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Surge pricing spurred by TSRTC worker strike
Hardly two weeks since the Swadeshi Jagran Manch wrote to the Centre, demanding that surge price levied by app-based taxi aggregators such as Ola and Uber be capped at 25 per cent, the outrageous fares even for short distances are leaving customers high and dry.
Hyderabad:
As the TSRTC staff went on strike, commuters are highly dependent on the cab services in the city. The surge in price is anywhere between 1.8 - 3.2 times higher. Pradeep Narani, an Ola customer, said, "I usually pay Rs 175- Rs 215 for a ride, but, today, for the same ride I had to pay Rs 376."
In spite of a holiday for educational institutions and many leaving the town for Dusshera vacation, there is no respite say customers. "I travel from Ameerpet to Chintal everyday and it costs between Rs 182 and Rs to 210, depending on weather, but ever since the TSRTC employees went on strike, we have been paying three times higher than usual.
I had to pay Rs 516 for a journey of 10 km," said Arvind Kumar, another Ola customer. Drivers too are making hay, Arun, a driver said, "The demand is higher than usual and at some hours it is more… Overall, I accepted 20-25 rides. Usually, I take 10-15 or less, "he added.
"In situations of very high demand like rains and lack of buses for transportation, our company 'Ola' starts raising prices little by little to encourage more drivers to get on the road so that there are enough drivers available to respond to the ride," said officials from Ola. "We charge higher when there is demand," said another Ola driver Kiran Kumar. Whenever the rates increase due to surge pricing, riders are informed about the same in the app.
Some riders choose to wait a few minutes to see if the rates go back down to normal. As more riders start making requests, the number of available drivers on the road increases until once again the supply and demand are balanced enough that the drivers on the road matches the number of trip requests. At this point, the surge factor can be removed to get back to the normal rates, say Ola drivers.
