take it easy.

Meanwhile it seems the cab aggregators are no mood to take initiatives to comply with the new act as in an online survey conducted by Deccan Chronicle on a social media platform on the experiences of surge pricing, there were a minimum of 25 people with proof, who had to pay double and triple the fare up to Saturday, April 9.

Earlier an Ola official had told Deccan Chronicle that the fare was being charged just like any other industry. For example, the fare of the airlines increases with the demand and same goes with the tatkal provision under the Indian Railways. This is a mechanism where the driver also earns more during peak hours and the passenger too gets a cab quickly.

Similarly Uber had maintained that surge pricing applies during peak hours when there is shortage of cabs, but many commuters had ended up paying double, even when there were at least eight cabs available in the locality. And in the last few months many cabbies have joined these platforms and the number of cabs have increased.

Additional Commissioner of Transport H G Kumar says, “We will definitely set a deadline for these operators for complying with the rules. They will have to get licenses from us and will have to follow all the rules including non-detachable GPS.” On the other hand RTO Joint Commissioner of Bengaluru Urban, Narendra Holkar said, “We cannot grace any more time. We will commence our enforcement drives across various parts of the city.”