Worst ever cab rides: Commuters share their stories & experiences

The cab was going at the city speed of 30-45km on a sunny afternoon. Everything was good, the driver was polite, perfectly cooled car beating the summer heat .

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Greetings TeamBHPians !

This is my first thread on TeamBHP and I am afraid it might not be what most of the first threads are about. This is rather a grim mention of a few of my cab rides. I request the moderators to move this thread, if it is in the wrong place, to a suitable forum and pardon my naivety of TeamBHP rules. Please bear with me, it will be a long post.

The Premise

During my college years i.e. 2016-19 I had to commute extensively to manage my college and my ancestral apple orchards as there are only three of us in the family. Since my elder sister was already doing a job in another city, sometimes my mother had a hard time managing the business and other homely affairs all by herself. So, as I said, I had to commute extensively between the city where I was studying and my hometown. Being young, dumb and [by privilege] not broke (music lovers will know the song) I had this giddy belief that this was my time to struggle and I even refused to have a car. Then I was heavily under the impression of the financial advice that car is a depreciating asset and it makes sense to use public transport or hire a cab. My ignorance overshadowed the convenience and more importantly time saving aspect of owning a car. I used public transport where I could and booked a cab where I couldn't find any buses on time.
So yeah, I have extensive experience of riding in a cab.

Disclaimer:

This is based on personal accounts. NO INTENTION TO HURT OR DEFAME ANYONE. I am not generalizing. I have had some pleasant experiences too, a few where drivers were nice and responsible. Nonetheless, most of the cabbies aren't well mannered, both on the road and as a person.

Below is the list of a couple of the instances that are on top of my mind:

The blood eye.

The cab was going at the city speed of 30-45km on a sunny afternoon. Everything was good, the driver was polite, perfectly cooled car beating the summer heat and proper lane discipline except for two things - I was at the back without wearing a seatbelt (my fault) and the driver was watching a movie in android infotainment system simultaneously. I was skeptical about his multitasking but I don't know why I said nothing to him. All I thought was that it's gonna be just a short ride. All of a sudden, I felt a jolt and then fell leftwards banging my head against a grab handle. Next thing I remember the sky above from the right windows and asphalt through the left. The car had hit the curb and toppled left.

Thankfully, I just had a mild concussion, a sprained shoulder, a blue temple and a blooded left eye that lasted 3 weeks.

The chills down the spine.

My friend and I were returning from a late-night movie. Along the way there were three girls walking. The middle-aged cab driver watched them like a bloodhound and passed a remark which left the two of us in utter shock. The mere thought of it as I am writing this gives me chills down the spine. It is so disgusting that I don't even want to type it. From that day onwards I never let my sister, mother, girlfriend and my female relatives travel alone in cab.

Don't know how many predators out there are leering at the little girls and women. I reported this to OLA Cabs.

Never sit in the front.

Those were the early days of Uber Pool. I was the first passenger to be picked up and I sat in the front seat. This young driver got a little chatty with me. I talked to him about how much he earned from Uber and stuff like that. Two young women boarded the cab from a college gate. I was the last one to be dropped off and when I reached my destination that cabbie told me which I will loosely translate here as - "Thank God brother you sat in the front, otherwise it becomes very difficult for me concentrate on the road when a girl sits at the front and she is wearing the seatbelt." I watched him in shock and all I managed to do was to point out that it was wrong. Later I complained to Uber. Ladies, avoid sitting in the front.

Long Booking.

The three of us friends decided to book a cab to a station from where we were supposed to board different buses to our hometown. We were going home after semester exams for vacations. We had a lot of luggage. So, we decided to book a cab from a taxi stand for ₹3500 for 140kms. About 60KMs or so the cabbie got a call. He then did something which I had never anticipated in my farthest dreams. He stopped the taxi in the middle of nowhere and told us he had to go back because he got a "long booking". Upon objection and arguments, he got out of the car and threw our bags out of the trunk. We were shit scared. Sensing our helplessness that man asked us to pay ₹2000 for the distance covered. A bus came after 10 minutes or so, and the bus driver was keen enough to sense something was wrong. Seeing that the bus was stopping, that cabbie took a U-Turn and sped away. The three of us were about 19, apt enough to note down the Vehicle Number Plate but scared enough to not get the matter reported to the police. The main reason not to lodge a complaint was that one of us was a girl and she was afraid of her family if they came to know of her being friends with boys. I believe most of the people coming from tier-2 or tier-3 cities or small towns know what I am talking about.

PRO TIP: If you are a young adult prefer public transport. And don't hide everything from your parents. Give them a chance, they know better.

If you have made this far, I thank you. I hope you all learnt something from my experience. I am sorry if the post is depressing.

Here's what BHPian saikishor had to say on the matter:

The cases you have mentioned felt like extreme cases to me. My experience with cabs in Hyderabad has been decent till now and nothing more than that. However I can recall one cab ride from 2016, which just has to be the worst experience I had with cabs till date. I was accompanying my mom to a job interview. This cab guy showed up late in a not so clean car. And then he started blasting telugu christian songs in full volume, despite of my mom telling him to stop playing them twice. And add to this he dropped us at a wrong location, making us to walk for 200-300m.

I prefer bike taxis over cabs, as these are much cheaper and the experience with these guys has been mostly positive.

Here's what BHPian chinkara had to say on the matter:

To add to your tales of woe (you are presumably from North).

A colleague was going to a friend's place in Gurgaon during her internship in Delhi (she was from down south, so not very familiar with roads). The driver took her towards some village far away - she sensed something was amiss and jumped out of the moving car when it slowed down in a pothole. The driver came out and chased her, but stopped as some uncles were under a tree nearby. It was an incident reported in the news at the time (Uber). She still felt the trauma when she recounted the incident 3 years later.

This was in 2015 I think - the days of great fog in winter. I was in Gwalior and supposed to take the Shatabdi back to Delhi. I had an important meeting next morning and was leaving on our family vacation next evening. After waiting for 4-5 hours, we were told that the train has been stopped and may be delayed by 18-19 hours. I asked around, and was told that there was a cab from Delhi which was looking for a return passenger. We settled on a price and set off around midnight.

By Morena, I realized the guy was too tired to drive. Almost veered towards a tree. The fog was also settling on the road. I asked him to take rest in the back seat and drove myself. Finally near Palwal he woke up refreshed and drove the rest of the way.

Here's what BHPian IndieGooner had to say on the matter:

Many years ago, I hitched an early morning cab ride with my brother-in-law's friend. We were traveling southwards from Kochi and the cab was scheduled to pick us up at 5:00. The driver arrived at the appointed hour on a Linea and we set off. He told us that he will be dropping at Cherthala as he had been driving overnight. Another driver from the cab agency would be waiting for us there and take us rest of the distance.

Things went as expected until the first driver dropped and in walked our new driver - a kid who looked not a day older than 20. Next several kilometres were absolute madness as this guy proceeded to break every single traffic rule and driving etiquette that mankind has known! I have never been in a vehicle more rashly and insanely driven.

Short time later, we stopped for refueling and my very white faced and shaken co-passenger asked me "what the heck is going on?" Despite our protests the madness continued after the fuel break as well. Finally, somewhere near Alappuzha he attempted an impossible manouver on a narrow bridge and got stopped by another cabbie coming in the opposite direction. This guy gave our driver a good earful and pointing at us asked "are you going to murder these folks today?" Fortunately, some good sense prevailed on our driver after this outburst and we were driven rest of the way in much more civilized manner.

Thinking back, I wonder why we were not more forceful in our protests and allowed this lunatic to put us in so much risk? Maybe, we were too shocked? The cab was booked by my co-passenger and I was merely hitching a ride. I hope he did complain to the cab agency.

Here's what BHPian Small Bot had to say on the matter:

There are two incidents that I'd like to narrate.

Wife and I were travelling towards Thane in an Ola Cab a few months ago when a traffic policeman threw himself at our car. Our driver stopped and he was immediately whisked away into a police station nearby (This happened near Kalyan West).

We wait for twenty minutes, during which the driver kept telling us on call that he'll be out in two minutes. We got our luggage out and started waiting in the roadside bus stop instead. We felt safer with more normal people around. When the driver finally came out, it was almost 25 minutes later and we decided to cancel the cab.

He immediately cancelled the cab from his app and ran off without a word. We did see the policemen come out and look for him again, but we had boarded another cab by then.

I think it could have been some serious offence, but probably not serious enough to warrant arrest.

The second incident was a lot more serious. This happened in Chennai when the wife was travelling from the airport towards Ashok Pillar late in the night.

The driver apparently seemed drunk and he was not going in the direction pointed out by either her or Google Maps - as in, kept diverting into narrow side roads instead of going by the main road. He was also going too fast for city roads.

She finally asked him to stop near a government hospital and got off quickly. He then threw some choice words at her which I'll not repeat here and ran off.

Reported duly to Ola, but no idea if this is just lip-service or if anything concrete really happened.

Here's what BHPian Mr.Ogre had to say on the matter:

I have had a few not so good experiences, especially when I was trying to book a cab from Phoenix market City in the evening and both ola and uber drivers were just cancelling the rides after accepting them.

However, yesterday I had a weird experience. I booked a cab to pick me from Marriott through uber, but the driver called back to say he was at the airport and I need to come to the airport. I was surprised and amused, and requested the driver to either come to the pick up location mentioned in the app or cancel it. Needless to say he cancelled it.

Here's what BHPian noopster had to say on the matter:

My own "worst cab experience" dates back to pre-Uber/Ola days and ironically when I wasn't a passenger myself. This is some time in the late 80s/ early 90s when my Dad used to go on regular official trips abroad. Cabs were not that common in the suburbs back then, it was mostly autorickshaw-dominated. Still there was a spot on SV Road, about a 12-minute walk from home, where you could find taxis.

I would usually be the one dispatched to fetch a cab to the airport. I remember walking to SV Road (the junction where Hotel Ratna stands, to this day) and asking the kaali-peeli cabs parked there, "Airport chalenge?" None of them was interested. One of them told me they were waiting for customers to "Bombay" (meaning the business district in South Mumbai) since they were assured of a return fare. He was kind enough to advise me to flag one of the passing cabs since they would be more amenable.

No luck. I couldn't find too many cabs plying and the one or two I asked harboured similar sentiments.

I started to panic. Started heading in the opposite direction, to Link Road to try my luck there. Same problem!

I finally just ran home and to my consternation (and then relief) found my Dad outside our building loading his luggage into a taxi waiting there. They waited and waited, then worked out what may have happened and my sister remembered a friend of hers from school whose father operated a cab service (those white Ambassadors with the T board).
Luckily he was able to send a cab at short notice, so my dad made his flight after all!

I still have nightmares of spending close to an hour flagging down cars in increasing desperation sometimes! After that incident, Dad used to just call that T-cab guy so I was off the hook

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