[TorqueyTechie]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Where are all the people who normally take these cabs? Not all of them can/will take auto's or buses. I would have expected the number of private vehicles to be more and fill up the space left by the cabs.

One of the reason might be that people are carpooling more. Our company has tied up with a carpooling app called quickride. Many people who were using ola/uber/bmtc have moved on to this now as this is safer(you can only ride with folks from your company)and as convenient as cabs. I have seen a fair amount of people using this app from past few weeks.

[Viv3k]

Originally Posted by Rajeevraj

Roads definitely were much more empty today. But one thing confused me. Where are all the people who normally take these cabs? Not all of them can/will take auto's or buses. I would have expected the number of private vehicles to be more and fill up the space left by the cabs. That does not seem to have happened.

Edit: Or it could be that the supply is now really greater than the demand.

We (my wife and I) work for the same company and used to Ola or Uber everyday. We have fallen back onto our car/motorcycle (sparsely) for travelling to work. Since we are two people, it is similar to car pooling

[itwasntme]

Had the fortune(?!) to drive 120+ km today between Devanahalli, Hebbal, MG Road, Richmond Road, Old Airport Road till HAL, Dairy Circle and back (plus other detours).

Traffic was noticeably less and much better behaved. Even the few yellow-board Indicabs, Etios etc were driving sedately in complete shock :-)

[keroo1099]

Originally Posted by keroo1099

This is the best I can do. Hope it helps. (only the vertical bit is the dirt road)

Pics of the dirt road entrance to BIAL.

[dark.knight]

All I can say is that this "strike" by cabbies have hurt only their own business and severely exposed the frivolous nature of their existence. I hope it continues forever and the cabbies can pipe-dream about increased fares and 6-figure averages per month while at it. Even if they manage to up the rates to the unreasonable levels that they are expecting, they will lose even more business due to drop in demand, the key reason the aggregators succeeded wildly where Meru and others failed was due to low-rates, reliability and accountability.

In the meantime, a small part of the Bangalore that I knew, has returned. Its amazing how congested the city became due to these cabs and its even more amazing how the city is healing so quickly just by their absence. I have asthma and my lungs are the most dependable pollution-barometer possible, they respond by wheezing or congestion depending on the level of smoke/pollutants and for the past 6 days, the breathing pathway has been clear, I feel more energetic and we've been using the car to go all over the city in childish amazement. Cubbon Park and the city center never looked this good in such a long time.

I'm happy, as long as it lasts. All I ever wanted was my home, back.

[pratyush6]

We all have believed that Ola/Uber have made the road slightly less congested? Now I think it's otherwise. People who ordinarily drive to work, now take these cabs with their own cars parked at homes. So there are more cabs than normal as these cabs are doing (1) multiple trips and (2) blocking the roads by parking

You can see the impact today, when quite a few of these cabs have returned and the roads are evidently more populated.

[sachinpk]

Traffic jam of the day @ Whitefield
----
A Volvo bus has broken down near the Sai Baba hospital, and the jam caused has now spilled all the way to Hoodi and ITPB. The mechanics seems to have just arrived (at around 1015Hrs) and trying to repair the vehicle on the road itself.

Originally Posted by dark.knight

All I can say is that this "strike" by cabbies have hurt only their own business and severely exposed the frivolous nature of their existence. I hope it continues forever and the cabbies can pipe-dream about increased fares and 6-figure averages per month while at it. Even if they manage to up the rates to the unreasonable levels that they are expecting, they will lose even more business due to drop in demand, the key reason the aggregators succeeded wildly where Meru and others failed was due to low-rates, reliability and accountability.

The underlined part seems to be the most important factor. And the cabbies are trying to do away with all the three aspects you correctly mentioned. In other words make the "aggregation system" become another scheme for swindling people out of their money. Make it an online version of the "Auto rickshaw culture" which existed in Bangalore. The cabbies are trying to make more money, without offering any thing to the end customer. As it is their reliability & accountability was going down, because even the cabbies had started cancelling/rejecting trips which they did not like for various reasons. This also underlines one fact; public transport is the best system. No amount of private enterprenuership would bring in the overall benefit which a good effective public transport system can give.

[haria]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Had the fortune(?!) to drive 120+ km today between Devanahalli, Hebbal, MG Road, Richmond Road, Old Airport Road till HAL, Dairy Circle and back (plus other detours).

Man, you ARE lucky not to be stopped for over speeding. There are many interceptor vehicles in that stretch and the fines increase with the speed.
A few months back, my colleague was fined Rs.1500/- for going at speed of 123Km/h, while on the same day (different time, though) another of my colleague was fined rs.450/- for the same offense - his speed was 90km/h.

I heard that maximum number of interceptor vehicles ply in that stretch. Earlier few were patrolling in the ORR, but with the jam packed roads these days, they ran out of "prey", I guess

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Traffic jam of the day @ Whitefield
---- This also underlines one fact; public transport is the best system. No amount of private enterprenuership would bring in the overall benefit which a good effective public transport system can give.

No dispute to this point, but the challenge is the last mile connectivity. If one happens to be in the immediate vicinity of a bus stop, one can depend largely on public transport - but even if the distance is few 100 meters, (the nearest BMTC bus stand from my house is about 1.1Km) it becomes very difficult for people - especially senior citizens to use the public transport. This is where the private operators really fit in nicely. I am even ready to pay the meter OR even 1.5 times the meter for auto - but those guys charge a flat rate of 50 / 100 bucks for covering the distance of say 1 to 2km!

[aqualeo2040]

Originally Posted by haria

Man, you ARE lucky not to be stopped for over speeding. There are many interceptor vehicles in that stretch and the fines increase with the speed.

I am pretty sure he meant 120+ kilometers in distance rather than Kmph

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by haria

Man, you ARE lucky not to be stopped for over speeding. There are many interceptor vehicles in that stretch and the fines increase with the speed.
A few months back, my colleague was fined Rs.1500/- for going at speed of 123Km/h, while on the same day (different time, though) another of my colleague was fined rs.450/- for the same offense - his speed was 90km/h.

I heard that maximum number of interceptor vehicles ply in that stretch. Earlier few were patrolling in the ORR, but with the jam packed roads these days, they ran out of "prey", I guess
!

He meant that he travelled more than 120kms and not traveling at 120+kmph.

Speaking of the cab strike, the drivers are more or less doomed. Seems like the bubble has burst. If we think of the consequences of the strike, it points against the cabbies.

1. They are legally not so strong, ie they don't have a solid case against the companies.
2. The companies might try to increase the earnings of the drivers, but not without affecting the rates to the end user. If they do give them se incentives, its again temporary. This is the hard truth the drivers should understand.
3. Increasing the fares will push demand downside. A small increase might be passed off without notice, but the kind of incentives the drivers get are no way close to the fares charged to the customers.
4. Once demand goes down, we will have another set of strikes.

The court told very sensibly that the drivers can't extract money from such companies like how they get things from the government. That sums it all.

[sachinpk]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Speaking of the cab strike, the drivers are more or less doomed. Seems like the bubble has burst. If we think of the consequences of the strike, it points against the cabbies.

Correct me if I am wrong. My understanding is that even companies like Uber, Ola had a very tricky business model. They were not making really great profits (even today), but was surviving on the initial funding received from venture capitalists etc. But their aim was that during the coming years, people would start using Uber & Ola more and more, and finally they would break even and start making profits. Keeping this "long term plan" in mind, they had also given lots of incentives to the cab drivers.

There was this company "TaxiForSure" which actually was more popular in Bangalore, before Ola and Uber. They were actually paying the cab around Rs.9 per k.m, when they were only charging the customer Rs. 3 or Rs.4. Again their plans of profit was also more "long term". And at the right opportunity owners of TaxiForSure dumped it on Ola's head .

[avi550m]

Originally Posted by haria

No dispute to this point, but the challenge is the last mile connectivity.

It becomes very difficult for people - especially senior citizens to use the public transport.
I am even ready to pay the meter OR even 1.5 times the meter for auto - but those guys charge a flat rate of 50 / 100 bucks for covering the distance of say 1 to 2km!

I agree wholeheartedly. I am willing to use the BMTC buses, even the regular ones, but the closest stop for my route is 1.4 kms from my house, and on the return journey, I don't feel like walking back especially in the evening.

I have sometimes used cabs for even a short distances of less than 4 kms as the total fare is still less than Rs. 100, as compared to Autos who want to fleece me for short distances. For instance, for a journey from Kogilu Cross to Yelahanka New Town, they were all charging no less than Rs. 140, for a distance of around 4kms . I still do not take autos at all unless its an emergency and/or its raining heavily. While Uber/Ola taxis are sometimes poor in terms of service, they are still a 100 times better than the auto rickshaws, for whom I have very little respect.

[haria]

Originally Posted by itwasntme

Had the fortune(?!) to drive 120+ km today

@ itwantme --> sorry mate, I guess I read your post wrongly.

Originally Posted by aqualeo2040

I am pretty sure he meant 120+ kilometers in distance rather than Kmph

Originally Posted by audioholic

He meant that he travelled more than 120kms and not traveling at 120+kmph.

@aqualeo & audioholic - Thanks guys, for pointing out the mistake. I would have corrected the original post, but the time window for editing has elapsed.

But speaking of that stretch to BIAL, please be wary of the police interceptor vehicles.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by sachinpk

Correct me if I am wrong. My understanding is that even companies like Uber, Ola had a very tricky business model. They were not making really great profits (even today), but was surviving on the initial funding received from venture capitalists etc. But their aim was that during the coming years, people would start using Uber & Ola more and more, and finally they would break even and start making profits. Keeping this "long term plan" in mind, they had also given lots of incentives to the cab drivers.

).

Tricky model no doubt. I was just looking at the risk the drivers are facing. I am not sure what kind of an arrangement the investors have on these companies to recover their investments. However, the drivers are more or less trapped by the companies. What will they do if the companies decide to dump some drivers? They will be left with a swanky new car and loads of EMIs to pay.

Now if these frustrated drivers start getting back to business, quality of service will come down and so will usage. Good luck to both the drivers and the company. Bangalore now has just too many cabs. There is another lot of company cabs which are in their own space too. Hence an uber driver will find it difficult to switch to that because most of it is company fleet and its difficult to make good earnings as an individual.

[bejoy]

For the last one week ,my office commute time has come down by half, thanks to the less number of cabs on the road. For, e.g getting on to the ORR at Agara from HSR 27th main road is a breeze now, with no pile up even at peak morning hours. I wonder, with the cabs on the road, it is the app(Google) that is routing the entire traffic from south/HSR towards Marthahalli via the 27th main road.