Cab stir hits Kochi

Kochi: The 24-hour token strike by drivers of cab aggregators Uber and Ola demanding a reduction in commission rates and an increase in wages was complete in the city on Monday. 

Their customers depended on auto rickshaws and metros in large numbers.
Over 10,000 taxis on their network went offline for 24 hours. Besides autorickshaws, people also chose other taxi services. There was also a massive rush on the metros during the peak hours, likely to be because of the strike.

However, it was auto rickshaws which were depended mainly on by the commuters. People who were not aware of the strike used the rickshaws after trying the hailing taxi apps for some minutes. 

“We usually get enough rides on Mondays. However, today, it was more than that. Some travel in taxi cars and others rickshaws,” said Shibu, an auto driver near the High Court junction.

People travelling to Ernakulam from all parts of the country got hit by the strike. People arrived here by trains affected the most as they extensively use these services for its easy availability and cheap fares across major cities. 

“I did not know about the strike. I travel weekly to Kochi from my home at Kollam. I was checking the apps for a long time, and it did not show any cab, and that’s when I doubted something was wrong,” said Chinju who works at Kakkanad.

Another issue was the wide difference in fares between prepaid taxi services and these online services. Nishar Alam from Mumbai who reached here in the morning to attend a Navy exam said he had to pay almost four times the amount of an online cab to get a prepaid cab at the railway station.

Meanwhile, a few online cab drivers went offline and worked as normal taxis for the day. They said they were still part of the strike. “As the current strike is against companies, there is no issue in it. People who know my number calls me,” a driver said.