Bike taxis are here to stay

Ameerpet/Nizampet: People in the city are warming up to the idea of bike taxis. Fed up with the traffic jams, netizens seem to be more comfortable to book a bike taxi. “Thanks to the service, I just get down at the Ameerpet metro rail station and within no time I get a bike taxi. It is comfortable, reliable, cheaper and most importantly fast,” said Ravi KK, a software engineer. 

The bike taxis started in January 2017 (UBER) and March 2017 (OLA), presently employing almost 500 riders. These services prevail only in some parts of the city like Madhapur, Kondapur, Nizampet, Kothaguda, Jubilee Hills, Gachibowli and KPHB Colony and Ameerpet-Miyapur with prices varying from 5-6 rupees per kilometer. Concurring with Ravi, another commuter, Atul Maharaj, a content writer said, “The bike was there at the pick-up point within no time. He dropped me from Gachibowli to Jubilee Hills for a much lower fare than usual (autos or cabs). 

Raj Kumar, a 27-year-old graduate from Warangal shares his experience on how Ola and Uber taxi service companies helped supplement his earnings. The same bike which Raj rode from Warangal to Hyderabad in search of a job is what en-routes the city all day long, filling his pockets. The customers in emergency cases usually prefer bikes to combat huge traffic within no time. On questioning, he said that most of his customers are in the age group of 20-30 years of which half are males and the rest half are females. “The riders are only males. Females don’t have an option of riding bikes”, he said.

“The drawback of working with Ola is incentives. But when customers are late, and I cancel the ride, I have to suffer a loss. I pay an annual commission of 20-25% each, to both the companies.” “Riding for more than 10 hours continuously leads to a back pain for most of the riders which we neglect as we are still happy with our jobs”, said Raj. “I log into both Ola and Uber accounts simultaneously in order to manage time.”

He also said that there are longer routes to be traveled with Ola customers while shorter ones with Uber. “I ride my bike for five, or sometimes six days a week and earn as much as a software engineer does”, he added. “Going for a bike wasn’t my first option, I still wanted to give it a try. The riders carry an extra helmet and are customer-friendly. I couldn’t complain much about the service, especially the fare”, said Aditya.

BY Asna Khundimiri