HYDERABAD: Monsoons are here and travelling in this season could easily get pricey with many top Cab companies making you shell more than just the normal travelling pick and drop charges.
As it seems that Cab Drivers must be blamed for the unreasonable charges, they say it is a regular practice and that they don’t benefit from the pricey charges collected from customers, while the RTA is busy checking regulations with the public.
A customer Swathi was recently charged Rs 455.39 for her trip from Begumpet to Nampally recalling her previous trip in April that cost her Rs 101.09 says “It’s unfair to charge so much for a journey less than 10 km. I paid as I didn’t have any choice,” said Swathi.
“Every year during Monsoon, the surge charge goes up. That’s why people are using Uber pool than the single taxis. The number of customers using Uber has decreased in the past few days, specially during peak hours,” says Kranti, an Uber driver in Hyderabad.
According to Sunil M, Telangana Cabs Association President, “When it rains, the charges go up to 3-4 times than the normal cost. But the drivers don’t get anything out of this, whatever be the surge”.
Adding to it he says “People are hesitant to book an Uber and are switching to relatively cheaper and newer taxi apps”.
With not so very good remuneration for the services in Uber and Ola many drivers seem to switch to other taxi services, while the taxi driver unions have gone twice on strikes but failed to make their demands accepted.
Over 50,000 cab drivers are currently registered with all the taxi unions. But Uber and Ola claim there are about roughly 1 lakh drivers in Hyderabad alone but the exact number is not known, Sunil said.
He added “There are less drivers for Uber and Ola. Many full time drivers have switched to other taxi services”, Indian express reported.