Kerala: Exit of online cabs ends low fares

KOZHIKODE: The online taxi service ‘Mango Cabs, ’ which was launched in July last year, has come to a grinding halt due to protest as well as a series of attacks on the services from traditional taxi drivers and the trade unions. The traditional cabbies allege that the low-budget travel facility would deprive them of their jobs.  However,  low-budget taxi services like  Uber and Ola have become popular in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram.   While the traditional cab owners and drivers oppose it, the others want a system which will not deny the facility to the people.
As per the plans, one can go in the basic model cab for Rs 99 for the first four kilometres and then an additional Rs 10 and Rs 11 per km respectively for AC and non-AC cars. The basic model was Maruti Suzuki Ritz.

Joint-transport commissioner Rajeev Puthalath of   Kozhikode told DC that in Thiruvananthapuram where he works,  he has to pay  less than Rs 100 to travel three km while in Kozhikode he has to pay up to Rs 500 to reach the railway station from his home in Malapparamba. “The cab driver will get regular customers at each point and owners get high income for each running km. There, even officials are buying cabs and registering them   in online cabs system, depute a driver who will drop him in office in the morning and earn  income till evening, and drop him back home,”  he said. “Most of the drivers and owners are  affiliated to one or the other online taxi company  and make good income”, he said.

Businessman C.E. Chakkunni told DC that the failure of online cab services was an  example of  the destructive trend of a few persons denying the right of the majority. “I feel that the voice  of the beneficiaries should rise  above that of the minority who oppose the progress of society,”  he added. The trade unions and political leaders will have to apologise to the public  for denying them such a fine service, many pointed out that. However CITU national secretary Elamaram Kareem said that instead of denying the services and destroying the vehicles, the existing taxi owners and drivers should  establish  an alternative system to resist the entry of online service providers who enter the taxi service sector. “There were some attempts in the past to weave out an alternative  system but they failed to take off due to some reasons,”  he added.