Chennai Auto & Cab Drivers To Boycott Ola, Uber From February 1

Chennai is set to see a disruption in the city’s ride-hailing services from today (February 1), as auto and cab drivers union have announced an indefinite boycott of Ola and Uber over high commissions charged on daily rides.

Urimaikural Ottunar Thozhirsangam (Urimaikural drivers trade union) Chennai has written to the aggregators Ola and Uber on January 27 and the one to the latter as viewed by Inc42 read, “…Uber does not take our problems into consideration and listens to the issues raised by the union. We strongly oppose this kind of practice. If this situation continues, our drivers will boycott Uber from taking the trips from February 1.”

The union’s general secretary Zahir Hussain told Inc42 that the drivers are not against all app-based ride platforms, and added that new entrants such as Namma Yatri and Taxina charge nominal commission per ride.

Besides, the high commission being a concern for the union, there is also a complaint of lack of driver’s life security in Ola and Uber. On the other hand, accident claims and drivers’ security has been a priority on the emerging ride-hailing platforms such as Taxina and Namma Yatri.

When asked about his opinion on peer Rapido, Hussain said that the company has been responsive to anything raised by the union.

Meanwhile, the ride-hailing giants have been unresponsive to the demands and protests of the Chennai union for long now.

However, on January 31, Bhavish Agarwal-led company responded with a vague advertisement on the drivers’ app which said, “Big News, Coming Soon; Commission, In all your Ola rides; For more details follow the Ola utility inbox.”

Furthermore, Red Taxi, an established Coimbatore-based cab company has announced that on the first three calendar days of February, there will be no commission charged on their local rides. On top of that, the company offers a peak-hour wage of INR 25 per kilometer they drive.

It is observed that complaints against the ride-hailing companies have been present for years now. Complaints have been on grounds of unfair trade practices, ride charges, commissions, driver security and more.

To note, ride-hailing companies Ola and Uber and logistics startup Porter have scored zero points on Fairwork India’s ratings for the working conditions of gig workers, as of October 2024, which evaluated 11 digital platforms on five principles – fair pay, fair conditions, fair contracts, fair management, fair representation.