Imagine you get up early, have a shower, eat your breakfast and are ready to leave for your office. Since you have no other means of commuting, you have to book a cab. Despite trying for almost an hour, you find no cabs available or those that you book get cancelled. You’ll surely feel irritated, and exhausted and more importantly, you’ll get late for the office. Such a bad day! Right?
But have you tried to find out why your cabs are being cancelled? If not, here is the explanation that why there is a shortage of Ola-Uber cabs these days.
Rise in CNG price
Compressed natural gas (CNG) prices have increased dramatically in the country in the past six months. Some of the cities have even witnessed as much as a 37% increase in gas prices as gas distributors pushed them to cover their increased costs. Needless to say, the step has been taken to maintain strong profit margins.
While Adani Gas increased CNG prices in Ahmedabad by 37%, Gujarat Gas too raised its prices in Gujarat by 30%. Meanwhile, Indraprastha Gas in Delhi has also raised rates by 33% and with a 27% hike in CNG prices in Mumbai. The prices have witnessed a surge by ₹9.6 per kg in Ahmedabad and ₹7 in Delhi.
Moreover, the increase in the domestic natural gas price led CNG price to increase by ₹16 per kg and piped kitchen gas by ₹10 per standard cubic meter (SCM). The local natural gas price increased by 110% to $6.1 per mmBtu from April 1. Since then, city gas companies have taken some hikes but more could be in the offing.
Unions protesting for a fare hike and slashing of CNG prices
While CNG prices increased, Ola and Uber refrained from increasing its price. What are the cab drivers supposed to do when they are not being paid more but have to spend more for CNG? As the cab drivers are facing hardships to earn a profit, they have now resorted to protesting against the rising fuel and CNG prices. Various unions of auto, taxi and minibus drivers have begun protesting since April 18.
These drivers are demanding a hike in fare rates and a lowering of CNG prices. The Delhi government, however, assured the drivers to form a committee in order to rethink fare revision but are adamant about protesting.
While most unions said that they will be on a one-day strike, the Sarvodaya Driver Association Delhi, made it clear that it will go on an “indefinite” strike from Monday. President, Sarvodaya Driver Association Delhi, Kamaljeet Gill, stated, “We have decided to go on an indefinite strike from Monday in view of no action by the government to help us by slashing prices of fuels and revising fares.”
Moreover, the cab drivers in West Bengal, New Delhi, Noida, Telangana and Bengaluru have also begun a ‘no AC’ policy to highlight the difficulties faced by Ola and Uber drivers. This is disturbing at this point in time because the month of April is witnessing a blistering heat with an average high temperature of 35.8°C.
Petrol prices in the state increased to Rs. 109.82 per litre by April 5, from the 100.14 per litre recorded on March 28.
Cab drivers are asking for extra fare from passengers for switching on the air conditioning. They do not switch on the AC citing either COVID-19 protocols or make excuses that AC is included only in the Ola Prime and sedan bookings.
Uber announces an increase in the trip fare
What comes as a huge relief amidst the chaos is that Uber has now announced a hike in the existing trip fares by 10 per cent in Bengaluru. Cab rides, thus, will become more expensive. Nitish Bhushan, head of central operations, Uber India and South Asia, said that “The prices have been increased, keeping in mind the prices of petrol, diesel and CNG.”
Notably, the prices have been hiked in the aftermath of the protests by the cab drivers. Reportedly, Ola might follow Uber’s route to hike the current trip fares.
You see, the chaos around cab services is never-ending. This is exactly the reason that cab drivers are cancelling your trips these days.