[dark.knight]

As with everything else in life, bad incidences happen.. call it fate or the famous Murphy's Law "Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong".. this brilliant sentence is often not analyzed properly.. because it is saying that one should always be aware of the risks/weak-points when doing anything because any possibility will become real at any point of time.

Now, how would one respond to this OLA incident in comparison :

https://www.thenewsminute.com/articl...d-crime-107753

Is it OLA's fault that they didnt do proper background check on the driver? Is it the lady's fault that she engaged his services without the supervision of the OLA app? Or is it the driver's fault for committing the crime with a full sense of awareness?

Things happen.. am I supporting OLA? Hell no. I can drive myself to the office at less than half the cost of an OLA cab, while being far more luxurious than their stench-filled, bouncy, sardine tins called taxis.

OLA and UBER are horrible, overpriced, unsafe taxis, and I know it very well.. the drivers push back the oil-change, do not inflate properly (they mostly over-inflate tyres) and teat their passengers like cr*p, no aircon as standard, belting their tribal folk-songs and the apps treat this service as if I'm being chauffeured in a Maybach Landaulet. Rs.20 for playing a song on their run-down tablet screens (OLA)? REALLY?

OLA can write pages upon pages on how they treat their cabbies and customers and that the customer is indeed the king and they will ensure that this matter is investigated to a suitable closure.. real world, nothing changes.
While I've taken on many corporate entities for their shoddy service, sheer lackadaisical approach and horrendous management, only one thing registers in their thick corporate skulls - shun their service altogether.

[avira_tk]

Aggregators have absolutely no responsibility for the services they provide. This is nothing new, have an issue with the service and you'll not be able to get any response. The OP is lucky his friend got out alive, the aggregator certainly won't care if anything happened and their terms of service say that in no uncertain terms. Compensation is a straightforward no go.

[VKumar]

Originally Posted by SuvidC

she literally had to jump off the vehicle to save her life on a busy road with heavy traffic. She didn't get hit by a vehicle coming from behind.

The car is on the left, she must have boarded from the left door only. Why did she jump towards the right? I do understand that the situation was tight - but it doesn't look like the entire car was a fire ball and if the right hand side door could be opened, so could have been the left one!

Originally Posted by GTO

All cars can catch fire, there is nothing special about Ola for the incident to stand out. Why does your friend want compensation?

Same opinion here, what the (un)kind lady wants the compensation for?

The e-mail states that Ola needs to take care while on-boarding the cars. Well, Ola can't ask manufacturers to manufacture cars with the specs of the S600 Pullman Guard.

The best part about he passenger is that she jumped out of the car and had the risk of getting hit - why did she jump out on the traffic side first of all?

IMO, it looks more of an arm twist for getting some money from Ola; heck, these days people go to any stretch to get free food from Swiggy, Zomato etc - here someone has just been through an ordeal (The driver has been through a bigger one), but the demands seem to be baseless.

I would like to see this lady going to court, making an issue out of this and finally facing a defamation suit from Ola

[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Jet Airways, I know has not coughed up that money yet in the most part.... If you wish to run a business to the strictest letter of the contract drafted by lawyers and then be shameful enough to hide behind it then either you are an uncaring monopoly or you are headed for trouble.

Jet Airways not refunding cancellation money has no connection with contracts drafted by their lawyers. In fact, no contract drawn up by any lawyer can override governmental regulation in any matter. Jet have taken shelter under going belly up / becoming insolvent under which circumstances there are other laws of the land that fall into place, unfortunately not in the end consumer interest.

Safety should be an integral part of any company, not just those in the transportation industry.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Ola / Uber only check that the vehicle has proper registration & insurance, and the driver has a valid DL with no criminal record. They do not do a fitness check of the fleet they connect a user to. So how are they liable when a cab aggregated by them goes up in flames?

What would Ola/Uber done in USA or say UK. If they are funded in the billions and are working hard to super dominate the taxi market to the detriment of any other competitor then a higher level of due diligence is also required of them. Or let them put it out in bold on social media that we are not responsible for your safety in any way - you are on your own please read the fine print in clause 12(a)(viii)!!! Let them then have the conviction to say caveat emptor in all their direct and indirect advertising.

Dear @SuvidC, don't get disheartened by the Cavet Emptor tone of several of the posts here. I am trying to send you by PM the co-ordinates of Ola's senior most employee. Call him -Write to him. If nothing else it will teach you life lessons. My best wishes.

[SS-Traveller]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

What would Ola/Uber done in USA or say UK.

Excellent question Sir. Before answering your question, may I be provided with the data relating to the profiles, educational qualifications etc. of the drivers, and regulations related to these cabs in the US/UK/Australia? Do they need a commercial driving licence and vehicle registration? Do they need to have a special vehicle, such as running on CNG? Or are they people like you and me, who drive the car they park at home as a cab, to earn a few extra $$$ (and have a genuine DL earned through a proper test)?

[SuvidC]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Dear @SuvidC, don't get disheartened by the Cavet Emptor tone of several of the posts here. I am trying to send you by PM the co-ordinates of Ola's senior most employee. Call him -Write to him. If nothing else it will teach you life lessons. My best wishes.

Thanks a lot Sir. Really proud of our community because its made up of people like us, who have capabilities to engage in a mature discussion and help each other when required. What an enriching experience!

Coming to the issue at hand, have to clarify again that what she's demanding is not monetary compensation. Its important to delve upon this since that one word in her note has sadly overpowered the unfortunate issue she went through, and has earned her tags like (un)kind (sic), and someone who's trying to make money out of misery. When she says compensation, she means redemption of that trust she had on Ola as a brand when she hailed a cab using their services. There could be multiple ways to achieve that, like coming out clean with facts explaining what they did to prevent this, and how would they try and ensure this doesn't happen again. I'm at a loss understanding how compensation is hard coded in our collective conscience as money.

Coming to legality, I am of the view, backed with whatever little legal experience I have, that she has all the right to take Ola to the cleaners claiming service deficiency if they're unable to demonstrate to her satisfaction through tangible proof that the cab in question was properly checked and found in a service worthy condition by them in a reasonably recent inspection. If they do not have such an inspection process in place, I think my friend's case could be the one where Honorable Courts pass directions to ensure such processes are in place from then on. I would also absolutely love to see how Ola would try to defend themselves in such a case with defamation as an argument.

As an update though, she has almost decided to take Ola legally on this one, and fortunately her place of work (which is one of the biggest Indian conglomerates, where she herself works as a legal counsel) has decided to back her on this one in whatever way they can.

Since the matter will now be subjudice soon, I am sure we bhpians will respect the privity of the case. I will, however, keep updating this thread with news as it comes in.

Loads of gratitude to everyone who provided their valuable input on this thread. If not anything else, this has opened me to post more and post often!

Peace.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

Excellent question Sir. Before answering your question, may I be provided with the data relating to the profiles, educational qualifications etc. of the drivers, and regulations related to these cabs in the US/UK/Australia? Do they need a commercial driving licence and vehicle registration? Do they need to have a special vehicle, such as running on CNG? Or are they people like you and me, who drive the car they park at home as a cab, to earn a few extra $$$ (and have a genuine DL earned through a proper test)?

I do not know the exact answers to your questions and I believe the inputs are not relevant to the answer. In USA or the UK or Singapore (if they are there) these taxi aggregators of whichever brand would clutch into 6th gear to attend to the aggrieved customer and extend assistance or at the very least courtesy to her. Here Ola has chosen to do little; not even provide courtesy. A customer writing a rude or threatening letter is no excuse for not responding promptly and courteously on phone and mail. In my businesses such a shoddy response would have invited some serious shellacking on the executives responsible. And this tone of internal culture shows up repeatedly also in their approach on women's safety when traveling in cabs hired through them.

In the west the real threat of a rapid action law suit exists. Here they know they can get away with shabbiness.

Ola and Uber and Oyo for that matter do not see you or me as their customer whose needs should be attended to because the cash we pay means little to them. Their customer is the private equity fund which had invested big bucks into them and the company is being run solely to build valuation at all cost to make it a more attractive race horse for yet another private equity buyer.

Given this fundamental premise I do not believe they will improve over the years.

I am glad she is taking them to court. All power to this young lady. A wallop from Delhi High Court will shake up their arrogance especially on matters of safety. Frankly I am shocked at how many members are chiding or ridiculing this woman .

[libranof1987]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

\Given this fundamental premise I do not believe they will improve over the years.

Exactly. They haven't reacted responsibly or accepted accountability when the women traveling in cabs on their platform have been threatened with molestation, or when their drivers have dozed off (and member Tejas had to drive the cab home), or for that matter, even when the driver had a heart attack.

Less said the better about the kind of cars that are allowed to run on their platform.

Unfortunately, this is world over.

She said the Uber driver threatened to rape her if she told anyone what happened. But she did tell, calling 911 and reporting the alleged assault to Uber.

In the following days, her injuries began to heal but she feared he'd be allowed back on the road — and that’s exactly what happened.

https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article...-investigation

Until there is strict regulation, they will remain absolved of any responsibility, except how well their app works.

[Engine_Roars]

We also need to consider that not everyone will be aware of how cars catching fire is almost normal. For them, a car catching fire is as rare as a unicorn. For someone who has been through it, it could be a life changing accident. Her email/message must have been just one of those angry responses when your thought process is fear & anxiety induced.

Ola/Uber can never guarantee that a car attached to them will never catch a fire no matter how many checks they keep in place. It is unreasonable to have such an expectation.

[landcruiser123]

Doesn't Ola have an insurance policy? AFAIK, all uber riders and drivers are insured in the USA. https://www.uber.com/us/en/drive/insurance/

While the platform just connects drivers and riders, they have worked out insurance for drivers and riders. If anything like this happens(and it can happen to any car,) they'll most likely compensate you. Uber in the US disqualifies drivers with lower ratings- so drivers are keen to maintain their cars well. Also, Uber has inspection stations in the Bay Area.

I think Ola and Uber in India do not necessarily weed out bad drivers. Ola can't be blamed for this incident if they have proper systematic procedures which were followed in evaluating the driver. However, they should be sued if there are some lapses.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Just like if a flight suffers an engine failure mid-air the customer will look to the airline and the airline cannot hide behind -"I did not build the engine, ABC did" or " I don't maintain the engines XYZ MRO does" and so on. Best of luck.

I wouldn't compare the taxi business with the airline business. The airline business is highly regulated, unlike the taxis.

[ninjatalli]

Originally Posted by SuvidC

Coming to the issue at hand, have to clarify again that what she's demanding is not monetary compensation.

You might be possibly very much right on the above point, but the language of the mail is very poignant on a monetary matter than anyone else. Clearly, the mail snapshot given was sent to the Ola team with only the 'To' changed. It's not just about one word in the mail, but how the entire mail has been written. And if the majority on this thread are reading it that way, I'm sure the folks at Ola are reading it accordingly.

I'd agree with what @V.Narayan's said in his posts. But let's keep the clarifications aside for now for what the rider 'intended'.
Coz overall if one looks at the situation
- monetary compensation is (one of) the legitimate asks allowed by law
- it is an option that is most referenced to in such cases
- it has been indicatively mentioned in the complaint
- and it will be looked as the primary means of a penalty/solution whether it is going to be out of court agreement or via the court judgment

While the case proceeds, I do hope sufficient noise is made in the public to make this situation less "acceptable" and due responsibilities are taken up to handle such situations much better going forward.

Originally Posted by landcruiser123

Doesn't Ola have an insurance policy? AFAIK, all uber riders and drivers are insured in the USA.

All Ola riders have insurance by default, the "Rider Insurance" is charged at Rs 2 per ride (unless disabled by the rider on his app). Acko is the insurance provider and the coverage covers accidents and medical evaluation/hospitalization. I'm not sure about drivers; but my guess there would be an insurance provided by Ola or one to be taken by the driver/owner as default requirement.

[VKumar]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Or let them put it out in bold on social media that we are not responsible for your safety in any way - you are on your own please read the fine print in clause 12(a)(viii)!!!

Sir, it is not possible to disagree with you in any scenario, you frame the words in such a beautiful and legitimate manner - always.

But my key question is:
Even is Ola follows every precautionary step; how can one assure that such incidents won't occur?

We have seen instances of brand new vehicles catching fire, a small rat bite can occur any time, a small short circuit can send wires over heating and a fire starting up. We see that we always take all the preventive maintenance steps, service cars at A.S.S. always, get the best quality components, always assure that air pressure is correct in tyres and what not. But things do turn out of hand at times, don't they?

IMO this is just an accident, and how can we hold Ola responsible for this, that is above my head?

I can't say that Ola has shown any apathy or not, none of us know what their response was. One point I will agree though, Ola could have taken this in a better manner - contacted the customer and a bit more, maybe a coffee would have done. When I faced brake failure and hence a mishap in my Corolla, even though I didn't even file a complain, a senior executive from Toyota visited my place a few weeks later (When they discovered the incident from probably the service records, on their own), had a coffee and left - no compensation talks, only apologies; and that was more than enough.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by VKumar

Sir, it is not possible to disagree with you in any scenario, you frame the words in such a beautiful and legitimate manner - always.

But my key question is:
Even is Ola follows every precautionary step; how can one assure that such incidents won't occur?

IMO this is just an accident, and how can we hold Ola responsible for this, that is above my head?

Dear VKumar, this is an excellent question and one that will be there on the minds of many. As you correctly point out no company can 100% prevent a mishap from happening and the courts in India and most democratic countries fully recognize that. What a court or the law expects are that the company take reasonable measures in a diligent manner on whatever checks and balances are to be done. Sometimes they are held to a higher standard of best efforts. A big company where its services intrinsically involve safety {medicare, transportation, services to do with children i.e. schools, elevators} is expected by convention or at times required by law to make best efforts to do X,Y or Z in the interests of safety. I do not believe, observing the rash of safety issues, especially women safety issues, that keep popping up with respect to Ola and Uber, that these companies are taking even reasonable efforts let alone making best efforts. I hope this helps.
In this case Ola cannot prevent a car from bursting into flames. But the question is whether they diligently exercise precautions, training and inspections of the drivers and cars on their platform to ensure safety. I believe not. Or are they hiding behind the fine print of a contract when things go south while projecting an image of being a world class tech leading, ground breaking enterprise. I believe yes. Thank you for reading.

[phamilyman]

Originally Posted by SS-Traveller

So a cab caught fire. In Delhi. It's probably running on CNG, is HR or UP registered, and the driver / owner couldn't care a damn about safety when he had the CNG kit installed from a fly-by-night operator, and the certification of kit installation added to his RC through an agent who took a couple of thousand rupees to pay off the guy signing this off at the RTO.

Ola / Uber only check that the vehicle has proper registration & insurance, and the driver has a valid DL with no criminal record. They do not do a fitness check of the fleet they connect a user to. So how are they liable when a cab aggregated by them goes up in flames?

Bang on.


This is why i bought a second car for my commute instead of relying on Uber as we did all these years. Uber and Ola aggregate the cabs, not maintain them. It is NOT an airline.



The fact is - Ola accepted the fitness certificate given by the CNG installer OR by the RTO. These incidents happen courtesy electrical modifications which are often super hard for anyone to detect on a systematic periodic basis given the cavalier nature to maintenance by the typical cab owner. Your friend should celebrate getting out of it scratch less. Any legal action is an utter waste of time. If anything, I'm slightly amused at the threat of a criminal complaint. Of course, Ola should compensate her for the trauma and engage with her but that's about it.



Expecting the senior management to personally investigate or resolve the accident is pointless as well. This is the nature of the beast called NCR cabs. if they devote senior management bandwidth to each such incident, the company will ground to a halt. I may sound callous but that's what it is. It's one thing to be indignant and another to deliver an approach that will safeguard against such incidents - at scale and within a reasonable cost. I would be really curious if there exists such an assurance protocol.



Uber and Ola are much safer airconditioned kaali peeli cabs with a sort of minimum service standard. They are not an airline ticket which comes with a much higher service delivery standard.