Visakhapatnam: The driver-partners of taxi-aggregating app Uber have started a relay strike here on Tuesday against the low earnings. They claim that their income has come down from Rs 60,000 per month in 2015 to around Rs 15,000 a month at present.
K. Chinna, a taxi driver participating in the strike, said that the company should reduce its commission from 25 per cent to 15 per cent. The tariffs have remained the same at '6-8 per km, though diesel prices have increased from '45 to '70 over the past three years.
“The payment is currently made once in 7-10 days. We demand daily compensation from the company. Earlier, there were many incentives but now there are none due to heavy competition,” said another cab driver Dileep Kumar.
They further claim that the cab aggregating app is attracting the customers by showing lower price, while the drivers get normal fare. This leads to disputes with customers. If once a customer complains against a driver, his account will be blocked. The drivers demand an increase in the base fare to '100.
Meanwhile, customers complain that the taxi aggregator has increased the fares and there are no discounts or offers now-a-days. From the last three days, customers are being charged three-times higher than the normal rates due to the strike.
