JUST SPAMMING | Now CUMTA to Curb Fleecing by Autorickshaw Drivers

Governments may come and go and political parties may assume power and lose power. Even the weather may change unexpectedly but auto drivers have been remaining the same over the decades at least in the way they spot a potential victim on the road. People carrying huge luggage in railway stations and bus stands and restless officegoers and others in bus stops glancing at their watches during peak hours are among the sure-fire victims who could be literally taken for a ride.

Why the ubiquitous auto driver, who goes missing only when one is in a hurry to reach somewhere, has suddenly caught our imagination now is the announcement in the State Assembly, during the demands for grants for the transport department, that the Chennai Unified Metropolitan Transport Authority (CUMTA) would launch an app for people to hail an auto or cab. The reason cited for such a move was to protect the livelihoods of auto and taxi drivers and to ensure that passengers were not fleeced, which, ironically, sounds a bit paradoxical in the Chennai context.

The city has been notorious for its auto drivers for a long time. Unlike most cities, the autos here have no working meters to show the rates. The charges are spelled out by the driver who can even change his mind and hike the charge after the journey is completed.

In fact, one of the life skills that middle class people acquire in their life in Chennai is the art of haggling with an auto driver. One reason for the explosion of women two-wheeler riders in Chennai is the failure of many working women and students in mastering that art, though another could be the erratic bus services. Whatever, escaping an auto driver is not that easy for many people for they could be caught up when they go out of town and return home, particularly at odd hours in the night. The point is that Chennai could never bring about a rapprochement between the auto driver and the commuter on the rates charged for a ride.

When the State Urban Development Minister B Rajkumar announced the proposal by CUMTA, the first thought that crossed the mind was if it was possible. Since the main task in giving real shape to the proposal was to bring the auto drivers around in fixing the rates, the whole thing had remained nothing short of a phantasmagoria all these years despite the earnest efforts of the authorities and governments. Autorickshaw drivers, or their unions that negotiate with the government authorities, could never come to an agreement on minimum rates or fares or even on the fixing of meters that would tell the rate to the unwary commuter, taking a ride.

Even the meeting convened by officials of the transport department with the auto unions, a day ahead of the Minister announcing in the Assembly that CUMTA would launch an app for hailing auto rickshaws and taxis, for fixing rates ended in a stalemate. It is learnt that the TVK government, after coming to power in May, has held three such consultations but could not arrive at a solution to the problem over the fixing of fares. It is only an indication that the auto drivers themselves are not keen on operating with fixed rate cards and prefer making random demands by guessing the desperation of the commuter to take the ride.

In such a scenario, it is difficult to guess if the present government’s efforts to fix the rates of auto and taxi fares will bear fruit for various reasons. One, going by experience, it is not that easy because not all auto drivers will be happy to abide by rules on how much to take from customers.

There was a time, not too long ago, when auto rates were too high in Tamil Nadu that not all could even afford it unless it was an emergency. It was then the app-based services came into existence and at least the passengers were told in advance what they would have to shell out that day, at that time and at that place. Since the rates were fixed not by human beings but by machines, no greed or malpractice was suspected in the transactions, though those programmes were written by human beings. Still, it was seen as a better proposition than letting an auto driver spell out his rate.

After those systems picked up, the auto drivers stepped in. They will not accept the rate proposed by the machine and demand more with the threat of cancelling the trip otherwise. That made people understand that an auto driver is an auto driver whether you hail him at a stand or on the road or through an app. The traditional practice of making a demand for ‘something above the meter’ cannot be taken away from the auto driver whatever you might have done technologically to circumvent the traditional hailing process. So how will CUMTA use its new app to prevent fleecing? We’ll know when the real rides start.