[Gansan]

I arrived Bangalore with my family at 4.00 AM last Sunday to attend a wedding and returned by Brindavan same day. The pre-paid counter at Cantonment station was not functioning. The autowallah wanted Rs 240.00 to take us to Vidyaranyapura, a distance of ~ 12 KM. This was double the normal fare and one can call up a city taxi for just a little more, but I had to swallow my irritation and engage that fellow - as nature was calling!

I had left my mobile with city taxi numbers back home, otherwise I usually call and engage one as soon as the train leaves Chennai Central.

Sure enough, we left a little early and boarded a bus to Majestic @ Rs 13.00 per head for the return trip.

[sabynag]

Originally Posted by Gansan

I arrived Bangalore with my family at 4.00 AM last Sunday to attend a wedding and returned by Brindavan same day. The pre-paid counter at Cantonment station was not functioning. The autowallah wanted Rs 240.00 to take us to Vidyaranyapura, a distance of ~ 12 KM. This was double the normal fare and one can call up a city taxi for just a little more, but I had to swallow my irritation and engage that fellow - as nature was calling!

I had left my mobile with city taxi numbers back home, otherwise I usually call and engage one as soon as the train leaves Chennai Central.

Sure enough, we left a little early and boarded a bus to Majestic @ Rs 13.00 per head for the return trip.

Your strategy is the right one to handle these errant autowallahs. Just a little bit of planning in advance, whenever possible, can go a long way to deny these errant autowallahs their right to rob passengers. Use autos only in SoS situation when other alternatives are not feasible or practical.

In any business, price is the index of demand-supply gap. Autowallahs charge so much more because there is demand from us and we are eager to pay what they want. If we reduce demand from our side collectively, they will automatically reduce their price.

[rohanjf]

Whenever I have been said 'no', I have asked the autorickshaw drivers why. Most of them simply drive off. One guy once stopped, came out of his auto like a goonda and said, "I am going for a refill, do you want to sit and wait?". I asked, "then why the For Hire board is not upside down?". Then he walked off.
Once one driver replied saying he isn't wearing uniform and my destination has cops around there.

But the best story I have heard is this. Once a friend of mine had to go from Forum (after the last cinema show) to his house in Koramangala and he had a German guy and another local guy with them. The autorickshaw guy initially said 100 Rs (for 3 km) and as they drove on, increased it to 150 Rs. Finally, when they reached the destination, he demanded 200 Rs. When the local guy said he will pay only 100 Rs, the autorickshaw driver spat near his feet. So the local guy told the other guys to get in the house and once they did, he simply slapped the autorickshaw driver and went inside.

Of course, next few days, these guys did not stay in that house, because they knew the autorickshaw guy would come there with his goonda friends and wait for them. Fortunately for them, autorickshaw driver gave up after a few days.

Originally Posted by gowda79

This happened a few days back at a busy area in Bangalore, so not all police are bad and not all auto drivers are bad. We need to respect themm has even they are human beings.

Yeah, just about 1% autorickshaw drivers are good, so it is not right to blame them for the misdeeds of the rest 99% (sorry Raghu, the sarcasm isn't aimed at you, it is aimed at autorickshaw drivers ).

[tanwaramit]

Not sure how many of you have read this on rickshaws in Bangalore, but this is good, have read half and finishing up the rest.

Rickshaw drivers and vampires in Bengaluru - Yahoo! News

Note from the Team-BHP Support Staff : Post moved to the relevant topic of discussion.

[onesomeone]

There is an incidence that happened yesterday. I went to Mantri Mall for doing some purchase as I was walking by Udupi Krishna Bhawan (In front of Mantri Mall) had a strange sight. An old lady (might be in her mid 80s) being helped by her daughter (Probably) who must be also in her 60s wearing dark glasses might be due to eye operation trying to get an auto. None of the auto guys were willing to take them. This incidence happened around 7.30 PM.

I witnessed this for about 5 mins and then thought to myself let me help these old ladies catch an auto. I went ahead and inquired the location they want auto for? They said Devaiah Park (Hardly a KM from Mantri Mall), probably that was the very reason the auto fellows were not interested. I tried to get an auto for them as seeing them was feeling really bad as the weather was gloomy and could have rained anytime.

Stopped 5 autos and almost pleaded them to take these ladies seeing their age and state. None of those 5 morons had a heart to take them. I even offered an auto fellow Rs.10/- extra over and above what the charge would come, but he is not interested. I even made a statement - Bhagwan ko kya muh dikhaoge? To that one auto fellow started rumbling something in Kannada/Tamil (To me both are same as I don't understand any).

Finally, after many attempts got a young auto fellow who readily agreed to take these ladies. Thus a sigh of relief.

While walking to my place went back with mixed feelings. Is humanity getting lost in people with the fast paced life that everyone is busy thinking only about themselves? On the brighter side there are some guys like the young auto fellow who without asking any extra money agreed to ferry the old ladies.

Overall, felt good for the doing something I felt I should have done but on the other hand felt sad at the mindset of these morons. Enough of grumbling!

[lamboguy]

This small incident is something that happened to me while returning from Mulund to Ghatkopar (Mumbai) at around 12.45 at night.
It is around 12.20. Me and my 2 friends "caught" a rickshaw from the Mulund Checknaka.

This guy took the totally deserted expressway route. Now the thing is it started raining heavily and the guy's rickshaw broke down. He fiddled with the rear of the rick and the mighty 10cc powerhouse fired up somehow. After crawling for a few minutes, the immaculate piece of engineering again broke down and this happened a couple of times again.

On reaching the destination, we referred to our cell phone and saw that the late night fare came to 277 bucks. To our surprise, the rick guy demanded >400 bucks. We told him that all our phones calculate a lower fare. To that he shows us the Tariff card and we saw that the amount quoted by him was on the card! On being blatantly refused to be paid almost double the amount, the rick guy tells us that he is demanding a return fare to go back to Mulund! We got a bit heated up and told "toone pehle bola kya tu ghar jaane ke paise bhi lega humlog se?" (Did you intimate us before that you were going to charge us for returnin to your house).
Realizing that this was not his area he took the low fare and sprinted.

There have been similar instances where rickwalahs have shown taxi card and looted the customers!

[chinkara]

The decline in civic discipline in Mumbai is very depressing. In the early 90s, you hardly ever had an instance of an auto / taxi refusing a passenger.
I still remember once (in 98 or so) I signalled at auto to stop near Gold Spot in Andheri on the service road. The auto went ahead. The policeman at the junction noticed it, whistled the auto to stop, ordered it back and gave me a number to call in case he created any trouble subsequently.

Even in 2002-03, hardly any auto refused to go. But even at that time, taxis had started the drama of only going forward and not taking a u-turn etc.

[tharian]

I have been noticing autorick's on Bangalore roads with ''Peace Auto' on a green band stuck around it and was wondering what it was all about.

This mornings supplement carried an article on it,
http://www.deccanherald.com/content/...uage-card.html

A good initiative and hopefully does not fizzle out.

[Auswechseln]

This article was published on 14 June in Bangalore Mirror. It was a good lesson to auto wallahs who take people for a 'ride'.

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/banga...w/36503123.cms

[Auswechseln]

Auto raid in Bangalore on Monday. Hope this helps in reducing the menace.

http://www.bangaloremirror.com/banga.../37587606.cms?

[swiftnfurious]

Originally Posted by Auswechseln

Auto raid in Bangalore on Monday. Hope this helps in reducing the menace...

Good one. Hope it continues and there is some solid output on a continuing basis. I see the below two interesting points in the article.

We seized 450 vehicles, and the owners will be fined a hefty sum by the court, which they will have to pay to get their vehicles released," DCP Girish said.

Additional commissioner of police (traffic) B Dayananda (in pic) said....

A total of 450 vehicles have been seized. The owners must get them released after paying a court fine from anywhere between Rs 1,500 to 3,000, depending on the nature of the offence," he said.

So the hefty sum = Rs. 3000/-!

[dass]

While this is VERY innovative from the BTP and also a welcome one, I just hope that this is not a one of activity and they conduct these raids at least once a month so that they rogues are kept in check. For, they never will know if the customer they are refusing/over charging is a citizen or a cop. That should keep them on their toes.

[Dieseltuned]

A new type of Auto rickshaw menace was spotted in Bombay today. What these guys have started doing is today when it was raining cats and dogs, these auto guys stopped their ricks bang on the slope of the flyover thus disrupting the whole flow of traffic. I do not understand why do they have to stop on top / slope of a flyover. And these guys just follow the herd mentality. One rick stops and you have atleast 7-8 other stopping behind him.

[Auswechseln]

Congrats swiftandfurious, for becoming a D-Bhpian.

So the hefty sum = Rs. 3000/-

It might not be a hefty sum. But if the drivers themselves are the owners of the auto (as sometimes the case is), it will be a loss for them.

It will make them think before they commit another such crime and (hopefully) bring them to heel.

[createrkid]

I think the only way we can stop this menace is this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=n4ieYerCz7g