Earlier this week, the Karnataka Government’s transport department issued a notice banning Ola and Uber from using carpooling services. The decision was taken after taking into consideration the grievances of cabbies protesting gainst the aggregators. Though Uber said a clear no to the ban, Ola has also demonstrated some resistance to the same.
As a result of neglecting the orders passed, Karnataka Transport Department took hold of over 30 cabs of the two popular cab aggregators. The department had given a time span of three days to the companies to alter the applications. Since no outcome was witnessed from both Ola and Uber, the department was only left with an option to seize the operational taxis. However, the ride-hailing giants continued their ride-sharing services for the public in the city.
Further, Uber floated a public petition so as to get support from its commuters for the service. The petition states prevention of more than 9,364,772 kilometers of unnecessary driving along with saving 4,40,623 liters of fuel and cutting over 1,037,000 kg of CO2 emissions. The petition has already been signed by over 19,000 users in Bengaluru, which is one of the most prominent operational areas for cab giants.
Though Ola has declined to comment yet, Uber claims to reduce the cost of rides up to 50% and brings in 25% of the total trips in Bangalore. The company says that the carpooling service is an eco-friendly feature providing cheap travel option to customers in the city.
Karnataka Transport Department had deployed a team of ten traffic inspectors especially to keep a check on Ola and Uber’s cab services. The traffic inspectors started to downsize the cabs from 10 am and continued enforcement for three hours. The cabs seized by authorities will now be put forward in the magistrate court to take the case further. Though the traffic inspectors had the power to seize the cabs, they weren’t allowed to levy any sort of penalty. The department also threatened the companies by issuing a warning to suspend their permits.
Jnanendra Kumar, Joint Commissioner for Transport (enforcement) further commented on the matter stating,
Without causing inconvenience to the passengers, we seized as many as 30 cabs which were defying the orders. The traffic inspectors were asked to down these mobile-based applications, book a ride and seize the vehicle after dropping the other passenger to their destinations.
The department carried out orders at prominent places in the city including HSR layout, Banashankari, Jayanagara, Koramangala, among others. The seizing was stopped after 1 pm as heads for both Ola and Uber conducted a talk with Transport Commissioner MK Aiyappa and Transport Minister Ramalinga Reddy, asking out for an extension of the deadline. Uber holding onto its stance added,
Any contract carriage permit holder can stop to pick up or drop passengers who are included in the contractual understanding with the driver and UberPool fulfills this requirement. Hence, it does not violate the contract carriage permit in any way.