Hyderabad: Pandemic drives cab drivers off roads

Hyderabad: The pandemic has thrown a large number of cab drivers out of job. With meagre income for nearly seven months, its hand-to-mouth existence for hundreds of cab drivers in this tech hub.

As almost all the IT companies are still operating in work-from-home mode, 30,000 cabs hired by these companies have gone off the roads, rendering the drivers jobless. Even those cab drivers who own the vehicles are struggling to survive. Their income has come down to one-third of what it used to be in pre-Covid days. With tourism taking a severe beating due to the pandemic, travel operators are facing a really tough time.

When the cabs returned, there were hardly any passengers. Cab drivers used to make 10-15 trips every day, ferrying passengers to and from offices, airport, railway stations, buses, markets, tourist spots, hospitals and places on the outskirts.

Hyderabad has an estimated 1.2 lakh cabs apart from 30,000 cabs hired by IT/ITES companies. "The lockdown may have been technically lifted but for cab drivers the lockdown is still continuing," said Shaikh Salahuddin, general secretary, Indian Federation of App-based Transport Workers (IFAT). He pointed out that every day 5,000 cabs used to operate at Hyderabad Airport but currently there are hardly 200 vehicles plying there.

Before the pandemic broke out, about 13,000 vehicles were in operation in the tourism sector. On an average, a driver used to do 10-12 rides a day before the outbreak of Covid but now he is not doing even five rides.

With the income hardly sufficient to pay the equated monthly installments (EMIs), ranging from Rs 13,000 to Rs 25,000 per month, many drivers have either lost their vehicles to the private financers or surrendered the cabs as they do not have money to pay the pending amount. Adding to the woes of the drivers, some app-based taxi operators terminated the lease contracts with the drivers to take back the vehicles.

Many cabs are seen put on 'For sale' at designated spots in the city. The situation has forced many cab drivers to switch from their profession to other businesses. Some drivers, who had their own vehicles, converted them into roadside shops selling masks, gloves, sanitisers, vegetables or fruits.

Unable to find customers, a driver Janardhan started working as a labourer at a construction site. He makes trips whenever he finds some customers. Kondal Reddy sold his car to return to his village in Medak district to work as a tractor driver. "I had no other alternative to earn some money to run the house," he said. Another can driver Syed Moiz also had to surrender his vehicle to a cab aggregator. He works as an autorickshaw driver in the countryside to make ends meet.

Salahuddin pointed out that financiers, who were kept quiet during the lockdown, started pressurising drivers for payment of EMIs as soon as the lockdown norms were relaxed.