There are few people you can turn to today, who aren’t looking at their smartphones and booking a cab for themselves. Uber, Ola and their pack of merry cabs are arguably our most convenient way to travel.
Spare a thought, though, for the taxis that plied before app-based taxis drove into our lives. How are the traditional kaali-peeli taxis faring? How are they reacting to the sudden change?
One visit to the crowded and bustling Nizamuddin Railway Station area proved that our suspicions were correct. Rows and rows of empty taxis stood by, with their drivers flipping aimlessly through phones – some attempting to call out to a customer or two exiting the station.
But to no avail. Most potential customers flipped out a phone and booked themselves an Ola or an Uber – and rode away.
“We’ll sometimes spend an entire day here without any customers,” a soft-spoken taxi driver tells me. “Then we go back home and come back the next morning in the hope that someone will hire us. But it’s very, very rare.”
Other taxi drivers are just as upset – some indignant.
“We charge Rs 14 per kilometre for a regular taxi, Rs 16/km for an AC one. We want to adhere to the metre – but when customers can get a cab for Rs 6/km, why will they come to us?”
An Ola driver, picking up passengers from the station received the brunt of the anger. As he tried to explain that the customers will come to whoever provides the best facilities, drivers of the local taxi stand were vehement. “Where does all that money come from? You’re running on black money,” they accused him.
As the kaali-peeli taxis stood desolate and unused, lines and lines of white cabs snaked past right next to them.
“Does the government want to shunt us out entirely?” a taxi driver mourns. “If that’s the case, they might as well just tell us. Why insult us this way with low-priced cabs we can never compete with?”
(Camera: Shiv Kumar Maurya, Video Editor: Purnendu Pritam)