[soji]

I have always had high hopes when it comes to Ola and Uber. Considering their vast driver base and a solid feedback system, they have a platform ready in place which could enforce lane disciple, or even road discipline in India; at least among their drivers to get started. But its turning out that road safety nor disciple is nowhere in their priorities.

[Mukund]

Ola's license suspended in Bangalore for 6 months.
App-based cab aggregator Ola has been suspended from operating in Bengaluru for the next six months by the Regional Transport Office for violating its license conditions, an official notice said. The action is being taken after the cab aggregator operated illegal bike taxis, as per the Karnataka On Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules 2016. According to the suspension order, Ola cannot run its aggregator service for any vehicles including cars, autos and bikes in the city for 6 months.
Currently, bike taxis in Karnataka are illegal due to lack of policy framework and is also strongly opposed by the Ola TaxiForSure and Uber Drivers’ Association in fear of loss of business.
"The order was issued on March 18 but it was communicated to Ola only today (Friday). They will have to submit their license to the RTO within three days of receiving the order. Booking on Ola from Friday is illegal," the Joint Commissioner of Transport told TNM.
"Earlier this year, Transport Department officials had seized several bikes which were operating as bike taxis for Ola. The officials probed the case and submitted a report to the Transport Commissioner. According to section 11 (1) The Karnataka On Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules 2016, the Transport Department can decide to cancel the license of the cab aggregator as there is a violation of rules,” an extract of the notice read.

Source.
Tough times ahead for Bengalurians if this doesn't get resolved soon enough.

[ajmat]

I think Ola pushed it too far. It was known that the rules did not favour bike taxis so their "civil" disobedience actions backfired. They had it coming, bikes being seized, warnings, etc. They should have worked with the government. They have enough cash to fund legal and lobbying resources.

IMHO bike taxis are too dangerous, too much pressure to drive fast and safety get compromised.

[Ragavsr]

Originally Posted by ajmat

IMHO bike taxis are too dangerous, too much pressure to drive fast and safety get compromised.

Any vehicle could be dangerous in the wrong hands.

I would request you to take a bike taxi and report back.

I had taken a couple of them in Amritsar and the vehicle were black on yellow plates. The drivers drove safe at reasonable speeds and it was quite safe.

The charges were so low at 10 rupees for 2 kilometres and the greatest advantage was that bikes are allowed deep into the old lanes of Amritsar surrounding the golden Temple.

[condor]

May be Ola could have gone the Hire & Ride option instead. Would have covered themselves.

Now it is anyone's guess how they will come out of it. How soon will depend on how

[digitalnirvana]

There is another operator called Rapido that is more popular for bike taxis. The fares are also lower than the Ola bikes.

I have taken only one Ola bike ride as the normal Ola rates were exorbitant that day and I definitely will not recommend it (this coming from a guy who does not ride 2 wheelers, so my judgement is clouded that way). The lack of safety compared to a 4 wheeler, combined with the hot weather are enough for me to stick to a 4 wheeler taxi even at a 100% premium

Edit the Ola Bangalore news is a shocker. Bangalore was the first city for both Ola and Uber, and in fact Ola are HQed there, isn't it?

[boniver]

Originally Posted by digitalnirvana

There is another operator called Rapido that is more popular for bike taxis. The fares are also lower than the Ola bikes.

I've used Rapido twice till date, only because my destination wasn't directly accessible by metro. If I had to get somewhere and taking a bus was the only option, I'd chose Rapido, hands down. For all other cases, the Kolkata Metro is a no-brainer.

(Names in screenshots provided have been blanked)

Ride 1: My "Captain" arrives 15 mins after booking, on a bike that's different from the one mentioned in the app. He's wearing shorts and slippers. I'm already late, so I agree to take the ride. He offers me a helmet, but the strap doesn't undo properly. I show it to him, and he asks me to put the strap at the back and wear it just like that, without fastening. Again, I'm terribly late, so I don't protest. The bike is shabbily maintained. The speedometer doesn't work, there's all sorts of creaks and rattles, and I can hear the chain hitting the chain cover at regular intervals. Dude drives into a petrol station, and I kid you not, fills petrol worth Rs. 20. At one point of time, he gets a call, and accepts it, while he's riding. I'm just holding on, hoping I get to my destination in one piece. Eventually, I reach, and offer him his fare. He tries to fool me by saying that the actual fare is Rs. 15 more than the displayed fare, due to some "tax". At this point, I lose it, and give him an earful.
Overall experience: Bad, but hey, I reached my destination in one piece, and my wallet was lighter by only 20 bucks!



Ride 2: My "Captain" arrives on time, on a scooty. Offers me a proper full-face helmet. He navigates through the narrow lanes of Central Kolkata very well, and fast, just the way I like it. He drops me off at my destination in just under 10 minutes, and gets a thumbs up from me.
Overall experience: Good




I think I'll continue using Rapido as a cheap and fast way to get to places that are far off the Metro route.

[Mukund]

Originally Posted by ajmat

I think Ola pushed it too far. It was known that the rules did not favour bike taxis so their "civil" disobedience actions backfired. They had it coming, bikes being seized, warnings, etc. They should have worked with the government. They have enough cash to fund legal and lobbying resources.

IMHO bike taxis are too dangerous, too much pressure to drive fast and safety get compromised.

I agree that they had it coming, I'm only worried that the RTO might overreach and apply similar principles on carpooling. The lack of clarity on it is worrying (I carpool on a daily basis). On the safety front, yeah they might not be safe but that doesn't make it illegal.

Originally Posted by boniver

I've used Rapido
twice till date, only because my destination wasn't directly accessible by metro.
...
I think I'll continue using Rapido as a cheap and fast way to get to places that are far off the Metro route.

Thanks for sharing your experiences, but us Bengalurians will not be able to use their services as well for the next 6 months. Yes, Rapido's license was suspended as well, it is mentioned in the same article. While I'm not a regular user of these services (i drive/ride myself most of the time) and don't like the bad road manners of such cab drivers, i have come to appreciate the convinience of such services. Ola is quite popular in Bangalore and as someone mentioned, is headquartered in Bangalore. A suspension for 6 months will be a big hit to them as well as the regular people who depend on these services. I expect them to appeal, apologise and appease the relevant people to get back on road.

[FrodoOfTheShire]

Originally Posted by Mukund

I agree that they had it coming, I'm only worried that the RTO might overreach and apply similar principles on carpooling. The lack of clarity on it is worrying (I carpool on a daily basis). On the safety front, yeah they might not be safe but that doesn't make it illegal.

Referring to this incident where Bengaluru cops posed as customers and "nabbed" a private car owner who was using a carpool app to pick up passengers.

https://www.rushlane.com/hyundai-i20...-12277963.html

If we look at the actual honest intent of carpool, its to use a single car by multiple people to get to the same/nearby location instead of each person using their own separate vehicles. This saves the overall fuel usage, lowers pollution and reduces road congestion. The passengers can share the fuel expenses with the car owner, most probably on a monthly basis and none of these monetary transactions are on paper. I assume this is what you mean when you say you carpool on a daily basis.

The problem arises when a car owner picks up random passengers and ferries them around and charges them money per ride basis. This then becomes similar to taxi service which a private registered car is not allowed for and thus illegal.

As others have mentioned above about using bike sharing apps, where the bikes had yellow plates, I've seen Rapido bikes with personal white plates doing the duty, which again would be illegal.

[Thilak29]

Hire and Ride scooters have turned into a menace in at least Bangalore city, especially the ones owned by Bounce.

These scooters can be parked by user 'anywhere' and renting company encourages same to ensure city wide availability. This has lead to customers parking at places without any fear of getting towed away, Everyday I see at least 5 of these parked on ring road right in the driving lane.

[boniver]

Originally Posted by boniver

I've used Rapido twice till date....

Originally Posted by FrodoOfTheShire

As others have mentioned above about using bike sharing apps, where the bikes had yellow plates, I've seen Rapido bikes with personal white plates doing the duty, which again would be illegal.

Forgot to mention this in my original post: Both the Rapido bikes had private plates. In fact, I've never come across any bike running with commercial plates in Kolkata.

[Funny]

Originally Posted by Thilak29

Hire and Ride scooters have turned into a menace in at least Bangalore city, especially the ones owned by Bounce.

These scooters can be parked by user 'anywhere' and renting company encourages same to ensure city wide availability. This has lead to customers parking at places without any fear of getting towed away, Everyday I see at least 5 of these parked on ring road right in the driving lane.

Seriously, this issue is getting on my nerves. Most of the days I see them parked bang on the ORR left/right lanes. As all Bengaluru ORR commuters know, we have to squeeze through whatever lane that is available for overtaking and while doing so I've had few close calls due to such stupid riders who park it on busy roads during peak hours. And I see cops catching two wheelers without helmet 1km before/after the illegally parked bounce scooters. But no one seems to tow them away. They should be towed away by BTP for wrong parking and fined heavily so that the company understands the intensity of this issue and takes appropriate action. I'd say that BTP should just seize such vehicles still Bounce provides an assurance that it won't happen again. The company seems to be less bothered about such issues, lot of investor money to spare I guess..

[FrodoOfTheShire]

OLA's suspension is revoked.

"Karnataka Minister for Social Welfare Priyank Kharge told TNM that Ola cabs will run their business as usual starting from Sunday, just two days after the Regional Transport Office issued a suspension notice for app-based cab aggregator Ola in Bengaluru, for running illegal bike taxis.

In a tweet on Sunday, the minister said, “@Olacabs will run their business as usual from today. However there is an urgent need for policies to catch-up with new technologies & also industries too should work closer with Govt to help evolve policies for innovations.”"

Source-
https://www.thenewsminute.com/articl...ster-tnm-98870

[porsche_guy]

Originally Posted by boniver

Forgot to mention this in my original post: Both the Rapido bikes had private plates. In fact, I've never come across any bike running with commercial plates in Kolkata.

That is because there is no provision in the MVA for yellow plates on two wheelers! We have a thread for that here-


https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/motor...-purposes.html (Commercial registration for 2-wheelers used for business purposes?)

Cheers!

[digitalnirvana]

Originally Posted by boniver

Forgot to mention this in my original post: Both the Rapido bikes had private plates. In fact, I've never come across any bike running with commercial plates in Kolkata.

That is what my Ola bike driver had told me as well, and he'd cited it as one of the key reasons why he prefers Rapido over Ola bikes (because the RTO amount for a commercial plate is higher than a normal plate)

Rapido's website too does not list a commercial RC as a requirement

To join Rapido’s fleet as a Captain, you need to have the following things -

An android phone with a 3G mobile data connection
A bike from 2008 or newer model
A valid Driving Licence
Vehicle registration certificate (RC)
A valid (not expired) bike insurance
PAN Card
Two Helmets (Captain and Pillion Helmets)

https://help.rapido.bike/hc/en-us/ar...apido-Captain-