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-   -   Has your Uber & Ola usage pattern changed in the last 2 - 3 years? (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/264666-has-your-uber-ola-usage-pattern-changed-last-2-3-years-6.html)

I have been an exclusive user of Uber in the past but I have reduced its usage to a great degree - probably a couple of time in a quarter or when I am travelling on business and have to get to and from the airport. My top 3 reasons are

• Horrible customer support
• Not dependable, specially if you have to take one to catch one of those international departures at ungodly hours
• Pricing have started making no sense for the service provided

Uber takes you for a ride when it comes to customer support. Latest in the line of terrible experiences, the wife had to take a 5AM flight recently and wouldn’t let me drive her to the airport cause I was up until 2AM on meetings. We booked an Uber and midway through the trip, the driver told her he doesn’t have cash nor FASTag for the airport toll. My wife called me and I told her to pay the toll and get the receipt hoping that Uber will take care of it. Alas unreliable Uber wouldn’t even reimburse me despite submitting the toll receipt copy which showed 2x toll as it was cash payment. Uber keeps saying it’s not their problem as I paid cash. God knows how else one was expected to handle this other than getting out of the cab in the middle of nowhere in ungodly hours. It’s been 2 months and all they keep responding is by either closing the case or saying someone is looking into it. It’s all over email and no escalation or SLA process.

IMHO, they have adopted the take it or leave it attitude when it comes to serving their customers. So unless it’s a situation I cannot avoid, I haven’t been using their service for well over a year now.

My usage of Ola/Uber has halved over the last year. On an average, I use Uber for 5-6 trips in a month. The atrocious pricing and poor reliability means that it is only when I know that I will not get parking or I intend to grab a drink that I choose to use Uber/Ola. I have started using CityFLO, metro and trains much more now than in the past.

It is much faster, in the time it takes to get an Uber, I am halfway to my destination. Increasingly 2-W seems to be a necessity to do the regular work.

In between had used MakeMyTrip cab service for cab bookings to airport but last 2-3 times they are as unreliable as Uber and Ola. Have shifted to a known taxi guy, he charges a premium but he is there when needed.

Uber and Ola is broken in India. Globally the model operates with private car owners who do this as a side hustle or even main hustle but on an existing asset, but in India, Uber and Ola first brought in a lot of drivers by promising sky high payments, I know drivers who left company driver jobs for Uber and Ola, with earnings excess of 70-80k per month and then taking loans to get extra cars and hiring drivers to run them. Like any stock market bubble, this was unsustainable and as VC money dries up.

The idiotic and short sighted bans on ride sharing must have also hurt since that would narrow the market further for them.

I do have some sympathy for the drivers, many of them invested in own cars at higher than normal interest rates (which is the norm in the economic class) and now are hit by a triple whammy of high inflation, even higher interest rates, rising CNG costs and drying up of the driver incentives. Aggregators are also under pressure as easy money has dried up.

Exiting is also not an easy option for the drivers, since their cars have high mileage and do not get great prices on second hand market.

According to the drivers I spoke to (one of the reasons why drivers insist on cash/UPI because they are in control of paying the company instead of being dependent on the company to pay them, since this is often delayed and some say there is a mismatch between earnings as per their records and payouts).

Financially the belt tightening seems to be working as Ola claims to be operationally profitable and Uber is narrowing losses as per news report but this business is ripe for disruption.

Post covid, with more WFH, I had practically stopped using Ola/Uber. Just this past month I had to commute to office more frequently, and at times did not feel like driving. used Ola/Uber for the same - must say the cab conditions have deteriorated (one was a really beat up etios), although have not encountered a dirty/smelly cab during this past month. Drivers have been on time, no cancellation as well. Pais directly to the driver (all via UPI).

Their business model was always unsustainable and venture capitalist money has started drying up recently so this was inevitable.

As mentioned by a few members, I've shifted to BLU cabs. Cars are relatively new and not in the poor state that most Uber vehicles are in today.

No surge pricing either and prompt scheduling. Else I hire a driver for a the day or use DriveU when I want to use my own car and need to go out for a late night scene.

Voted for Yes.

Post the Pandemic, the availability of cabs and the quality of vehicles has decreased very badly and for getting a cab I'm mostly forced to wait for 15-20 minutes now (in Chennai). Now a days whenever required I just try to get most of the done remotely (groceries and most of the shopping is done online) and I end up take an Auto in the worst case.

Though I have been a very less user of these platforms, but whatever small percentage of usage I had with both of them is now absolutely Nil usage in more than a year now.

My reasons are being primarily around dependability of their services , with the number of rejections from the driver side almost at 100% now.

Also, the unkept cars, non working ACs, uncouth drivers are contributory factors.

One other big reason is their total dis regard for traffic rules and reckless driving. Cutting lanes , unnnecessary honking, bullying other drivers on the road is something I have observed during my rides and had long back decided to keep their usage at minimum.

The initial hoopla over rider discounts has died down now and shelling hundreds of rupees for a ride of a few kilometers is no longer an option. But, I suppose this was inevitable, for how long will investors keep pumping money into these entities, at the end of the day it is a business and needs to show profitability.

P.S :: The other people thatI have started avoiding now are the rickshaws in Bombay, they are a law onto themselves and with the recent fare hikes taking the fare to 23 INR minimum they are also becoming exhorbitantly costly for the level of service they provide.

Regards
Diesel

My use of Ola and Uber has reduced quite a bit as well. I do find that I have to use them for airport drops or in remote cities where I do not have reliable contacts in terms of taxi drivers.

However, the methodology of engaging the cab has changed completely. The way I use Ola or Uber these days is just as a method of contacting a taxi that is nearby. So I book a cab on Ola and then wait. Most likely the cab will not move on the map for 5 -10 minutes, however I will have an ability to call the driver. I use the app to call the driver who the negotiates with me on the location and the fare, for which he is willing to go for the ride. I then agree the fare which is typically at least 60 to 80% higher then the fair shown on the app (sometimes as much as a 100% plus higher). The car would then come and pick me up and drop me at my destination where I pay cash for the negotiate amount.

I probably get fined on the Ola app for not taking up the ride but I don't care. As long as I have a reliable way to reach a driver quickly and get where I want to get, I don't mind paying more. Even the negotiated price, plus the fine charge by Ola wil be typically lower than what I would pay with the traditional taxi book in advance via telephone.

I think it's time Ola and Uber change their business models to actually deliver a much smaller part of the value chain - the ability to find a car close to where you are and established contact. For this, obviously, they will have to be happy with the much smaller share of the overall revenue - say 10%, instead of 30%. IMO, that is better than becoming completely redundant and going out of business, or trying to survive on charging customer ls fines due to cancellations.

My Uber/Ola usage is mostly when I am far from Bangalore and do not have a car. My ride history shows I have booked cabs mostly when I am not in Bangalore. I never book a cab for airport drop, they are so unreliable and can push anyones blood pressure through the roof.

So, my bookings are unchanged. Yes, the quality of cabs have degraded, drivers constant query on where I intend to go is irritating. But I do not have an alternative now. So living with it.

In good weather conditions I prefer bike taxi for short to medium distance. AC is mostly not working and I tried Indrive which is even worse. There is also no clarity on what is included like airport parking or tolls. Even for short distance they will stop on the way for gas/fuel. Drivers have become rude though there are good drivers also. Also OLA has prepaid money in my account and many a times the journey was short but the driver charged me full.

Pre-pandemic, in Chennai, where I didn't have access to a car, I was solely dependent on Uber (Ola only in extreme circumstances).

In mid 2019, when I moved back to Bangalore, I'd mostly use my car and sometimes rely on Uber.

Post-pandemic, I've switched entirely to using my own car for everything - even if it means skipping social drinking (tired of unkempt cabs, cancellations and complaining drivers). For airport runs, I've switched to Blusmart for the same reasons as everyone has mentioned - pre-scheduled rides with no cancellations, clean cabs, usually well-groomed drivers.

Now that I've left Bangalore and gone back to student life, I see myself increasingly relying on Uber (despite their deficiencies).

I use Ola/Uber exclusively for auto rides on nights I am going to be drinking. Haven't booked a cab on either platform since the beginning of the pandemic. For airport runs I either use the airport bus or some local cab operator.

My usage has gone down to zero since 2022 Jan. Main reason is the total unpredictability in getting a cab - Bangalore and in Coimbatore. When I am in Coimbatore, I drive my own car since parking is usually not a problem. Otherwise, I just hail a Red-Taxi - amazing customer service and predictability. In Bangalore, office commute is by own car or motorcycle. For personal errands, I just walk to the main road and hail an auto and usually will've a ride within max 3 attempts. For Airport, I had long switched to Airport volvo buses and that continues. In fact, I think last Uber I took was in 2021 Dec or so when family and I had to go to Bangalore railway station to board a train.

In this case, when cash received by the driver is more than what Ola/Uber owes the driver, then no payment is made to the driver, that week. The account books will show the driver's account balance as negative, to put it in simplified terms. And this will be adjusted next week, and so on. Yes, if the driver 'vanishes' after this, Ola/Uber will lose - but where else would he go anyway?

That's why drivers prefer cash, since it gives them instant liquidity, instead of waiting for the payment - important for them because I heard from a few of them that these payments are often not made on time.

BluSmart is the new preferred alternate for me - pricing, better cabs and no cancelation being the primary factors. Though using Uber and Ola has reduced significantly, I still rely on OlaAuto for the seldom city travel.