Ola cars vandalised in Pune: aggregator and drivers blame each other

At least seven cars in an Ola yard next to Naidu hospital near the Pune railway station were vandalised on Wednesday. Ola cabs is an online transportation network company.

The driver partners, who have been protesting against the allegedly unfair practices of Ola (listed below), and the taxi aggregator platform representatives are shifting the blame onto each other for the vandalised cars.

“We were informed while joining itself that on days when we do not work for reasons like vehicle maintenance, medical grounds among others, we will not be charged the daily rental amount, but that is not true. So many of us have over Rs 10,000 due even when we gave them legitimate reasons for not operating on some days,” said Sanjay Bachkar, who was among the driver partners who had gathered at the yard.  

Ola works on a daily lease system with drivers who are expected to pay Rs 1,080 on a daily basis toward the rental of the cars. The cars are sourced from local outlets of car manufacturers like Toyota and Maruti.  

A group of at least 50-60 driver partners had gathered at the yard where Ola representatives maintain an office. After the day-long protest of the drivers, they moved on with their transport operations.

However, while denying the claim, a representative of Ola, said, “We had noticed in the past few days that a few Ola driver partners were not adhering to the agreement. But when someone has genuine concerns, we help them out. The Ola driver-partner system was based on creating more entrepreneurs. We cannot operate if we do not stick to the agreement that is signed at the beginning of the partnership.”  

The driver partners claim that they are made to pay daily lease while their daily earning, as promised, does not match the expectations that were set by Ola before signing the agreement.

While Ola has not reached out to the police, the workers’ union (of drivers) has approached the police with claims of being cheated by Ola. 

No case has been filed with respect to vehicles being vandalised.