Private cars on Uber illegal, compromise passenger safety, say Mumbai aggregator cabbies

Mumbai cab drivers' union complains to RTOs about private cars operating on Uber, alleging safety breaches and unfair passenger allocation

MUMBAI: An umbrella union of aggregator cab drivers has complained to the regional transport offices about private cars providing services on the Uber app, and posted photos of such vehicles on social media. As per rules, only commercial vehicles with a T-permit, which is mandatory to ferry passengers, can ply on aggregator cab platforms such as Uber.

An umbrella union of aggregator cab drivers has complained to the regional transport offices about private cars providing services on the Uber app (Reuters File Photo)

Sources said that over the years, Uber had tied up with companies that provide cars on hire to ferry passengers. There are at least 250 to 300 such private cars running as taxis on the Uber platform, claimed the unions. The aggregator drivers have been alleging that they get second preference on passengers’ phones while the first preference goes to the private drivers from taxi companies. These usually provide services to call centres and corporate offices.

Anand Kute, organising secretary of the Maharashtra Rajya Rashtriya Kamgar Sangh (MRRKS), a conglomeration of drivers working on different app-based gig platforms, said this was a breach of law. “We have complained to Uber as well as the RTOs and submitted the necessary evidence,” he said. “The bigger issue is the safety of passengers which gets compromised, as it is not certain that the correct information of the driver is with the aggregator, which is the case with a cab that has a regular yellow-coloured number plate.”

Last December, Uber introduced a recording facility in its app for passengers to record conversations of drivers who misbehaved or were arrogant. The unions question whether the private cars operating on its app have speed governors and an emergency red button for passenger safety among other things.

Another aggregator cab union member said that the government needed to make it clear if private cars were permitted to ferry passengers. “We ensure that our vehicles have a fitness certificate, install speed governors and bear other costs for operating our cabs, which is not the case with the private cars,” he said. “A regular cab owner needs to have relevant permits, pays taxes and other duties before bringing his vehicle on the road as a taxi.” When questioned, an RTO officer said that only vehicle owners with permits to ply commercial taxis were allowed to ferry passengers.

Transport experts said that aggregator companies such as Uber needed to take responsibility for the kind of vehicles that they allowed to operate through their apps. Uber did not respond to the queries sent by Hindustan Times on this issue.