[ashis89]

I remember when OLA and UBER was launched, the fear of rating made these drivers extra courteous and very good drivers. With the falling incentives and income, slowly these drivers tend to be rash, impatient and even rude in some cases. Their sole intention is to maximize their income. Every day I encounter at least one cab, who is trying his level best to wriggle through the traffic, keeping the least possible margin of space on either side of his car. While I completely understand their problem, what they are doing shouldn't be a risk to other road users.

With their falling incomes, they must be finding it difficult to maintain their cars. Again I say this because I see cabs in a sorry state. Not clean, lots of scratches and dent, many mechanical/electrical issues not taken care of and so on. For the record, I avail the services of these cabs very rarely, 2-3 times in every 3-4 months mostly when I am travelling out of the city. Hence, my observations are from cabs found in different cities of India. I rate these drivers based on their driving (only rash driving has to be penalized) and behavior. I have never complained about the state of their car and its mechanical fitness.

One interesting observation. During my visit to Gurgaon a few months ago, I had taken a cab around 10PM. The driver was a very old man and was driving a new Gi10. While he was dropping me, he called someone on phone (my guess - his son) asking him to be ready for the night shift. It seems the person protested and this old man was making him understand that they can make some money (driving the cab during the night).

[ksameer1234]

I believe it will be harsh to put all drivers in the same basket. I tend to use Uber quite frequently and have found several categories of drivers. There are some who are gem. Eg, I had one Uber driver who had 4.9 rating in over 5000 trips and everything about him and the car was perfect. Then there are those who aren't adept and not very familiar with technology but accept this fact and are polite in taking and following instructions. While dealing with such drivers is a bit of hardwork, only solace is that they are willing to learn and improve. And then there are utterly rude and impatient drivers who totally deserve to be rated 1-star. Sadly, the number of the drivers of third category is consistently on the rise. Ola/Uber somehow need to start incentivizing drivers for good behaviour, if not being done already.

[myavu]

Originally Posted by n.devdath

1. Driving rashly to maximise their rides.

Along with that I am recently observing one more attribute of these drivers. In the middle of the road they simply look into their phone for accepting a ride or something else. That too with reduced speed and impeding following traffic. At times they veer into your lane too by doing so

[iamahunter]

One more thing that I've noticed very recently is denying the ride.
This is with both, Ola and Uber.

Recently this happened, I was out for a dinner with friends.

After the dinner I booked an Uber. The ETA Uber app showed was 10 mins.
We were waiting outside the restaurant and chatting. After about 10 mins I again checked the status of the cab.
To my surprise, the cab had not even moved an inch from the previous location.

So I called up the driver to ask about the status. On that, the driver rudely blabbered and said
"arey sahab aap 5 km duur ho.. ab itna duur kon aaye..!! aap cancel kardo kyu ki hum nahi aayenge..!"

Gave him what he deserved and booked an Ola.

The Ola was also on a similar distance and agreed to reach in 10 mins.
After about a couple of minutes I got a messages from Ola saying "We cannot serve you at the moment.".
This meant that the driver had denied/cancelled the ride.

Luckily I got an auto soon.

Surprising behavior from the Ola/Uber drivers. Is this because they don't care anymore as their commissions have gone down?

[akshaymahajan]

I have just one question to all Uber/Ola drivers especially in Bangalore

How are you guys always on the phone? Who are you talking to? You talk the entire way from Indiranagar to the airport and back. How do you get so much content?

Thank you Ola prime play for gicing me the volume control!

[abhishek46]

Originally Posted by iamahunter

Surprising behavior from the Ola/Uber drivers. Is this because they don't care anymore as their commissions have gone down?

I have noticed this same 'surprising' behavior many times in the last few months, more so with Ola.

Last week, my BIL was travelling in an uber share taxi. Mid way through his destination, the cab driver started asking him to get down and change the destination to some random bus stop midway, as his drop point was far away and was not profitable for him.
What nonsense is going on!

[pratyush6]

Uber has become bad in Bangalore and exorbitantly expensive for longer distances. For some odd reasons it calculates fares taking the longest distance in mind! I mean from Byapanahalli to EC through Indiranagar works out to 350ish, while whenever I book now, I see the ORR selected and fares in the region of 500.
Add to it, frequent cancellations. Bloody hell, one driver cancelled after reaching my apartment main gate at 5am in the morning for a taxi to the airport!
Still think, if your distances are short, it's okay, but longer, I would rather drive on my own.

[--gKrish--]

Atleast in Thiruvananthapuram, I've had only good experiences with Uber. I have never seen any of them drive slow( infact they try to keep it around 70kmph when space permits). They are well behaved most of the times and way better than company drivers and autowalahs. But, in coming years when uber withdraws the promotional offers here in TVM, things might take a toll. At times, I find cars with the rear seat belts tucked under the seat and these drivers, not slowing down at the broken sections.

[deehunk]

Originally Posted by abhishek46

I have noticed this same 'surprising' behavior many times in the last few months, more so with Ola.
What nonsense is going on!

The drivers are definitely back with their practise of harassing customers, Ola is also helpless now. But money is flooding Ola account like the streets of Bangalore. This is going nowhere and roads are getting filled with more immature drivers.

[gkrishk]

Slightly OT, but how do Uber/Ola compare with local players like FastTrack? I used FastTrack from a prepaid booth at Chennai airport and was charged 500 for a journey that would have cost half that much if booked on phone.