Team-BHP - Karnataka: Carpooling app? Your car could be seized

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Originally Posted by rvd8732 (Post 4420285)

Bangalore Traffic Police confirmed that they will support giving lift as it will reduce traffic.

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Originally Posted by zombiedriver (Post 4419766)

This would make so many ride sharing apps illegal.

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Originally Posted by ajmat (Post 4419847)

I read in today's Bangalore Mirror that the traffic police here will not enforce this as a fully occupied car reduces congestion.

The joke's on us:

https://www.thehindu.com/news/cities...le24667394.ece

"By using a mobile app, owners of private cars are reaching a contract with other passengers. Only yellow board taxis can ferry passengers by reaching a contract with them, like taxi aggregators do."

Basically, until the judiciary defines the term "hire and reward" clearly, this whole ridesharing/carpooling concept is going to be a problem.

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Originally Posted by binand (Post 4443136)

The joke's on us:

Basically, until the judiciary defines the term "hire and reward" clearly, this whole ridesharing/carpooling concept is going to be a problem.

Our lawmakers/bodies are a bunch of fools. Firstly, no common sense and practicality prevails. Then comes enforcement of the deepest clause of some rule which would have gathered dust when some officer has Vitamin M deficiency. And to add to all this, there will be clashes between government bodies. Here in this case, the Bangalore Traffic police endorses such apps since they understand the traffic issue. I am in total appreciation of them. However, the transport department is who is creating this issue. Now they suddenly realize that private vehicles are being misused. Mostly because of pressure from Auto/Bus lobby. No one cares if a private bus flies on the road full of people within the city, where they are banned. Instead, they will catch some car owner for ridesharing.

At least until all this mess is sorted, I have stopped offering rides on QuickRide. Guess they should sort things out and get a legal framework going. Else it will be unnecessary complications on a work day.

That said, what prevents me from offering a lift to my friends/colleagues? How will the transport officials prove who is my friend and who isn't? At least in this case, they lured the driver into a trap. But other wise, it isnt going to be easy to deal with any checking done enroute.

Here's a news article on Ride sharing, from The Hindu:

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Ride-sharing apps, which allow private car owners to ferry passengers at cheaper rates than taxi aggregators, are becoming increasingly popular among people planning holidays and office-goers, especially those having to commute long distances. However, the Transport Department is cracking down on such services for violation of rules.
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Officials said that these apps were misusing the concept of carpooling for commercial gains. There is a fine line between a group of people offering to share fuel cost to commute to a common location and making money out of carpooling services. “If anyone uses private vehicles for commercial purposes, it is violation of rules,” the official said.

There are many who misuse ride sharing platforms like BlaBlaCar and Quick Ride to make money, instead of sharing the expenses, and such people should be booked. However, scaring people away from carpooling by showing the rule book is retrograde, IMHO. The recent act of Mumbai Police, of booking a man for offering a ride to an old man, quoting a rule that says it's illegal to carry strangers in a personal vehicle, also falls in the same category.

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Originally Posted by binand (Post 4443136)

"By using a mobile app, owners of private cars are reaching a contract with other passengers. Only yellow board taxis can ferry passengers by reaching a contract with them, like taxi aggregators do."

Blabla was their prime target. Blabla model is very tricky because there is a direct money transaction involved between the rider and ride taker. This is severely eating into the intercity bus business. I had heard a Blabla rider was caught similarly near E-city two weeks back. Quickride also launched the intercity rides but again, now I think their model of sharing "cost" doesn't holds well within laws, as the cost "incurred" by a ride giver is highly subjective.

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Originally Posted by bejoy (Post 4443198)

Blabla was their prime target. Blabla model is very tricky because there is a direct money transaction involved between the rider and ride taker. This is severely eating into the intercity bus business. I had heard a Blabla rider was caught similarly near E-city two weeks back. Quickride also launched the intercity rides but again, now I think their model of sharing "cost" holds well within laws, as the cost "incurred" by a ride giver is highly subjective.

If all that you've stated is true word to word, it'll be easy if a lot of citizens combine, to the take the bureaucrats to the cleaners. But sadly, we all know citizens do not combine.

To me, it shouldn't matter who takes a lift or who gives a lift, its well within the basic rights. Personally I would never give anyone a lift fearing that in this country, one is never too far away from a scam.. but I guess we must all come out of that mindset sometime or the other. Society in its most basic form is trust, after all. The bureaucrats, police and transport authorities have their respective priorities unfortunately.. the police want to thin down the traffic so that their workload is lighter, the transport authorities want to thin down the traffic in a way that all the people depend only on them and not on personal vehicles and the bureaucrats are the clowns that cant decide how to juggle a balance between the two and keep everyone hanging as a result.

The yellow board rule should also be looked at, with the existence of apps like BlaBla and other pooling apps. As far as the tax authorities are concerned, if the app can cut the tax at the source then technically there should be no problem as it will fall into "services", but if one is very adamant on the rules and "transport services" are taken into the picture then the rest of the venal authorities like RTO, and check-post will want their share of the pie as appropriate.

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Originally Posted by binand (Post 4443136)

The focus was on Ride-shares between cities. I got the impression that they turn a blind eye for inner city car-pooling. Don't hold me to this, looks like things are a bit dicey for ride share apps.

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Originally Posted by silversteed (Post 4443165)

Here's a news article on Ride sharing, from The Hindu:

There are many who misuse ride sharing platforms like BlaBlaCar and Quick Ride to make money, instead of sharing the expenses, and such people should be booked. However, scaring people away from carpooling by showing the rule book is retrograde, IMHO. The recent act of Mumbai Police, of booking a man for offering a ride to an old man, quoting a rule that says it's illegal to carry strangers in a personal vehicle, also falls in the same category.

I went thru the same news item over here: URL

I guess as per the Govt rules, all ride sharing is illegal if money is involved. If that is so, then they should ban the ride sharing apps itself or provide some guidelines on what are the rules.

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Originally Posted by silversteed (Post 4443165)

Here's a news article on Ride sharing, from The Hindu...

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Originally Posted by vsrivatsa (Post 4443367)

I guess as per the Govt rules, all ride sharing is illegal if money is involved. If that is so, then they should ban the ride sharing apps itself or provide some guidelines on what are the rules.

Quickride had this to say, when asked about the legality of their service:

Karnataka: Carpooling app? Your car could be seized-qr_statement.jpg

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Constraint: As per Indian Motor Vehicles Act, private vehicles cannot carry passengers for commercial gains. Hence Car Owners and Co-Travelers are strictly limited by Law to share a private vehicle in a private capacity, and any other ‘Services’ are strictly forbidden. The Car Owner must not provide any additional services to the Co-Traveler in exchange for hiring charges.

Solution: In view of the need, and keeping the constraints in consideration, Quick Ride has devised a solution. When a member (user of the Quick Ride platform) offers ride-share/carpool, she/he gets Quick Ride ‘ride points’ that can be used to avail a ride from someone else who is also part of this network. These points are strictly restricted for use - either for availing shared rides from others, or (as of now) for exchanging for fuel as if cost-shared by co-traveller. The system does not allow, or encourage, any cash transactions between members, or any redemption of points for cash

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RTO officials posed as passengers and booked 3 seats on the Hyundai Elite i20 plying from Bangalore to Hyderabad through a ‘ride-sharing’ app, the details of which are unknown. When the owner of the Hyundai Elite i20 arrived at the agreed upon point for picking up the RTO officials posing as passengers, they questioned the owner and impounded the car. The case was then referred to a local court in Bangalore, which fined the owner Rs. 2,000 and then released the car. The court fined the owner of the Elite i20 for using the car ‘against the purpose of registration.

SOURCE

What do you think about this guys? I think the owner in this case was 'just' carpooling it seems. What's the fine line between carpooling and 'using the vehicle for commercial gains' that RTO seems to be bothered with?

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Originally Posted by typlo (Post 4443394)

This is the same news item which has been posted above - now we have the same from 3 different sites.

I guess the QuickRide response posted by Silversteed gives some clues - that accepting cash directly by the driver/car owner is not allowed. Using a platform like QuickRide where only points are awarded and redeemed (although this appears like a workaround) is possibly allowed...

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Originally Posted by typlo (Post 4443394)

:Frustrati Another stupid move by the transport department after the notice to ban the foreign helmets. I am sure this may have been prompted by some complaints from other ride sharing companies like Ola, Uber, etc. like how ISIHMA is behind banning of foreign helmets.

We have a dedicated intranet site within our company for using Carpool, wondering whether this action will have an implication on that.

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Originally Posted by ajayclicks (Post 4442980)

Received this in my whatsapp group.

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I read this article too and what the heck! This certainly seems like some pressure being exerted by the cab transport lobby. Amazing that the transport department were so proactive to pose as passengers and trap a vehicle carrying passengers. Why the heck can't they open their eyes to the way cabbies drive so badly and openly flout rules on our roads and penalize them!

And amazing reasons given in the article, insurance against accidents if you're in a yellow board versus a white board, I mean seriously?! I'd trust a random stranger in a private car any day than most of the goons driving cabs in a city like Bangalore!