[AMG Power]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Successful as a business - no way.

If they are not successful why worry and start a thread about them?

They would die a natural death putting an end to all the concerns expressed by you.

[Lobogris]

Originally Posted by manjunathkl

The only people who are getting a raw deal from Ola/Uber are the drivers. Not the consumer. Most Uber drivers are barely meeting their expenses that too after working very long hours and/or doing all night drives to Airport.

Many Uber/Ola drivers I speak to explain to me how ridiculous the terms and conditions are for their payouts. Guys who avail loans to buy a new cab, they can hardly pay the EMIs and Diesel, Insurance, Repairs and Maintencence. None of the surge pricing we pay is reaching the driver. It takes 5 years to repay and by that time the cab would have run about 1-2 lac KMs. The resale value would practically be peanuts.

I am not so sure. Here in Delhi NCR, I often check with drivers and most confide that they make between 30 to 50k per month after all expenses. That is not a bad salary for a driver. In fact most conventional taxi operators have lost drivers as they were only paying around 15k plus tips. The drivers are less happy now as before they were making over 70k due to better incentives. If a driver works around 14 hour with a 3 hour break in the middle then he can do around 20 trips. If we assume an average of Rs 150 per trip as there will be some longer ones, we get Rs 3,000 per day. This leads to around 80k per month counting some holidays. The owner can decide to work 10 to 12 hours and then rent his car to another driver for about 20 to 25k or can decide to work during both morning and evening peak periods with some night driving. Either way they end up making around 30 to 50k per month net. Before people jump in and complain that a 12 to 14 hour work day is too long, that is the norm for most drivers. It might be unfair but that is what they were doing before as well. What is required is discipline and a good attitude where you accept all fares and learn which hours to work. A lot of time is spent waiting in cars and they can snooze a bit as well. Similarly a driver can be out having lunch but can remain on call. So not all 14 hours are spent actually driving. It is hard work but the pay isn’t bad for unskilled jobs.