The Radio Taxi Association of India has insisted that the state transport corporations in Delhi, Mumbai,Hyderabad and Punjab give up the radio taxi scheme. The taxis under this association are planning to look out for a level playing field along with the service aggregators including Uber and Ola.
Regarding this, Rajiv K Vij, member of Radio Taxi Association of India and CEO of Carzonrent claimed that they have approached the state transport corporations and have urged them to alter the schemes. They want the transport corporations to remove metre calibration and amend the fares per kilometer. He added that, the members of the association want the state governments to let market forces decide the taxi meter pricing.
The Radio taxi license holders including Meru Cabs, Easy Cabs and Mega Cabs have to get their meters calibrated every year and they cannot change the pricing per kilometer as per the market demand. In simpler words, the rates are pre-decided by the respective state governments.
Contradictorily, the taxi service aggregators such as Uber and Ola cabs introduce surge pricing scheme and they can change the fares per kilometer several times a day according to demand and supply of cabs.
Regarding this, Kunal Lalani, President of Association of Radio Taxis of India and CEO of Mega Cabs claimed that it is an industry where the prices would shoot up as the demand rises. He added that even in theUSandUKmarkets the pricing differs all throughout a day.
Over 10 members of the association including Meru Cabs, Easy Cabs, Wyn Cabs and Quick Cabs along with Lalani have urged the Mumbai Transport Commissioner to let the cabs pose a waiting charge Rs 2 per minute during peak hours. Moreover, the association is also looking for an increase in the flag down fare that is Rs 69 inDelhiand Rs 27 in Mumbai. As per the commission, they want the minimum fare to be increased to Rs 150 for 4 km similar toSingaporeandDubai. Also, Uber charges Rs 80 and Ola charges Rs 100 as minimum fare for 4 km.
According to the rules, all the cabs should be attached under the license of radio taxi operators and this has made the players experience a loss of 20 percent of the market share to tech startups in the last year. It is also believed that operating under a radio taxi license is challenging. Many cab operators have foregone their licenses voluntarily as they had to have a fleet of 500 cabs in a city, claimed Jaspal Singh, CoFounder of Valoriser Consultants.
