Longish post - Recent Ola experience, an interesting and unusual one for us and the cabbie
A friend and I needed to travel to Koramangala on a rainy day, so we booked an Ola ride from my home and saw that the car was about 6 minutes away. As the cab headed nearer to my home, we decided to walk to the street corner so that we could save some time by avoiding a U-turn in our narrow street. After a couple of minutes, we could see that the cab was heading in the opposite direction away from our home, so called the driver and he says very confidently that if our pickup location has been selected and is showing up correctly on the app, he will be there in a couple of minutes.
Another 5 minutes, the cab has still not arrived, so we call him again and he tells us the same thing and meantime the app is showing him going into nearby narrow cross roads, etc, just couldn't understand what he was up to, so we almost decide to cancel and book another ride.
Suddenly, we see the cab, a Toyota Etios heading fast towards us so we gesture to him to stop after making a left turn. We get in, and to the cabbie's shock he sees both of us belting up and asks if we really want to use the seat belts which we reaffirm. Just then, I noticed that the driver seat belt was locked in place but the cabbie was sitting in front of it
He starts the ride after we give him the OTP and tries to drive fast on narrow roads, but local traffic like the odd bike or car obstructing free flow of traffic, etc gets the better of him. At the first major junction, he decides not to follow the navigation and tells us he knows a faster route, we agree since we're familiar with the place and can avoid couple of traffic lights. Few minutes later, I ask him to take a specific cross road to avoid a bad road and some heavy traffic, saving us some time and the cabbie was happy. Somewhere along the way, he made a sharp right turn and narrowly missed crashing into a two wheeler and the rider quirked "why can't you slow down and use the indicators when turning ?". The cabbie says nothing and continues. He suddenly starts talking to us, saying “Look at that guy, what he told me applies to him as well. He could have slowed down, used the horn and indicator too”. My friend now asked the cabbie why he is trying to drive fast and if he has a target in mind to which he says he is trying to complete his weekly target of 100 rides. Then, he starts ranting saying he wants to be courteous to other motorists but if he slowed down to let one vehicle pass, others will take undue advantage and he will lose “precious” time. Soon, at a 4 cross road junction in Indiranagar, there is a 1 way road ahead that is used both ways by 99.9% of two wheelers and some 4 wheelers as well. To preempt the possibility of the cabbie taking that road, I told him it’s a one way and asked him to turn right and take the longer route to which he says he is aware and also that sometimes cops hang around there to challan such motorists. He goes on to say that the intent of the cops is only to bring revenue to the government and themselves, not to really make motorists understand why they should follow rules for their own safety including wearing seat belts.
This was probably the Segway that my mind was subconsciously waiting for and before I realized it, I asked him why he wasn’t using the seat belt and also telling him the importance of them!
I told him that the car was equipped with seat belts but not using them meant the airbags will probably not deploy in case of impact in an accident to which he retorted saying that’s why he keeps it locked! I told him that could be even more dangerous since he could be gravely hurt by the airbag itself if it deployed. He still did not stop arguing and went on to say he is in the “transportation” industry for more than 15 years, started his driving career in a Contessa (highlighted this), has been instrumental in imparting driving lessons to at least 15 people who are all good drivers and have their own taxi businesses now, he also worked as a chauffeur for corporate bigwigs, etc and … air bags deploy only at speeds of 80kmph or more and are useless on our Indian roads. He quickly changed the topic to the kind of passengers he gets, people who dirty the seats, kids who make the car messy and even if he spoke to them politely about that they would give negative feedback so has stopped telling them anything. By now, we are near Domlur on the Inner Ring Road and he says, we will reach our destination in about 10 minutes, another attempt to wriggle out of the conversation. He then switches on the car stereo and plays some music at the same time asking us if it’s ok, I tell him to keep the volume to lower levels which he does and we’re continue our journey.
I gave him 2 examples of how my friends lives were saved when they were in accidents only because they were using seat belts. I also told him, instead of complaining so much about his passengers, cops and the system, focus on your safety first by belting up and he says it is difficult to use the belt over his daily 250-300Km of driving. Then he tells us his car is just 3 months old and Odometer is already at 17k Km. I stick to my line of thought telling him accidents do not happen with prior warning and he quickly says, yes there is the luck factor. This got my goat and I told him, why depend on or blame luck when you can take simple measures to mitigate risks by wearing the belt ? I think he finally realized it is no use arguing with us, so all of us kept quiet for the next few minutes.
Soon, we reach our destination, pay him and he says, “Please don’t hesitate to give me a 5 star rating in your feedback just because I wasn’t wearing the seat belt”.
When getting out of the cab, I encouragingly told him that I’m confident he will always wear the seat belt henceforth and because of that I will give him a good rating.
I just hope I could really make him believe in the importance of seat belts and that will make him use it always..just H-O-P-E.