Ola, Uber, Rapido autos 'illegal' in Bengaluru: Here's why their services will stop in three days

Bengaluru: Karnataka transport department on Thursday, 6 October, issued notices to ride-hailing platform Ola’s parent company, ANI Technologies, along with Uber and Rapido, calling their autos illegal. The state transport department sought to stop the services of the three-wheelers in three days and asked the vehicle aggregators to submit a report.

Why have the autos been termed illegal?

The Karnataka transport department’s decision comes after several commuters registered complaints with them over Ola and Uber charging a minimum of Rs 100 even if the distance is below two kilometres.

Notably, minimum auto fare in Bengaluru is fixed at Rs 30 for the first 2 km and Rs 15 for every kilometre thereafter.

Here’s what the Department notice says

As per the department’s notice, all three vehicle aggregators have to stop services of autos at the earliest not to charge passengers in taxis more than the fare prescribed by the government. The department also warned the three companies of legal action if they fail to comply with the order.

Rules are only for taxis, says Transport commissioner THM Kumar

Amid all this, Transport commissioner THM Kumar has said they have granted licences to these firms under the Karnataka On-Demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016, to run only taxis. The rules do not apply to autos.

As per a report in TOI, he saod that taxis being motor cabs with a seating capacity of six, excluding drivers, the autorickshaw services being provided by aggregators are in violation of regulations.

No autos should ply with cab aggregator license

Additional commissioner for transport and secretary, State Transport Authority, L Hemanth Kumar added that the auto-rickshaws are not supposed to ply with cab-aggregator licences and thus they have been asked to stop plying and submit a report.

Auto unions to launch mobile apps

Meanwhile, the Auto-rickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU) along with Nandan Nilekani-backed Beckn Foundation is planning to launch the Namma Yatri app on 1 November to take on ride-hailing platforms like Ola and Uber.

A report by ToI quoted ARDU president D Rudramurthy saying that they are losing customers as app-based aggregators charge Rs 100 minimum fare from customers and give Rs 60 to drivers and take the remaining as commission. After they hiked fares, there was a decline in number of customers by 50 per cent to 60 per cent.

With inputs from agencies

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