EMI

Avinash

Regional Transport Office

services

On Wednesday morning, 24-year-old Ganesh Kothe, a cab driver who plies intercity for ride sharing service Ola, sent out an audio clip to his cabbie friends that he was committing suicide as he had not been allotted any ride for a whole week. While his friends rushed in to stall him, his act has evoked a lot of empathy among other intercity cabbies, who now point finger at both Ola and its competitors for discrimination in allotment of rides. A protest has already been scheduled in the city on Friday, which is to be followed up with a march to Mumbai.Speaking to Mirror, Kothe recounted how he was lured into making big investments with the promise of earning more, but soon found himself in a financial quandary with very few rides coming his way. “In the last six months, I have suffered a major setback with my earnings from Ola dwindling. Despite having top rating from passengers, I am not being allotted rides by the company,” he complained. His disappointment with Ola has been long-standing, he said. “When I started out three years ago, I was promised a monthly income of Rs 70,000. I managed to get only Rs 60,000. Yet due to a good surge in rides coming my way, I was advised by Ola to switch from my small car (Indica) to a sedan.After I did that initially I got a good response for a while, but again the number of rides started falling. When I approached the Ola team, they asked me to wait for a few days. They seemed clueless about the issue. One of them suggested I change my phone to ramp up the rides coming my way. But I am convinced they are diverting our rides to cabbies who are working with vehicles leased from them under the Ola leasing scheme,” he insisted.Burdened by theon his upgraded car, Kothe made the desperate move he did on Wednesday. “With an EMI of Rs 27,820 on my head, I am at loss on how to repay the loan, when I am finding it difficult to make ends meet. Over the past few months, I’ve sold all the jewellery there was at home just to service the loan. The next EMI date is coming up on November 20 and I have nothing left to give. The bank officials will come to take away the vehicles and I cannot live through that embarrassment nor can I put my family through it,” he pointed out.However, his friends who kept him from taking the drastic step have counselled him and offered to help him tide over the crisis. “They said they will make sure the company is sued,” he added.The support Kothe has got stems from the fact that his is not an isolated case as his peers have similar allegations. Many of them feel cheated by the lure of big money presented to draw them in and then changed revenue sharing pattern that has rankled cabbies across cities. “The crisis has been going on for a few months now, but this week was particularly bad. We were all looking forward to big business in the outstation travel people undertake post-Diwali. But not a single ride came our way from Ola,” riledSutar, a member from the Ola association.Kothe’s move has pushed the cabbies to take to the streets. “On Friday as a mark of our revolt we will march to the Ola office in the city wearing langots (loin cloth). Next we will go all the way to Mumbai to meet politicians who have not been helping us either,” Sutar announced.Echoing the disenchantment another Ola driver, Sanjay Pawar said. “We’ve been victimised by the cab companies. The going was good the first two years I worked with Ola, but lately the company is showing signs of exploiting us for profit, without considering our well-being or advancement. While the passengers are plied with offers such as free rides or 50 per cent discounts, we get very little and the company takes a 20 per cent cut. We also pay the service tax.”Yet another driver Ajay Bhosale seems to have lost his patience with the company. “I am going to give up driving the cab soon. I will sell off the cab and repay my loan. The past few days I have been driving around the city and only earning Rs 250-300 a day after deducting the diesel costs and the company’s cut. This is way too little for sustenance and definitely far smaller than what was promised at the outset,” he noted.Currently, according to thedata there are 8,000 cabs running in the city. Ola officials say they have about 4,200-4,300 cabs on the road. Of these 1,200 are leased from the company. However, defending against the contention that the company is manoeuvring the flow of ride and discriminating against certain drivers, Ola spokesperson told Mirror, “The whole thing is decided by algorithms in the app. The rides are distributed in keeping with the demand of the passengers. Also Ola leased cabs are not allowed to go beyond city limits, so there is no question of such discrimination in the intercity.”