No air conditioners for passengers, say 'low income' hit-app-cab drivers
Kolkata: App-cab owners and drivers have decided to not provide the comfort of air conditioners to the passengers from Monday.
They said they were not using air conditioners as the money they are earning from the services is insufficient to meet their expenses.
According to the app-cab owners, one of the two major app-cab service providers does not pay sufficient money in comparison to the amount of fare they take from passengers.
According to the app-cab owners, at present they get fare at a rate of Rs 8-9 a kilometre.
The fare of the ordinary no-refusal taxi is Rs 15 a kilometre and AC taxis charge Rs 18.50 for a kilometre.
App-cab owners have been demanding that the fare rates for app cabs should be at par with the fare of AC taxis.
However, the concerned app-cab firm allegedly did not bother to address the demand of the cab owners.
These cab owners allege that the service provider company charges fare at a high rate from the passengers but retains the maximum profit which should be divided equally.
As they did get any fruitful solution to the problem, the cab owners have decided not to provide air conditioning facility to the passengers as it would save on the fuel.
Though the authorities of the concerned app-cab firm claimed earlier that they support both the passengers and cab owners, but till date the company has allegedly not taken any concrete steps to meet the demands of the cab owners. It is alleged that if a driver fails to provide his services due to some reasons, the concerned app-cab firm immediately takes strict action against him.
On Monday, several app-cab drivers were seen stopping other cabs which were using air conditioners. These drivers were requesting other drivers not to use the air conditioners to save fuel.
They have also circulated a leaflet among drivers to create awareness about their demands.
App-cab owners said that they would continue providing services but as normal taxis till their demands are addressed.
