[nerd1200]

Thanks a lot for the information Tanveer. This means I have to wait for couple more years (and buy a Safari) to visit (read: Drive to) Leh!

Originally Posted by tsk1979

A few tourists have reported that they were not allowed to go to Nubra valley and Khardungla and Taxi drivers threatened them. They were ordered to park their cars at the hotel and take a local taxi.

Is it specific to Nubra valley and Khardungla Pass? Or all tourist attractions in Leh.

EDIT: Read the notice, One can drive only on Leh-manali/Srinagar-Leh highway. On arrival in Leh, your vehicle would be parked at the hotel!

Tourism department was of no help and they were told to comply as the tourist season is just 3 months and these guys need to earn money

Again, will this be prevailant for 3 months only? if yes, which months?

EDIT: Its 5 months!

Also, the report read -

...unanimously resolved to stop the Non-Local vehicles from plying...

Not sure if this is only for Self-drive rentals. The phrase 'All non-local vehicles' is confusing and frightening at the same time..

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by nerd1200

Again, will this be prevailant for 3 months only? if yes, which months?

EDIT: Its 5 months!

Also, the report read - Not sure if this is only for Self-drive rentals. The phrase 'All non-local vehicles' is confusing and frightening at the same time..

ITs not for 5 months. That's their excuse. You cannot take a yellow letters on black background self drive rental car to Leh without running into trouble with taxi mafia.

As for non rentals, don't worry, the hotel association will not let them take that much power. Self drive rentals affect very small percentage of the people. But self drive cars, that will kill the hotel industry.

[jaaz]

I feel the Local authorities should come out with a solution to safeguard the local industry. Inconvenience to the Tourists will have a negative impact on the entire region on the long run. Instead of giving anyone a freehand, services should be streamlined. If the Tourists are convinced about the services, there shouldn't be any problem in utilising local services.

[FORTified]

Originally Posted by mayankk

I understand their plight, but this is just strange.
Someone who doesn't have a 4x4, or doesn't want to put his car through the rigor, but wants to have the experience of the drive, hires an self-drive, but has to go in a rickety cab as a passenger?
Why cant they just offer their own cabs as self drives from that point onwards?
Or do they, already?


PS: Are they threatening private vehicles as well?

Private vehicles are not impacted. As recent as 2014 end, we went from Bangalore [3 cars + 1 jeep] and we wern't even aware of such issue being present. We went thru Khardung LA, Nubra Valley upto Turtuk. In fact, we found those taxi drivers very friendly and made few friends there. May be Black/Yellow plates have issues.

Originally Posted by alpha1

Why would you want to reduce competition?
If the locals find it hard to compete with outsiders for the same job, they will be pushed to either do a better job or forced to change their jobs to something else that pays well (perhaps migrate).
In either case it will be good for the tourists as well as the locals.

If you consider the fact that the tourist season is very limited and there is nothing much else to do to make a living, it is basic survival instincts that push people to this extremes I suppose. They are just trying to protect their turf from encroachment. As long as they do not impact privately owned self drive vehicles, it should be acceptable. The taxis coming from plains will have normal business during rest of the year, when these mountain cabbies will not be allowed to come down, say Manali, and make a living. So, whats wrong? AND, Migrate is easier said than done.

[tsk1979]

Originally Posted by FORTified

If you consider the fact that the tourist season is very limited and there is nothing much else to do to make a living, it is basic survival instincts that push people to this extremes I suppose. They are just trying to protect their turf from encroachment. As long as they do not impact privately owned self drive vehicles, it should be acceptable. The taxis coming from plains will have normal business during rest of the year, when these mountain cabbies will not be allowed to come down, say Manali, and make a living. So, whats wrong? AND, Migrate is easier said than done.

Nobody really had a problem with taxis from outside being banned. But self drive cars, where a person who loves driving rents a car being banned a different ball game.
Now if there was local competition(self drive cars in Leh), we could say rent locally, but you cannot rent a self drive XUV or Duster from Leh. You can only sit in a cab.

[apachelongbow]

Originally Posted by FORTified

If you consider the fact that the tourist season is very limited and there is nothing much else to do to make a living, it is basic survival instincts that push people to this extremes I suppose. They are just trying to protect their turf from encroachment. As long as they do not impact privately owned self drive vehicles, it should be acceptable. The taxis coming from plains will have normal business during rest of the year, when these mountain cabbies will not be allowed to come down, say Manali, and make a living. So, whats wrong? AND, Migrate is easier said than done.

Really??? So you do believe that Maharashtrians kicking out North indians competing for jobs in Maharashtra is perfectly fine also... Similar issues no? After all everyone needs to feed their families. Likewise Karnataka locals hating people from outside.. After all they eat the locals jobs.....

[FORTified]

Originally Posted by captain.torque

Coincidentally, the Manza driver arrived on the scene as well and just as he sat inside, a couple truckers grabbed and pulled him outside, slapped and abused him till he literally begged for mercy. He was spared only after other tourists including our group intervened.

However, things didn't end here, almost immediately after this happened, some of the truckers and cabbies started flaunting their authority in a rude and disrespectful manner, as if they were on a power trip.

Banging bonnets and windows of cars not parked properly while screaming expletives.

I am all for it. Wish they administer the same medicine in Bangalore and other cities too. Things have come to a point where nothing else seem to help. Even police seem to have given up. People keep driving on the wrong side of the divider and the police looks the other way because there are too many of such offenders. They are so high in numbers that it looks normal here.

Originally Posted by avisidhu

It has to be said that even if you are travelling by your own vehicle, the attitude of cab drivers in Leh is quite uncooperative and needlessly aggressive. It remains one of the very few unpleasant memories from our trip 3 years back.

One should be careful and avoid getting into any argument or fight with them.

Nothing can or will be done about this situation unfortunately. The only sensible thing would be to make them stakeholders by some means so they are incentivized to adapt to self driven vehicles.

Sorry to hear about your experience.
My experience was the other way around.
They helped me when my car got struck in a remote corner of the Pongong Tso, gave me free lift till the nearest Army camp, shared some route info and generally I found them more friendly than my Bangalore Auto drivers

[The Adventurer]

Isn't srinagar to manali via leh a national Highway?

I think this amounts to violation of fundamental rights! I hope somebody sues!

I was planning on driving to ladakh from Kochi. But since I own a sedan, thought it was best to hire a zoomcar from Delhi. Looks like they messed it up.

[rajpalkaran]

Given the recent protests around Uber in Paris, and the issues with Ola and the others in India, these specific issues are expected. I understand all three are due to different reasons, but there is a common thread:
All these start-ups are 'disruptive'. That word has negative and positive associations. While they are good for us- convenience, affordability, on-demand service, transparency, they also disrupt the markets they operate in by either breaking or twisting the law in their own way.

In Paris, a taxi driver who isn't on UberPop has to pay $300,000, while in New York, Taxi medallions are a long running racket. The race for a normal taxi drivers and what Uber etc. do isn't fair.

While in every other instance, I would reject protectionism of any kind, Ladakh is a special case.

[Kumar R]

Originally Posted by rajpalkaran

While in every other instance, I would reject protectionism of any kind, Ladakh is a special case.

What is special about Ladakh ?

[hserus]

Originally Posted by Kumar R

What is special about Ladakh ?

The tourist season is like two or three months in the year - and for a lot of the rest of the year, the places to go don't have suitable weather or are closed off due to snow. So the locals descend like a swarm of mosquitoes on any tourists unwary enough to venture in there, and suck as much money out of them as they can in the short time that they have.

[rajpalkaran]

The reasons they mention are very real. Ladakh is a very remote location, and industry, government departments and business serving the local population can provide only so much employment. If they open this specific route (self-driving cars), taxi cabs are the next step. And soon, people with more resources, avenues to grow will take up all of the little that's available to the local people.

Before someone questions my socialist leanings, and naivete, this link will be helpful to add some layers to this question. The world over, old world destinations with their charms are changing their character due to modern pressures. Some protectionism is needed.

Will Ladakh be better off when tourists have more choice? Yes. There will be more tourists (may be), and there will more money coming to the local economy overall. Will those choices deter the local infrastructure from supporting the local population's needs for employment? Yes.

[Kumar R]

Originally Posted by hserus

The tourist season is like two or three months in the year ... So the locals descend like a swarm of mosquitoes on any tourists unwary enough to venture in there, and suck as much money out of them as they can in the short time that they have.

Thank you, mine was partly a rhetorical question.

Originally Posted by rajpalkaran

The reasons they mention are very real. Ladakh is a very remote location, and industry, government departments and business serving the local population can provide only so much employment. If they open this specific route (self-driving cars), taxi cabs are the next step. And soon, people with more resources, avenues to grow will take up all of the little that's available to the local people.

Before someone questions my socialist leanings, and naivete, this link will be helpful to add some layers to this question. The world over, old world destinations with their charms are changing their character due to modern pressures. Some protectionism is needed.

There is a difference between preserving heritage (culture + landmarks) and preserving businesses, in each case for its own sake. In a few instances a business may be the culture and that's fine too.

Local taxi operators in Ladakh are not, IMO, part of the culture or the heritage that Ladakh is famous for. Maybe in some town in Bavaria quaint 50-year old VW Beetle taxis that have been around for as many years is the tourist attraction (and to that extent preserve-able) but that does not seem to be applicable to Ladakh.

Like any tourist business the taxi operators thrive on servicing (and sometimes fleecing and scamming) visitors. This is common in all holiday spots. There was a time when PCO operators at such places did well due to tourist traffic; no doubt they would have made out a similar demand that mobile phone coverage should not extend to those ares. If more and more people are using self-drive taxis (often at some more expense + effort), there is clearly something wrong with the existing services.

Off topic, I don't see any relation between socialism and protectionism.

[dcs]

This is funny while it is equally alarming.

The transport Unions have always been a pain to the local authorities. I know how dreaded it was to Hire a Truck from Outside Local Tempo Unions of Haryana few years back, until the state government came into action and banned the Tempo Unions.

While my sentiments are with the Local People of Ladakh who have a very small window in a year to earn, I still dont understand how is it remotely acceptable to "PASS" a Local Made Ban? The local taxis want a ban on the Self-Drive/ Non JK Registered Vehicles. Great. How many of these Taxi Drivers are paying Income Tax? How many of them raise an invoice to the service they offer? Are they charging the Service Tax? Are they charging by some sort of defined rate? No.

"Might is Right" has always been a case in our country. Pressure Groups dictate the Laws.

I too, am a keyboard warrior. But it hurts me from inside to see the sad plight.

God Save Us.
dcs

[lancer_rit]

While not allowing outside ladakh taxis is one thing, preventing self drive rental cars is completely against a citizen's freedom and rights. As long as you drive the vehicle and are legally allowed to drive it, why should that be considered a taxi? The government should send a clear message this is unacceptable.
If there is the need to help local environment, infrastructure and community, levy an additional toll for the privilege for all self drive vehicles - rented or not