THE "APP' THREAT

When we hear that the black and yellow taxis are on strike against the private cabs, we normally shrug our shoulders and say well that’s all they know to do, they must gear up for competition. Some say they deserve it, they would turn us down so often and refuse to ply on certain routes. Others tell me that after traveling in the private cabs, they would never travel by the taxis as they are so badly maintained, so smelly, so dirty.

My brief interaction with a black and yellow taxi driver set me thinking otherwise.

Yesterday I went searching for the old black and yellow taxi or what is popularly known in Mumbai as kali Pili (black, yellow) taxi. I had to travel a distance of just 1 km with my mother.

I checked with a parked taxi driver. He said “Madam why don’t you catch a auto rickshaw." I said I have to take my mother and she cannot sit on a rickshaw. He looked at me with empathy and said okay sit down.

I then asked him why he refused to ply a distance that would take him only 3 minutes, and he was anyway just parked. He said “Madam when you want to travel these short distances, you call us, otherwise you take the Ola or the Uber.”

I said “Yes, that’s true, but not because I reject you, but because the private cabs are more convenient. Like if I want to take my mother somewhere, private cabs come to the doorstep within 5 minutes and I don’t have to go out searching for a taxi."

“Then why not now," he asked.

Yes I realised that was unfair. For short distances, I preferred walking outside my colony and getting a taxi, instead of booking a private cab.

He then told me how there is no business nowadays. He said we get only short distances within the city. We don’t get any long distances now. He said earlier we would get short distances but we would get at least 2 or 3 long distances in a day and that would make us money. Besides our legs hurt doing too many short distances in bad traffic.

Add to that he said that while we have to wait in lines and queues for everything, be it for getting a licence, meter and having to pay heavy penalties all the time, the government has laid the red carpet for these private cabs.

I asked him why don’t the taxi drivers tell the taxi union to do something, maybe fight for a level playing field, make them more competitive. He said the union guy has eaten up all their money.

So what is the solution? Is it okay to let them die a ‘natural’ death, while we welcome the more efficient, dynamic, clean, reasonably priced private cabs (I don’t agree with the last but most say so).

It is the yellow and black taxi drivers that families traveled in for so many years and especially the times when very few owned a car. I would not think twice of catching a black and yellow taxi at 3 am in the morning, from work to home and so many times for the airport. Have we reported a rape incident in any of these taxis? I would be more scared to travel alone in private cabs, especially at odd hours. I don’t know where the drivers come from.

Besides the yellow and black taxi drivers are so efficient, they know everything about Mumbai, every nook and corner.

Compare that to private cab drivers and at times I want to laugh. The driver, when he cannot find the location, says my GPS is not showing your address. So I say why don’t you ask somebody. But they don’t know how to roll down the window and ask people. They are hooked to the GPS system and if it does not work, they don’t work (yes I know we are moving to the robotic system). At times it takes me 10 minutes to tell them where to come despite the technology!!

Besides the old taxi drivers are so chatty and give you so much of what is happening on ground.

Private cab fellows after a point veer towards arrogance and they at times don’t even turn up, don’ t take your calls (a reason why MERU cabs had a good start but then faced trouble, I can see a similar situation happening at Uber). A friend recently had booked a UBER to go to the airport early morning, neither did the driver turn up nor pick up the call. Many other similar cases.

So again, what is the solution for our old taxi drivers? Theirs is not the case like perhaps public sector banks, where we tell taxi drivers pull up your socks, otherwise don’t complain if foreign/private competition eats you up.

These taxi drivers need support and they have no financial backing. If they refuse some routes where they will not make money, they can’t help it. And mind you, we think private cabs think of us? If there is high demand at a particular point, there is surge pricing for sure and cabs are not available. So lets not fool ourselves that they are at our service.

Unlike PSUs where there is government backing, these taxi drivers have no strong financial partner or backing. They don’t know which direction to go, how to gear up for this competition, what to do. They are at a complete loss.

I think the solution can be simple. 1) A good leader 2) Infusing technology and a good app (and they will not even need a GPS system!) 3) Sprucing up of all the cabs.

If they turn out to be cheaper than the private cabs and come at my doorstep, they surely will give tough competition to the private cabs.

Or then let us take a picture of the yellow and black cab for posterity.