MUMBAI: The monthly income of drivers on Ola and Uber has taken a hit as these companies cut costs and reduce subsidies. The take-home pay for drivers dropped 33% in the last one year, according to data collected by research consultancy firm Red Seer , which was shared exclusively with TOI. The average income of these drivers, which includes incentives but excludes EMIs on their vehicles, came down to Rs 21,000 per month in the second quarter of calendar year 2017 compared to Rs 31,000-32,000 they made in the previous year during the same period.Incentives for drivers emerged as a major draw in the last few years, helping Ola and Uber shore up supply in quick time. But these subsidies have seen a 60% drop in the period under review. The reason behind the declining incomes for drivers is the focus by both Ola and Uber on improving margins.“Profitability remains the key focus with dropping driver incentives for cab aggregators. Despite strong opposition by drivers, cab aggregators continued to reduce expenditure on incentives with Bengaluru and Delhi seeing the biggest incentive drop in the second quarter of 2017. For take-home incomes, it has seen a 33% drop in the quarter under review compared to incomes during one year ago,“ the report noted.Drivers were making Rs 20,000 per month. But with Ola and Uber, they started drawing Rs 30,000-40,000. Then incentives came as the market became extremely competitive and the same drivers -with lesser effort -were making Rs 1lakh or more month ly. Now incentives are rationalised and these drivers are earning Rs 30,000 easily and some of them make upto Rs 50,000 if they put in more hours, an analyst tracking the transportation sector said. The reduced subsidies on drivers has helped the cab companies cut their burn rate. While Ola has seen its monthly burn come down by almost half compared to the previous year at $20-25 million, Uber's is estimated at $30 million, which too is a sharp drop from a year ago, people familiar with the numbers said.As incentives sharply reduced, drivers missed payment deadlines for the monthly instalments of their vehicle loans. Top lenders in the country have been highlighting the rising number of defaults on loans taken by drivers of these ride-hailing apps. Some of the banks even stopped disbursing new loans because of the defaults.A driver with Uber, who did not want to be named, said, “I have to drive for more hours per day to boost my income compared to when I joined the company . Earlier, our incentives were measured on the number of trips completed.But that has changed along with higher commissions being charged by the platform now .“ According to drivers TOI spoke to, aggregators increased their commissions to 20-30% of the trip value from an initial range of 15-18%.Emails sent by TOI to Ola and Uber spokespersons did not elicit a response.Besides subsidies for drivers, taxi aggregators have reduced in the last one year their aggressiveness on the consumer side as well. Earlier this year, when drivers across the country were protesting against falling incomes, Uber India's president Amit Jain had told TOI that fares on the platform had been increased by 10% across cities. During the first quarter of the year, both Ola and Uber witnessed a dip of almost 25% in cab supply , resulting in lesser vehicles plying the roads.This meant increased average estimated time of arrival (ETA) for riders. Both Ola and Uber have been trying to add capacity amid these ongoing issues to meet rider demand, especially during peak hours.In terms of market share , Ola is still ahead of Uber but both the companies have dismissed each other's claims of being in the pole position. Ola is estimated to be clocking about 1.5 million rides daily , while Uber recently said it completed 9.4 million rides in a week in July .