A month back, on February 10, State police chief Loknath Behara filed an affidavit before the Kerala High Court, stating that as many as 36 violent disputes involving drivers of taxi aggregators and local taxi drivers had been registered over the past one year. Final orders had been passed in 20 of these while 14 were under investigation, Mr. Behara submitted.
The latest of these disputes took place in the State capital when a driver attached to taxi aggregator Uber was allegedly manhandled near the Kovalam beach resort late on February 4. The victim, Anu, was allegedly attacked by unidentified persons, suspected to be drivers of local taxis, around 10.30 p.m., while he was transporting two passengers to Kovalam. As stones rained on them, the passengers fled from the vehicle. The driver was assaulted and his vehicle damaged. He was admitted to the General Hospital with injuries.
While Thiruvanantha-puram has only witnessed a few clashes, in the port city of Kochi, disputes and violent showdowns have been a regular phenomenon.
Mr. Behara’s affidavit was a follow-up to a court directive issued in the wake of two back-to-back cases after clashes between the two groups. In both cases, the drivers of Uber taxis were assaulted by auto drivers and prevented from picking up passengers at the Ernakulam Town and Ernakulam Junction railway stations, prompting the High Court to direct the police chief to provide protection to app-based taxi drivers.
While drivers of regular taxi services are faced with a decline in earnings with the increasing popularity of the app-based operators, their protests have elicited little sympathy from commuters in a city that has struggled with traffic congestion and rude cab drivers.
‘Safer travel’
“By offering a GPS-monitored ride, they [app-based services] have really changed the way women commute. As someone who travels mostly alone and reaches the city at odd hours, they are offering me a convenient, safer and cost-effective travel option,” says playback singer Sayanora Philip, who lodged a complaint with the police after being heckled by autorickshaw drivers for hiring a cab through an app.
Her views resonate with other users of the app-based taxis. “Even if you argue that they are changing the soul and tradition of the taxi trade, I do not care. I shall still go for online taxis, and hope the government protects them. At least this will help the auto rickshaw drivers here to understand that they are not flying Air India,” says Mathukutty, a popular radio/video jockey.
While Kochi’s cabbies accuse the taxi aggregators of launching an all-out assault on their profession by operating from a murky legal space, the latter argue that competition has turned the sector “pro-consumer.”
“The taxi aggregator companies, which are beyond the taxi licensing norms of the State government, are killing competition by offering subsidised journeys. While conventional cabs have to abide by government-mandated ceilings on their fares and areas of operation, the app-based services do not face the same costs and regulations and are not regulated under the Motor Vehicles Act. Besides, they also carry out arbitrary surge pricing,” says K.N. Gopinath, Ernakulam district secretary of the Centre for Indian Trade Unions (CITU).
“It’s no surprise that the online cabs are taking business away from the local cabs as they prove to be equally attractive to both the drivers and the clients. While the commuters are given a flexible travel offer that costs much less than conventional taxis, the daily average earning for an online taxi driver stands at ₹1,200,’’ says T.R.S. Kumar, president of the Online Taxi Drivers Union.
Backlash feared
Mr. Kumar says the police have registered about 45 cases of assault on app-based taxi drivers across Kerala, while about 60 such incidents have gone unreported due to the police’s reluctance to act.
“Thanks to intervention by the Kerala High Court, the police have begun taking these cases seriously once again,” Mr. Kumar adds.
Most of the drivers of the app-based taxis that The Hindu spoke to, however, refused to speak about police inaction fearing a backlash. “The police simply ignored my complaint about a threat to my life from the airport taxi drivers. Besides refusing to register my complaint, they advised me to avoid a confrontation with the traditional taxi drivers by dropping passengers outside the Kochi airport,” recalls a taxi driver, who faced the anger of local operators in early 2015. The police too admit that they had done some “fence-sitting” in the past because they were unsure about the “legitimacy” of the app-based services.
“There was lack of clarity on whether the cabs under these aggregators were operating without a local taxi permit. This might have resulted in a few complaints getting declined. The confusion is over now and we have clear directions with regard to the actions to be taken in case of such illegitimate protests from the auto rickshaw or taxi drivers,” said an officer attached to a police station in Kochi.
Trials are underway in three of the 10 cases registered by the police this year in Kochi. “We are maintaining a strict vigil on the stand-off between the two groups and will not condone violence, especially in the wake of Kerala High Court’s directions in this regard,” said a top police officer.
While considering a petition by C. Navas, an app-based taxi driver, the High Court had, in March last year, asked the State police chief to take action against those preventing online taxi services from entering public spaces such as railway stations and airports.
When no action was forthcoming even nine months later, the Court asked the police chief to file an affidavit on the action taken on its directive. In addition to a compilation of cases, Mr. Behara has also promised firm action to ensure smooth operation of the taxi aggregator services.
At least baby steps
The recent clashes in Kochi have forced authorities to take at least some baby steps towards settling the issues. Collector K. Mohammed Y. Safirulla, who had on December 22 last year held talks with both groups, urged them to behave responsibly and conveyed that the Government was duty bound to check the violence.
“While one side raises the issue of technological disruption affecting their livelihood, the other side highlights the economic opportunities this new scenario presents. There is an urgent need for the State government to frame appropriate laws to bring uniformity in the sector,” he observed.
Rough estimates indicate that app-based taxi service is growing in Kerala at 5 to 10% week on week. Uber alone has around 4,000 active drivers and the overall driver headcount stands at around 20,000. At least 3.5 lakh customers make use of the services in Kochi alone every month. The regulator of taxi services, the Motor Vehicles Department (MVD) has welcomed the introduction of new technology that benefits commuters, as long as it meets licensing and regulatory requirements. MVD officials, at the same time, also admit that the app-based taxis are operating in a grey zone — not quite illegal, but condoned by the law.
“There is no denying the fact that the conventional operators are faced with a strong challenge from the app-based players, which follow a ride-sharing revenue model. The issue is bound to continue unless and until the State government comes out with a set of guidelines for regulation of IT-based transportation aggregators so that there will be a level playing field for both the segments,” admitted a top officer.
An official with a prominent app-based taxi service provider, however, reckons that there is enough space for every player in the market. “There’s no cab owned by us, nor have we employed any driver. In fact, our services are operated by traditional taxi drivers who have plugged into our software app without any precondition or exclusivity. This has heralded an era of rider and driver democracy, with quite a few options to choose from,” said the official.
“Ours is a zero tolerance policy on violence against our driver partners and drivers,” maintains Nitin Nair, general manager of Uber (Kerala).
“We continue to work closely with the police and the authorities concerned for smooth operation of our business in Kochi and Thiruvananthapuram and will coexist with autos and taxis as our ultimate goal is to work out how to get more people in fewer cars. Our competition is actually with car ownership,” he says.
With S. Anandan
