Tough going for taxi drivers

Market near saturated with a variety of services

App-based aggregator services have circumvented due process, and may have even evaded taxes, allege taxi operators.

At least one stakeholder has largely been missing in the recent debates on call taxis and passenger safety: the owner drivers who, in recent years, have become mini business owners.

Their sustenance has become more challenging than ever before with a market that is fast approaching saturation point with mushrooming services. A big grouse a few traditional taxi businesses have over the app-based aggregator services is that they have circumvented due process, and may have even evaded taxes.

For many of the owner/drivers though, the app-based services seem to offer a better deal in terms of finding customers.

Forty-six-year-old S. Ganesan, who was a driver with a leading IT firm until four years ago, decided to start a business of his own, applied for a loan and bought a sedan.

He is now enrolled with an app-based taxi service and earns between Rs. 40,000 and Rs. 50,000 a month. Setting aside Rs. 15,000 for fuel and maintenance expenses, he is able to make ends meet, he says. But things have not been easy. Ganesan had to change contract with three different call taxis before settling for the app-based service provider.

“When most call taxis start their business, they are really good to drivers and charge nominal monthly rent and promise us several welfare measures. But once their brand is established, they acquire their own fleet and then send us only for short trips while engaging their own cars for longer rides. Our monthly earnings drop sharply,” he says.

Another driver says a leading call taxi service in the city demanded from him the monthly rent of Rs. 6,000 when he was ill and bedridden for two months.

“They threatened to take me off their rolls if I did not pay up. I had no option but to pay in order to safeguard my job. But this was three years ago. Now there is a proliferation of services and more choice,” he says.

But the market that seems to be growing exponentially has some of the drivers worried.

“Right now, there are call-taxi services that are enrolling car owners with a promise of zero call centre charge for three months. But I wonder what will happen after a year or so,” a driver with a popular call taxi says.