The services of online taxi aggregators Ola and Uber continued to face disruptions across the city on Tuesday, the concluding day of the two-day strike organised by a union affiliated to the Centre for Indian Trade Unions.
While Uber displayed a message under the title ‘Keep Chennai Moving’ on opening the app at times, the Ola app frequently stated that rides were unavailable. “We’re facing external disruptions in our operations today which may affect your Uber experience. We are working hard to bring more cars on the road at the earliest and to keep the city moving,” said Uber’s message.
The main demands of the Chennai Motor Vehicle Workers’ Association are related to government regulation of online taxi aggregators and higher tariffs. “Call taxis operate at ₹6 per kilometre while autorickshaws have been asked to drive at ₹12 per km. With diesel prices rising, it is impossible to operate under such conditions,” said Pa. Anbazhagan, general secretary of the association. He said that recent changes in the payment policies of both companies meant that drivers take home lesser amounts.
On Tuesday, the protesters took out a car rally from Guindy. Mr. Anbazhagan said around 250 cars bearing black flags participated. The union plans to demonstrate before the office of the Transport Commissioner on March 8.
Mr. Anbazhagan said nearly 32,000 drivers across Chennai, Tiruvallur and Kancheepuram districts went on strike on Monday. He said his association had 17,000 drivers with Ola and 15,000 registered with Uber. “80-85% of vehicles were off the road on Monday,” he said. The protesters also sought a fixed rate instead of fluctuating fares. They wanted different rates for vehicles of different sizes with fares for the ‘mini’ category starting from ₹100 for the first four kilometres and ₹17 for every km after that. For the SUV category, they sought a fixed rate of ₹150 for the first four km and ₹22 per kilometre afterwards.
They also wanted aggregators to remove the star ratings and not take on any new vehicles.
Mixed response
A driver with an aggregator said that while he was not aware of the strike, he had been getting calls all day from the company urging him to call 100 if he was being harassed. He also reported an unusual rise in the number of rides.
He did acknowledge that the payments from both operators were lesser these days.
Another driver, M. Prabhu, however said there was no cause for alarm and noted that while there was a dip in earnings, it was not crippling.
