[Ithaca]

Originally Posted by JBIBS

Guess you misread the post buddy. He was trying to highlight the manipulation done by OLA drivers even when there were loads of them available

Actually I understood what he was saying.
I was only pointing out that in Mumbai, Ola was proactive in stopping this kind of scams from happening by introducing the OTP method wherein the cab of your choice was bound to take you to your destination once the OTP was shared.

His point is valid. About the cabbies asking for cash instead of booking via app.

[livetodrive]

In Bangalore, its getting worse to reach airport especially during evening hours using any service (Ola, Uber, UTaxi). I had to plead a driver several times to not cancel the trip or otherwise everyone either asks for cash or asked me to cancel the ride and travel offline paying more

Now, one Uber driver clearly refused me to pickup saying 700/- to reach airport is too less. He asked me to cancel the trip and I refused. After sometime he cancelled the trip and Uber charged me Rs. 43/-

Got confused, however small it may be, why should I pay for someone refusing to pick me up ?? However, in my App, I went to "Your trips -> Selected the cancelled trip -> Help -> Review my cancellation fee -> Select My Driver cancelled -> Submit" and it said "We're unable to adjust your fee"

Is there any way to escalate this further ?

[kalyan_hyd]

Originally Posted by Ithaca

One good initiative of Ola - credit where it is due - with regard to Mumbai International airport is that all the passenger has to do is book the vehicle he desires - Micro / Sedan / SUV - and he will be given an OTP.

Uber does this now at the Hyderabad Airport. In fact, earlier one had to walk a bit to catch an Uber cab as the pick-up point was farther up. Now, the private parking spaces, the first 6 bays have been vacated and allotted to Ola, Uber, etc. One gets an OTP on booking any Uber cab and they are then required to go to the particular queue and board the next cab while sharing the OTP with the driver to start the trip.

[Ithaca]

Originally Posted by kalyan_hyd

Uber does this now at the Hyderabad Airport. In fact, earlier one had to walk a bit to catch an Uber cab as the pick-up point was farther up. Now, the private parking spaces, the first 6 bays have been vacated and allotted to Ola, Uber, etc.

Yes I noticed the difference between visits in Oct 2018 & June 2019.
The private cabs bay was much further from where the airport taxi & Meru bay were. It was quite a walk with luggage. Now it is closer to the exit point.

How good is the Hyderabad Airport Taxi service. Are they decent. They display a fare chart for various places in Hyderabad but only have sedans & no SUVs.

I believe even Mumbai Airport Uber has begun OTP system.

[kalyan_hyd]

Originally Posted by Ithaca

How good is the Hyderabad Airport Taxi service. Are they decent. They display a fare chart for various places in Hyderabad but only have sedans & no SUVs.

I believe even Mumbai Airport Uber has begun OTP system.

So, the cab/ taxi options for transport at the Hyderabad Airport are:

1. Radio cabs like Meru and Sky Cabs - They have a fixed tariff, one for the day times 6 am to 10 pm and another for night times from 10 pm to 6 am. I haven't used these for a while now so am not aware of the current pricing but it was typically ₹ 21 per km + GST + Toll en-route if any during day-time and ₹ 25 per km + GST + Toll en-route.

Radio cabs most of the time have Mahindra Logan's. Very rarely they have an SUV but cannot be guaranteed. The service is okay but it's not rare to find overworked and sleepy drivers.

2. Pre-paid taxis - One needs to queue up behind Mc Donalds and take a prepaid fare paid to the representative of Traffic police. There's usually a lot of queue and also they charge a to and fro fare but the fare itself is very economically priced like ₹ 12-13 per km. Remember that you pay for 64 kms if your destination is 32 kms away.

Again, these are mostly Swift Dzire cars and rarely other variants. I have never used these but since these cabs only ply from Airport to destination and then have to be back at the Airport, monitored by the Hyderabad Traffic Police, I am assuming in terms of safety, the service must be good.

3. So if you need an SUV, the only options there-fore Uber XL, Ola Prime SUV.

I use Bus transit when travelling light and alone. And use Uber Premier when with family/ travel heavy.

[ariesonu]

Originally Posted by GTO

Luckily, I rarely have cabs cancel on me. Am primarily an Uber user. If ever a driver calls and asks where I want to go, I tell them I work for Uber and will file a disciplinary report for asking that question .

I do that too.

Originally Posted by GTO

Had this happen to me a couple of months back. I figured out his sly technique, so I opened up another app and booked a cab from there. Sure enough, after 20 minutes or so, the original cabbie cancelled the ride (and incurred some kind of penalty for sure).

November 1st week, OLA driver asked me to cancel 4 AM airport run but I refused & then had that OLA with running TRIP for the full day. Meanwhile I took UBER.
I don't know how the CABBIE managed that day but by the end of the day OLA called me & asked me that why I still had the cab. I told them that their driver refused to come & I have also posted his complaint on their Twitter handle with CRN number in the morning itself.
The trip still continued till late in the night. I only saw it cancelled in the morning & OLA debiting me INR 50.
I again raised complaint & the amount was reversed.

[Stribog]

Originally Posted by Vegitocat

Having experienced cancellations over the payment mode and destination several times on OLA, I do the following:
1. Tell the driver to follow the map and come to the pick up point and politely cut the call before he can ask more questions
2. Book an additional cab as back up because in 90% cases the first guy always cancels

My question is why doesn't OLA just show the destination to the driver before the trip starts to avoid all this hassle?

Because if they do, even those who currently show up will stop.

Besides in Ola Auto they are shown the drop location before they accept...or so I was told by an Ola Auto driver

[alpha1]

Originally Posted by TusharK

The police have asked citizens to send the vehicle number, date and time of the incident, location as well as a screenshot of the rejection to 9490617346 via Whatsapp. The offenders would be booked under Section 178 MV Act (Refusal to ply a contract carriage on hire by driver).

Come again Mr. Cyberabad Traffic Police, you mean that every time we would anticipate that the driver is going to cancel the ride and therefore we take a screenshot before he cancels (because that's when his details are shown).

Once the driver cancels the ride, there is no means of accessing his details, so no point in enforcing this ex post facto, unless you can access the Uber and Ola internal database.

Originally Posted by Stribog

Because if they do, even those who currently show up will stop.

Besides in Ola Auto they are shown the drop location before they accept...or so I was told by an Ola Auto driver

Auto operate on fixed rate of fare, therefore Uber and Ola show the potential drivers in your vicinity about the destination, the first auto-walla who accepts gets the booking. If no one accepts then the app will ask you to try again.

[Ford5]

Simple solution to destination asking drivers is to tell them to start the ride and they will get to know. Then they plainly fall in line if we ask them to cancel incase they do not want to ply and want us itself to cancel.

[CrankShaft05]

Even after all this, its a pain to get an Uber or Ola in the evening hours from office to home. My car was at the workshop few days ago due to a minor accident and I had to take a cab from office in the evening, and literally there were 5 cancellations before I could successfully get one after waiting for almost 40 minutes. All 5 cancellations were done after checking with me where my drop was and after me refusing to give the drop details. I seriously do not know how to complain as both Uber and Ola do not show on their app if the trip was cancelled by the driver.

This control by Cyberabad police does not work as the apps do not provide sufficient data to the rider in order for us to complain! Is it just an eye wash?

[sindabad.sailor]

I too wonder sometimes how the app based cancellation is supposed to work.

On 4th Jan I booked an UBER to Oshiwara. Inspite of showing that it is reaching in 1 min, this guy did not turn up for 10 min. When I tried calling, the phone didnt get picked up and in a flash I received cancellation message.

In short time I received a a message from UBER about penalty for cancelling my ride. Upon contesting, it was reversed. Now I find, my rating down by couple of decimals.

Experience same evening was perfectly fine though.

I still think that app based services have revolutionised travel concepts and would still prefer them over exorbitantly priced very bad consition MERUs and TABCABs et al

[luvDriving]

Though I don't know how the app looks on the cab driver's phone (I use cabs very rarely), I am still curious about this cancellation thing.

Is it mandatory for the cab driver to answer every request ? Does the app show pick up and drop location too ? And if it shows the drop location why do these guys (those who cancel or don't turn up) even bother to answer the request ?

As a user, I would expect the app to work in the same manner as in real life asking a cabbie to take me somewhere. This app cancellation experience is like first he says Yes, get in" and as soon as I get in he says "Nopes, not going anywhere. get out !"