Shortage of cabs in the city has resulted in a longer waiting time to book a taxi and passengers say they are paying a hefty fare for the ride.
Taxi operators say that after the outbreak of the pandemic, owing to financial distress owners and driver-cum-owners could not repay the loans they had borrowed from financial institutions and eventually that led to the seizure of vehicles by the lenders.
Operators say that over 50% of the cabs that were operational during the pre-COVID-19 times have remained off the road. However, no data of the cabs on the road is available now.
Not only have many cabs and autorickshaws gone off the road, there is a drastic reduction in the number of new cabs and autorickshaws joining the fleet as well.
The number of registrations of new taxis and autos has fallen drastically after the outbreak of the pandemic. During the pre-pandemic times, on an average 40 new taxis were getting registered daily in the city and that reduced to three per day in 2020-21. In the previous financial year, on an average four taxis were getting registered.
When it comes to autos, the average new registration was 47 per day in 2019-20; it came down to three per day in 2020-21. In the previous financial year, the number of newly registered autos was four per day.
This has become evident in how the taxi services have become skewed in the city. Those who rely on taxis for their daily commute say that the waiting time is increasing and the fare is also higher.
Nirmala R., a regular passenger, said, “The time taken to book a cab is getting longer. On Sunday, I tried to book a cab from Vijayanagar to a mall in Rajajinagar and it was showing ₹400 as the fare. That is too much to pay. Even when a driver accepts the ride, he will ask whether the customer is paying by cash. If we say no, he never turns up.”
The passengers, especially those travelling to and from Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), have been demanding that aggregators initiate action against drivers for collecting the toll fee without using the toll road, not switching on the air-conditioning, and other complaints.
The operators who provide taxi services to IT companies and other industries also feel the heat. R. Harish, a taxi operator, who has been in the business for 35 years, said: “In the last two years, the owners and the drivers have suffered a lot. Unable to pay the loan, many have ended up losing the vehicles to financial companies. Now, many of the companies have slowly shifted to a hybrid working mode. We are unable to meet the demand. To get a vehicle we have to make multiple calls to the owners or the drivers. Despite that we are not getting vehicles“.
Sunil Kumar, a taxi driver, said, “Drivers have gone through the worst time after the outbreak of the pandemic. Many have left the city and are working in their villages. They had taken out a loan and bought the vehicle. Financial companies are not releasing them without clearing dues which are in lakhs. Who will invest in lakhs to buy a new vehicle? In addition to the vehicle cost, the rising fuel cost, higher insurance amount, and maintenance cost have deterred many from investing in taxis”.
K. Radhakrishna Holla, president of the Karnataka State Travel Operators‘ Association, said: “Two years ago, by investing ₹7.5 lakh one could buy a vehicle, but now we need ₹12 lakh to 13 lakh investment. That is a huge amount. For many operators who have already suffered huge losses, it is beyond their reach. As the cost involved in buying new cars is high, we demand that the State government reduce taxes to give relief to operators”.
