An app-based taxi user faces ride cancellations by drivers, surge pricing, and long waiting times.
Hyderabad: Nearly half of app-based taxi users are unhappy with the rampant cancellation of trips by drivers and the charges levied on them for such cancelled trips, said a survey.
According to the survey, which was conducted based on the inputs from 75,000 app-based taxi users from 325 districts in the country, the most pressing issues that an app-based taxi user faces are ride cancellations by drivers, surge pricing, and long waiting times.
About 45 per cent of the survey participants were from tier 1 cities, 28 per cent from tier 2, and 27 per cent from tier 3 and 4 cities.
The survey said the ride cancellation charges collected from commuters almost doubled in two years, from 23 per cent in 2023 to 45 per cent in 2025. Every one in four persons — representing 25 per cent of the app-based taxi users — found issues with the courteousness of the drivers in 2025 compared to eight per cent in 2023.
Under the new set of guidelines for app taxi aggregators, the government tried to address this issue by mandating a penalty of 10 per cent of the fare if a driver cancels a ride without a valid reason after accepting it. This penalty is to be shared between the driver and the aggregator.
On the other hand, the app-based driver is called to charge up to twice the base fare — an increase from the earlier cap of 1.5 times — during the peak hours, while non-peak hour fares are to be kept at no less than 50 per cent of the base fare.
The app-based taxis, however, showed a steady performance in terms of cleanliness, as the users who were unhappy with the cleanliness of the car remained steady at 30 per cent in both 2025 and 2023. Safety issues also did not exacerbate in the last two days, as people who were not satisfied with the safety remained steady at six per cent during the period under study.
Nearly six in 10 people believe that the government has failed to stop taxi aggregators from using unfair trade practices and service deficiencies. As many as 82 per cent of app taxi users believe the government should implement basic common standards for shared services like app-based taxi aggregators and their drivers.
Only 18 per cent reported any positive change in the last two years.
