[TusharK]

Thanks to Anumod Thomas for the heads-up!

Cyberabad Traffic Police has launched a new initiative urging citizens to file a complaint in case of drivers refusing to ply or over cancellation of their booked taxi.



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).

An e-challan of Rs. 500 would be issued to the violator. This rule was not widely known and the public was not aware of it. The official twitter handle of the Cyberabad Traffic Police has been promoting the same.

Link to Team-BHP News

[Ithaca]

Ola in Mumbai will call you up & ask for destination - which he isn’t supposed to anyway- & never turn up, forcing the customer to cancel the ride.
The cabby mostly won’t cancel the ride in Mumbai.
This problem needs to be sorted out too.
If you share the destination & it is not to his liking, he switches his phone off or refuses to turn up.

Great initiative of Hyderabad Police. Hope Mumbai Police follows suit.

[aravind.anand]

I really did not know that it was illegal to ask about the trip destination or cancel based on that. I usually use a very apologetic tone to tell my destination when its farther than 15 km!

Would really want something like this to come-up in every Metro, where the traffic conditions put the drivers under pressure to do things like this.

[Storm2.0]

I want the call based Spot taxi/Easy cabs back.
They were way more reliable and reasonable as they only charged according to meter fitted in the car. No problems of surge price or ride cancellation at all.

[anumod]

Originally Posted by Ithaca

Ola in Mumbai will call you up & ask for destination - which he isn’t supposed to anyway- & never turn up, forcing the customer to cancel the ride.
The cabby mostly won’t cancel the ride in Mumbai.
This problem needs to be sorted out too.
If you share the destination & it is not to his liking, he switches his phone off or refuses to turn up.

Great initiative of Hyderabad Police. Hope Mumbai Police follows suit.

This has been the same case in Hyderabad as well and with a simple note to Police they acted on it. That's where I like Hyderabad Police

[landcruiser123]

Originally Posted by aravind.anand

I really did not know that it was illegal to ask about the trip destination or cancel based on that.

There is an archaic law that states that Taxis and Autos (vehicles for hire on yellow board) can't refuse service based on destination.

[Thermodynamics]

A bitter recent experience, I landed at Bengaluru airport at 9:30 pm, ola app shows no taxi available, i was trying for half an hour still no success.I walked to ola parking lot, man, loads of taxis there. They all are bypassing ola and fixing their own rates. They know It is gonna be 10 pm and passengers are desperate.

[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 .

Originally Posted by Ithaca

Ola in Mumbai will call you up & ask for destination - which he isn’t supposed to anyway- & never turn up, forcing the customer to cancel the ride.
The cabby mostly won’t cancel the ride in Mumbai.

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).

[21Archer84]

A very good initiative indeed and much needed at present times.
I had a bad experience in May, when I had to fly down to Bengaluru by a 7AM flight, made a planned reservation for a 5AM pick-up, but the guy never showed up or answered the calls. Thought, he was waiting for me to cancel. I Waited till 5:30 and drove down to the airport myself. There was no change in the booking status until I boarded the flight at 7AM. He eventually cancelled it by the time I landed in Bengaluru.
I wondered, what about people who do not have a car or the next Cab guy too would do the same?

[anumod]

An update here. Already 13 cabbies (whatever issues reported till now, all were acted upon) . https://indianexpress.com/article/ci...tsapp-6173618/

[Ithaca]

Originally Posted by Thermodynamics

A bitter recent experience, I landed at Bengaluru airport at 9:30 pm, ola app shows no taxi available, i was trying for half an hour still no success.I walked to ola parking lot, man, loads of taxis there. They all are bypassing ola and fixing their own rates.

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.
Then he goes to the Ola bay where the cab type he has opted for are stationed and tell the first available cab the OTP and they will take him to destination.
This was the difference I experienced between trips into Mumbai in June & Oct 2019. Was a chaos in June but sorted in Oct.
Uber does not have this - guessing because they do not use OTP for starting their rides.

I have noticed that at Bangalore, the airport taxis are the best ones to use and at Hyderabad you have option for their own version of Airport taxi & Meru.

[Kannan]

I have faced this drivers accepting and then not showing up at least 3 times. Once in Chennai and twice in Bengaluru.

Once in Chennai I booked a cab standing in OMR Road at the corner of Sholinganallur signal. The cab guy was supposed to come from Medavakkam direction. He accepted and then didn't move. When I called him he said, I have to come before the Sholingannalur Toll plaza to avoid paying Toll by him and for me it was almost a Kilometer walk and I had heavy luggage, when I said I can't walk that long with luggage, he asked me to cancel. Then I told him, you are the one who is not coming to my pickup point after accepting so you cancel, he cut the call and didn't cancel. Fortunately I found an empty city bus coming, boarded it and on the way saw this cab in the same location not moving. After reaching home saw this cabby had cancelled.

In Bengaluru I had to cancel because my wife was getting desperate to carry on with journey but raised a dispute with Uber and they cancelled my "Cancellation" charges. Another time it was to commercial street where an auto accepted but didn't show up nor was answering the phone (I don't remember whether it's OLA or Uber). So I decided not to cancel and we tried running auto. Surprisingly more than 10 autos rejected commercial street as destination and fortunately one running auto accepted and that too for said rate.

In Chennai in the last 15 years I mostly quarrel with autos for high charges, but very rarely they deny destination points. Most of the cabs from OLA and Uber they accept.
But in Bengaluru the auto guys don't fight for high charges instead they will turn away without even responding which sometimes feels insulting and also they deny destination location more times. Regarding cabs, they are rarely available hence I prefer auto.

[R-Six]

Originally Posted by GTO

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 .

Now, that is a good trick to try.

Originally Posted by Ithaca

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.

This is the same in Bangalore airport as well. I was there last month, and the booking worked the same way. I got an OTP that I shared with the Uber driver and we were off to the destination.

I have had instances where the driver canceled the ride after checking the mode of payment as well. This happened in Bangalore twice. They are normally not keen on online payment modes so they call up and ask about the mode of payment and later cancels the ride if you are not going to pay cash.

[Ithaca]

Originally Posted by R-Six

I have had instances where the driver canceled the ride after checking the mode of payment as well. ..........cancels the ride if you are not going to pay cash.

Have faced this always when taking cab from Hyderabad airport so nowadays I opt for cash payment to and from Hyderabad airport.
Fortunately all over Mumbai, Ola or Uber cabs do not have any problem with Ola Money or Paytm respectively.

[rohanjt96]

How does this work from a cab driver's point of view?
Let's say the cab got involved in an accident or had a mechanical failure on the way to the pick-up point meaning the cab driver had no choice but to cancel.
Does the cab driver still have to pay the fine?

Also, doesn't this open up the situations where the users can just call up cabs from one of these apps and make them wait for an infinite amount of time at the pick up point?

Wouldn't Uber/Ola drivers be losing a lot of their protection with this?