Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom!

centaur · 20th July 2017, 10:38

Think again before you hail an OLA. A doctor was kidnapped by an OLA driver because the company had not paid a few of them the incentives. While this can happen with any cab aggregator but in this case the crime seems to have stemmed from lack of payment from OLA.

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/59673423.cms

Another incident also involving an OLA cab posted here

NaXal · 20th July 2017, 11:32

Quote:

Originally Posted by centaur

Think again before you hail an OLA. A doctor was kidnapped by an OLA driver because the company had not paid a few of them the incentives. While this can happen with any cab aggregator but in this case the crime seems to have stemmed from lack of payment from OLA.

Last few years there were huge increase in driver protest for OLA/Uber alike. People signed up for earning 70k/1L a month. OLA or Uber kept on advertising such huge profit. Once the honeymoon period was over, OLA/Uber and others went into price war, that huge advertised income was no where to be seen.

People took loan, sold their properties to sign up with new cars.

Now ?

Check youtube. It's flooded with horror stories from drivers and owners or so called OLA/Uber partners.

Something like this is shocker for sure. But those who are familiar with OLA/Uber payment issues, may not find this surprising.

Drivers only see the passenger, since entire business model is online and seldom a driver may meet OLA/Uber employee face to face to vent their frustration / anger.

ashutoshb · 20th July 2017, 14:14

This one is 'Savdhaan India' material for sure.

Miffed by the drastic reduction of incentives, these Ola cabbies kidnapped an Ola customer and called Ola for ransom!

TOI Link

GTO · 20th July 2017, 17:43

Thanks for sharing, Centaur & Ashutoshb! Moving your post to a new thread.

Serves as a gentle reminder that we need to keep our eyes & ears open, even when travelling in Ola & Uber.

Sherlocked · 20th July 2017, 17:57

A trick to be on the safer side, especially for women is just after sitting in your taxi pretend to call someone sharing the details of your Ola/Uber cab.

Like - Hey, I have just taken a Ola and the car is a white Swift Dzire, number ending in xxxx. Driver's name is xyz. See you soon in around xx minutes!

Chances are that the driver will not pull dangerous tactics on you after this.

Read it somewhere on the internet. May be on our forum only.
Worth sharing.

libranof1987 · 20th July 2017, 18:19

The lure of too much money inconsistent with the level of education and civic sense is a major pandemic in our country.

Lack of proper laws esp. surrounding consumer protection only make such things worse.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

A trick to be on the safer side, especially for women is just after sitting in your taxi pretend to call someone sharing the details of your Ola/Uber cab.

Uber already has a facility where you can share the status of your trip with your emergency contacts. But I believe, you need to do this for each trip.

What I'd like is, your emergency contacts get a notification about your travel *each* time you travel with these details:

Name of driver
Reg. no. of car
GPS log

While this will certainly not deter the hardened criminals, it's a step towards accountability.

dark.knight · 21st July 2017, 08:47

India is such a useless nation in almost every sphere of life, the only thing almost everybody are exponents at is bureaucracy.. aka the art of not doing what has to be done.

Controversial opinion but I sure feel unsafe today.. we're adapting our life slowly to the American timings and companies, institutions and facilities are almost functioning 24 hours in major cities like Bangalore today (Mumbai is an already established 24 hour city). However what hasn't changed is safety.. we as a people are meek as well, ready to surrender, throw our hands up and twiddle our thumbs when danger grabs us by the throat. Gun laws must be approved in India and fast, however I do understand that the propensity to misuse guns due to the novelty factor will be a billion times more than America where guns are commonplace. Perhaps certain people of standing who're verified as balanced individuals should be able to apply for training and license without having to prove threat to life, and surely there must be more training centres all over rather than just in the outskirts.

Imagine this, you're in a cab.. the doors are locked and the driver is hijacking you and you have absolutely no option to force him to stop. Its a horrible situation. One can easily sucker-punch the driver and stun him but for the fact that its a moving car and also what the driver may do after is anybody's guess. I'm sorry if this post is uncomfortable due to the mention of violence or just due to its negative overtones but the question remains that if we as the civilized, keepers of a sane, anti-anarchic society face a danger that can possibly threaten our life, what are we to do?

NaXal · 21st July 2017, 10:01

Quote:

Originally Posted by dark.knight

One can easily sucker-punch the driver and stun him but for the fact that its a moving car and also what the driver may do after is anybody's guess

Imagine the legal and police harassment for doing so.

You or me suspecting a hijack doesn't make it hijack. But you or me doing that violence is definitely an one way road towards police and legal harassment.

GTO · 21st July 2017, 10:24

Quote:

Originally Posted by Sherlocked

A trick to be on the safer side, especially for women is just after sitting in your taxi pretend to call someone sharing the details of your Ola/Uber cab.

And if highly suspicious, take a pic of the car as it's approaching you (ensure driver sees you taking a pic) and whatsapp it to your family. Have used & recommended this tip to many people.

Tejas@perioimpl · 21st July 2017, 11:56

Kudos to the police team for their swift action. Good work by the cops rarely gets praise nowadays.

SmartCat · 21st July 2017, 13:19

All Ola/Uber cars are equipped with a GPS tracker. I don't think the kidnappers knew that they could be easily tracked by Ola/cops.

Quote:

Originally Posted by dark.knight

Imagine this, you're in a cab.. the doors are locked and the driver is hijacking you and you have absolutely no option to force him to stop. Its a horrible situation. One can easily sucker-punch the driver and stun him but for the fact that its a moving car and also what the driver may do after is anybody's guess. I'm sorry if this post is uncomfortable due to the mention of violence or just due to its negative overtones but the question remains that if we as the civilized, keepers of a sane, anti-anarchic society face a danger that can possibly threaten our life, what are we to do?

Best to sit in the front seat. There is no child lock there. But yeah, sitting in the front seat is not advisable for a lady!

centaur · 21st July 2017, 14:22

One tip on cabs which I got on whatsapp a while back, especially for ladies is that, while getting into the cab make sure to check the child lock on the door you are getting in from (at least). When the child lock is engaged in a car we all know what happens. I am sure many of you too might have got this as forwards but sharing it here again because I found it to be very much doable for a driver with vested interests.

Having Tasers is another option apart from guns. Is comparatively safe but the problem which I have felt in keeping any kind of weapon is that, it can be easily used against you itself if you don't handle it well. So its a double edged sword really!

ariesonu · 21st July 2017, 14:35

NCR region has become one big black hole.
Nothing can work better for criminals than the ease of committing crime & moving into any of the three different states while police gets entangled in formalities.

They kept using docs phone (including internet to send videos) and police could not locate them for 13 days!!!

We do can appreciate the police work now because the result was not fatal but we cannot rule out the possibility that this could have got uglier.
I shudder to think, if the cabbie had chosen to kidnap a woman.

Regards-Sonu

fordday · 21st July 2017, 16:37

Quote:

Originally Posted by Tejas@perioimpl

Kudos to the police team for their swift action. Good work by the cops rarely gets praise nowadays.

This looks like a 13 day affair.

moralfibre · 21st July 2017, 16:45

In all my interactions with Uber drivers (I haven't taken an OLA cab yet), the drivers have always praised Uber's timely payments. They never have to follow up and their linked bank accounts are credited without any fuss. In the same breath they complain about Ola's poor policies and untimely payments.

While lack of payments does not justify kidnapping a customer for ransom, Ola does need to fix their credit mechanism.

20th July 2017, 10:38	#1
centaur BHPian Join Date: May 2009 Location: -- Posts: 897 Thanked: 1,169 Times	Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom! Think again before you hail an OLA. A doctor was kidnapped by an OLA driver because the company had not paid a few of them the incentives. While this can happen with any cab aggregator but in this case the crime seems to have stemmed from lack of payment from OLA. http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/c...w/59673423.cms Another incident also involving an OLA cab posted here
	(8) Thanks

20th July 2017, 14:14	#3
ashutoshb Senior - BHPian Join Date: Jul 2006 Location: NOIDA Posts: 1,755 Thanked: 4,287 Times View My Garage	Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom! This one is 'Savdhaan India' material for sure. Miffed by the drastic reduction of incentives, these Ola cabbies kidnapped an Ola customer and called Ola for ransom! TOI Link
	(4) Thanks

20th July 2017, 17:43	#4
GTO Team-BHP Support Join Date: Feb 2004 Location: Bombay Posts: 70,495 Thanked: 300,296 Times View My Garage	Re: Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom! Thanks for sharing, Centaur & Ashutoshb! Moving your post to a new thread. Serves as a gentle reminder that we need to keep our eyes & ears open, even when travelling in Ola & Uber. Last edited by Rehaan : 20th July 2017 at 17:46. Reason: Merged some more posts into this thread...
	(4) Thanks

20th July 2017, 17:57	#5
Sherlocked BHPian Join Date: Jan 2013 Location: Jaipur Posts: 688 Thanked: 1,812 Times	Re: Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom! A trick to be on the safer side, especially for women is just after sitting in your taxi pretend to call someone sharing the details of your Ola/Uber cab. Like - Hey, I have just taken a Ola and the car is a white Swift Dzire, number ending in xxxx. Driver's name is xyz. See you soon in around xx minutes! Chances are that the driver will not pull dangerous tactics on you after this. Read it somewhere on the internet. May be on our forum only. Worth sharing. Last edited by Sherlocked : 20th July 2017 at 17:59.
	(12) Thanks

21st July 2017, 08:47	#7
dark.knight Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Apr 2013 Location: Beans Town Posts: 1,847 Thanked: 8,351 Times	Re: Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom! India is such a useless nation in almost every sphere of life, the only thing almost everybody are exponents at is bureaucracy.. aka the art of not doing what has to be done. Controversial opinion but I sure feel unsafe today.. we're adapting our life slowly to the American timings and companies, institutions and facilities are almost functioning 24 hours in major cities like Bangalore today (Mumbai is an already established 24 hour city). However what hasn't changed is safety.. we as a people are meek as well, ready to surrender, throw our hands up and twiddle our thumbs when danger grabs us by the throat. Gun laws must be approved in India and fast, however I do understand that the propensity to misuse guns due to the novelty factor will be a billion times more than America where guns are commonplace. Perhaps certain people of standing who're verified as balanced individuals should be able to apply for training and license without having to prove threat to life, and surely there must be more training centres all over rather than just in the outskirts. Imagine this, you're in a cab.. the doors are locked and the driver is hijacking you and you have absolutely no option to force him to stop. Its a horrible situation. One can easily sucker-punch the driver and stun him but for the fact that its a moving car and also what the driver may do after is anybody's guess. I'm sorry if this post is uncomfortable due to the mention of violence or just due to its negative overtones but the question remains that if we as the civilized, keepers of a sane, anti-anarchic society face a danger that can possibly threaten our life, what are we to do? Last edited by dark.knight : 21st July 2017 at 08:50. Reason: Too many typos.. don't want an infraction ;-)
	(2) Thanks

21st July 2017, 11:56	#10
Tejas@perioimpl Distinguished - BHPian Join Date: Sep 2008 Location: Bombay Posts: 4,423 Thanked: 9,581 Times View My Garage	Re: Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom! Kudos to the police team for their swift action. Good work by the cops rarely gets praise nowadays.
	() Thanks

21st July 2017, 14:22	#12
centaur BHPian Join Date: May 2009 Location: -- Posts: 897 Thanked: 1,169 Times	Re: Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom! One tip on cabs which I got on whatsapp a while back, especially for ladies is that, while getting into the cab make sure to check the child lock on the door you are getting in from (at least). When the child lock is engaged in a car we all know what happens. I am sure many of you too might have got this as forwards but sharing it here again because I found it to be very much doable for a driver with vested interests. Having Tasers is another option apart from guns. Is comparatively safe but the problem which I have felt in keeping any kind of weapon is that, it can be easily used against you itself if you don't handle it well. So its a double edged sword really!
	(1) Thanks

21st July 2017, 14:35	#13
ariesonu Senior - BHPian Join Date: Mar 2010 Location: Bombay Posts: 1,343 Thanked: 2,417 Times View My Garage	Re: Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom! NCR region has become one big black hole. Nothing can work better for criminals than the ease of committing crime & moving into any of the three different states while police gets entangled in formalities. They kept using docs phone (including internet to send videos) and police could not locate them for 13 days!!! We do can appreciate the police work now because the result was not fatal but we cannot rule out the possibility that this could have got uglier. I shudder to think, if the cabbie had chosen to kidnap a woman. Regards-Sonu
	() Thanks

21st July 2017, 16:45	#15
moralfibre Team-BHP Support Join Date: Dec 2004 Location: MH-12 Posts: 8,443 Thanked: 13,956 Times	Re: Ola driver kidnaps customer; calls Ola for ransom! In all my interactions with Uber drivers (I haven't taken an OLA cab yet), the drivers have always praised Uber's timely payments. They never have to follow up and their linked bank accounts are credited without any fuss. In the same breath they complain about Ola's poor policies and untimely payments. While lack of payments does not justify kidnapping a customer for ransom, Ola does need to fix their credit mechanism.
	(1) Thanks