Hyderabad: The Telangana Gig and Platform Workers’ Union has urged the Telangana government to tighten their hold on illegal bike taxis, which have a severe impact on auto-rickshaws and taxi drivers.
Ola, Uber and Rapido ride-hailing aggregators also provide commuters with the option of hiring a bike taxi. However, the aggregators have been running the services illegally by allowing several private licensed vehicles to join the services.
The improper use of private vehicles for commercial purposes is against the MV Act (Rule 50, 51 of MV Act, 1989) which specifies that taxis should be registered with a yellow background number plate with black text.
Karnataka, Delhi, Chennai and Maharashtra RTOs have seized around 120 bikes in the last week of January 2022 and have charged a fine of Rs 10,000 to Rs 15,000 on each seized vehicle owner operating taxis for Ola Moto, Uber Moto and Rapido.
After Karnataka Police, in the first week of February 2022, Pune RTO carried out a similar drive and impounded 65 motorcycles providing taxi services in Pune.
“This brings forth two serious issues, first the RTOs are arresting and charging taxi drivers and not taking any action on the company itself. Secondly, due to the usage of bike taxis, the auto-rickshaw and cab or taxi drivers are suffering, as they are getting fewer rides since the former cost lesser, and are not bound to pay for road permit, taxes and license fees for operating a commercial vehicle,” said TGPWU head, Shaik Salauddin.
Urging that all operations of private motorbikes operating as bike taxis should be stopped immediately in Telangana, he demanded an immediate cap on attaching new vehicles for bike taxis and delivery in Telangana. “The government should instruct Rapido, Ola and Uber to bear the cost of the penalties levied on the bike taxi owners in Telangana.”
