From buying a new car to earning incentives, driving for Ola is lucrative only if the vehicle belongs to you.
Financing schemes available for buying a new car:
* One-time payment: Pay the full amount and get the car
* Buy own car with bank loan: Down payment Rs.1.5 lakh + Rs.11,000 as monthly instalment. Car worth Rs. 3 lakh costs around Rs. 5.5 lakh (as told by one driver). Bank finance involves certain formalities and documents such as income proof, tax returns, bank account details among others
* Buy a cab from Ola: Down payment of Rs. 20,000 + Rs. 808 per day for three years. Insurance and maintenance are responsibility of Ola for three years, after which the driver is the owner of the car. With this financing scheme, a car worth Rs. 3 lakh costs Rs. 9 lakh, but the financing procedure is simpler compared to a bank loan
Earning differs if you buy a cab from Ola
Apart from the earnings per ride, rates of which are fixed and advertised by the company, Ola drivers get an “incentive” for completing a fixed number of rides during the day. On regular earnings, Ola charges 20 per cent commission and the rest goes to the driver.
The extra incentive is what most drivers look forward to on a daily basis. For most, no incentive means no business. Canceling a ride or offering a bad service may result in cancellation of the incentive, even if the requisite number of rides has been completed. The drivers say they are not informed about the reason in case the incentive is cancelled.
For drivers who buy a cab from Ola there is no provision for any incentive.
Gaming the system
In the incentive system, the distance does not matter, only the number of rides is taken into consideration. Hence, short trips are beneficial. Five rides totalling 50 km is more business compared to one ride involving a 60-km journey.
And hence, some drivers attempt to game the system. A popular strategy is to generate fake rides – requesting the customer who finished his/her ride to make another booking. The proximity to the cab ensures that the same driver gets the booking. The driver doesn’t ask the customer to pay, but drives for 4-5 km and eventually stops the ride. A bill is generated and an extra ride is added to their account, taking them closer to their target.
Cabbies go Ola la...
From jobless youths to budding entrepreneurs, many young men are taking the wheel to fulfil their dreams. Here are some stories from Ola cab drivers who tell us what the life is like.
‘The more you drive, the more you earn’
After riding an autorickshaw for 20 years, on August 17, Kumar hit the road in a new vehicle and a new avatar – Ola cab driver. Turning on the AC, he exclaims, “No sweating from now on.”
>Read more »A chance to become an entrepreneur
Bhaskar started driving the car himself to learn first-hand what it took to be a successful driver. Today, he owns five cars and employs as many people.
>Read more »Ola is his gateway to economic freedom
It was his first day and this reporter was his first customer.But this first ride with Ola did not end on a rosy note.
>Read more »Dropped Canada dream to drive a cab
When he started looking for work, his relatives in Canada suggested that he move to the country and begin a transport business there. But something came up.
>Read more »Three years later, few passengers, fewer incentives
The rush of being “flooded with work” in the name of the “changing times” and attractive incentives has, three years later, become “a daily struggle”.
>Read more »
