Chennai: Ola, Uber drivers go on strike, demand Government intervention

Protesting against irregular income and falling incentives, cab drivers of app-based services including Uber, Ola and Fasttrack have reportedly gone on strike on Wednesday.

Almost 40,000 taxis will be off the road as drivers demand intervention from the government to regulate app-based cap services. According to a news report, 2,000 cabs were associated with either Ola or Uber while the rest were associated with other aggregators such as NTL, Fast track, and Friends. Uber currently has 4.5 lakh taxis on the road across India while Ola says that it has around 8 lakh taxis across 110 cities in India.

32,000 cabs were associated with either Ola or Uber while the rest were associated with other aggregators such as NTL, Fast track, and Friends. Uber currently has 4.5 lakh taxis on the road across India while Ola says that it has around 8 lakh taxis across 110 cities in the country.

Drivers compliant that app-based services firms like Ola and Uber are taking a commission of up to 27% of their earnings a day. They added that the commission should be reduced to single digit. Driver protests have been increasing over the last year with the latest call in December in Mumbai.

This came in the in the backdrop of the Maharashtra government saying it will fix both minimum and maximum fares for app-based taxi companies during the winter session of the state’s legislative assembly.

Entrackr has written to Ola and Uber for comments on the strike.

Uber India Support on Twitter in a response said, "Certain external factors have caused a minor disruption in our services in Chennai. We are working really hard to bring back more cars and the reliability you know about Uber. We should hopefully have our operations restored in a few hours. but yet to receive any response from them."

However, official stands from both the companies are still awaited.

Earlier in June this year, Drivers of Ola and Uber have reportedly called a strike in the National Capital Region over the incentives.

In February, an Ola driver was reported to kill himself by consuming poison in a strike in Bangalore. Ola and Uber encourage drivers to buy cars on loan. Many drivers bought cars as they were lured by higher incomes the companies offered in 2015 and 2016 when the companies were starting their operations.

Drivers reported to had monthly earnings of Rs 85,000 and Rs 70,000. Now drivers are earning around Rs 1,700 per day. If a driver earns Rs 1700 a day for 30 days, his income is Rs 51,000. Many drivers have to pay monthly loan EMI, which ranges between Rs 11,000 to Rs 16,000.