[Tarun]

I recently boarded an Uber after experiencing this menace and spoke to driver on why these cancellations.

Drivers perspective-
1. Ola , Uber charge 30% of travel fare to their account- Very high
2. no rewards , bonuses as earlier
3. hardly any margins - since most of the drivers have Car EMI, Permits, maintenance.
4. CNG now close to 70 Rs, with no increase in fares for them. In the end, they are left with 25k to 30k as monthly take home after incurring all above. Barely surviving
5. The only earning which doesn't involve a deduction is a Tip, which is not very often.
6. They would want to take rides which gives them immediate money, routes preferred which is in line with further pick-up OR preferred destinations ( no out of the way)
7. No hearing to their issues
8. Covid struck

Hence, this is driven across states with many opting out of this.

[CafeRacer16]

Post year 2020's lockdown, I had decided of not purchasing a personal car in Bengaluru due to my low usage & instead rely on cabs. But with increasing unreliability of OLA/Uber cabs at the times of need in some scenarios I myself faced & read about has changed my perspective about owning a car.

[FiestaST]

This used to happen a lot to me.

Whenever driver calls, I used to say ‘Airport’ and ‘cash if you want’.

Worked 9/10 times.

[adwaith]

I have had bad experiences with both Uber and Ola in the past. I have travelled with them in Bangalore, Chennai, Coimbatore and Kolkata and more recently in the latter two cities. I have been asked for premiums over the quoted price at Coimbatore, in addition all these issues with destination and cancellation, and rude drivers. At one point they demanded double of what was quoted.

In Chennai, I have had trips frequently cancelled because the payment mode was not in cash. One of the drivers told me that with Ola especially, the drivers don't pay what they owe the company out of the cash component and therefore whenever an online payment is made, it is deducted against the outstanding amount. Uber did not have this issue when I was told about this as they settled up every week, but that seems to have changed now.

In Kolkata, things are quite different and they were not only courteous but also did not have any qualms and neither did they demand more money.

[IronDrago56]

I personally use a Private Taxi Service. Very Economical, polite drivers, AC rides. You need to plan the trip in advance though otherwise you'll have to wait for a bit.

For a one way trip they charge 22/km for a Swift Dzire and 18/km for a smaller car like Ritz/Indica/Etios Liva. They have packages where they'll go where you want and wait for you. It starts from 700 all the way up to 5000. Well worth it in my opinion.

I have had several bad experiences with Ola/Uber. I was waiting at Tambaram Railway station looking for a ride back home. I got cancelled maybe about 15 times, just because the fare was just 200 rupees. Finally, I called the private Taxi service I know, and they sent me a car almost an hour later. Though delayed, I got home and paid lesser than what it would have cost me to take an ola/uber. And its even worse when surge pricing hours start.

I personally think the fix to this problem is to remove the cancel feature for drivers. If you've gotten a ride, you are obligated to take it no matter what and you will get penalized if you don't. It may cause the driver unions to call a bandh or strike, but then smaller players like the taxi service I know will benefit out of it.

Also another perk of taking these smaller private taxi services, The driver will give you his phone number and he can do private fares as well. I think that's a huge plus.

[vigsom]

My experience from yesterday

I normally book Uber but found no cabs on the app last morning. So, booked an Ola Prime in Vadodara, the cab was a minute away, I went down my building assuming he'd report there by then, and on going down I see he hasn't budged from his location. Called him up, and he very politely asked me where I was going, and then casually told me that the ride to the airport would cost me 2.5x, where x is the ride fare displayed by Ola. I told him I'll pay him the amount displayed on Ola plus a little extra(which I always do), but he had the temerity to tell me to find something else - all very politely.. So much for top quality drivers. I eventually took an Uber Auto which was seamless.

Three out of three times I booked an Ola cab in Vadodara, I've either been charged a cancelation fee OR the ride had to be cancelled due to driver refusing to ply. However, my experience in Mumbai two weeks back with Ola was fuss free. The experience varies from city to city - Uber was next to Nil in Hyderabad, except from the Airport. Mumbai I found Ola availability better.

Originally Posted by drive2eternity

Over time, the incentives and bonuses started to dry up.

Originally Posted by Staraptor

The commission on fare was previously 5%, now it's as high as 35%

Originally Posted by whitewing

Many of the drivers I've interacted were in debt

I knew that one day, these low cost rides by Ola and Uber would vanish; and sure enough, during one ride in Hyderabad a few months ago, I actually got to see what the driver was getting after dropping me off - almost 35% less than what I paid. In my view we have the following options:

1. hail a meter taxi or an auto if our city has these; pay them a little extra
2. book a travel company cab if one has to leave stress-free in the wee hours especially, rather than deal with last minute shocks due to cancelations
3. Use the metro/ local buses if travelling light

[Sanjivvohra]

Originally Posted by Gannu_1

Guys who stay abroad and use Uber - is it the same experience?

Used Uber quite extensively in Singapore ( before Grab grabbed them) and New York ( state and city). They just land up and give a call that they have arrived. No drama.

[Sanjivvohra]

Another options we use extensively in Bangalore is use of driver forr hire apps ( DiveU and EasyDrive).
Found them to be quiet punctual and polite. A wee bit expensive but still worth it. Gives you the flexibility of going wherever you want in your own car, without the hassle of parking.

[mac187]

An alternative which my parents use to OLA/Uber especially for late night, long distance and airport runs.

Pre-pandemic, my parents used to visit 2 temples outside of Bangalore every month, I am talking ~400km round trips, some overnight trips. They have a trusted guy who runs his taxi services for outstation trips. He has been ferrying my parents for few years now, hence there is trust.

If my parents need to visit relatives or friends other side of town (they reside near airport, which is in a different part of the world in B'lore terms). They just book this taxi guy. Regular taxis have 4hr-40km or 8hr-80km package. Its a bit pricey compared to Ola/ Uber but you are assured of the guy reaching before time, with a well maintained car and A/C always ON. This driver helps my parents with luggage and recommends new temples to visit, which is an added bonus for my parents.

I too find it best option for my airport pickup/ drops and late night catchup with my friends. Primarily to avoid answering a questionnaire after I have had one too many.

[SnS_12]

OLA as a service is still lagging behind UBER, especially how they calculate the fare.

Most drivers are now connected both on UBER and OLA and prefer to take the service which provides higher fare. Have noticed multiple time is Mumbai that OLA fare is almost 20% more compared to UBER. Ironically, last Friday when, I booked a cab for my parents to go to Thane, OLA was showing a lower fare but the drivers would cancel even without calling after some 4 cancellation the next OLA driver called me and asked what was the fare shown and when I told him the figure he kept the phone and cancelled the ride. Ultimately I had to book an UBER at a higher fare and the ride arrived in under 5 mins.

P.S - I was in Udaipur last December and no matter if you book OLA or UBER they won't accept to go as per the fare shown in the app and had a fixed price which was standard and obviously higher among all drivers.

[BhayanaV]

The key question is, what is the alternate to Uber/Ola, for say NCR, Bangalore, Mumbai etc.

[sanathsh]

Slightly OT, but this happened to my dad . he usually pays 200-250 bucks for an early morning ride to the railways station, and without noticing the fare (that is what he claims , not sure if the fare changed midway).
In total he paid 800 for a 10 Km ride within the city. I understand surge pricing but this is ridiculous. I don't trust these new age startups OLA, BYJUs etc.. They are driven to show relentless growth YOY at the cost of almost everything else.

[irdevanand]

Originally Posted by GTO

About 75% of the time, the driver cancels the booking and I'm allotted another car.

GTO

Check this video of UBER india head's day out as an Uber driver. Your frustration is captured in 24th second. Attaching screenshots. Hope they make the destination option visible to uber drivers like how OLA did recently.





The Video

https://youtu.be/cjRFAXEgdFM?t=24

Regards
Dev

[batladanny]

Answering the last two questions point-wise…

Originally Posted by GTO

2. Is Ola better?

A few months back, Ola started showing the appx drop location to its drivers before they accept a ride. This has significantly reduced cancellations on that platform for me.

Link to tweet by the CEO: https://twitter.com/bhash/status/1473293225154658305

Originally Posted by GTO

3. Why the heck isn't Uber disciplining its drivers? Cancellations from the driver ruin the customer experience. It should impose penalties for drivers cancelling trips after accepting them.

Well I feel this is unfair on the drivers.

Either you employ them as full-time employees with proper benefits and then make them follow whatever protocols for customer experience -Or- have them as independent contractors (which they do right now to reduce costs) who have freedom to choose how and when they want to work.

Can't have both.

[morphious]

Originally Posted by GTO

I use Uber a lot over late nights, and if I'm going to a crowded place during the day with zero parking. Of late though, it's become a menace with almost every booking being followed by a call from the driver asking "where do you want to go?" ("destination kya hai?"). I refuse to answer the question and tell them clearly that Uber / you are supposed to take me wherever I want to go in the city.

About 75% of the time, the driver cancels the booking and I'm allotted another car. That leads to a few additional minutes of wait time. On Sunday evening, I had two Uber guys cancel on me, finally getting the 3rd car.

1. How do you guys handle this?

2. Is Ola better?

3. Why the heck isn't Uber disciplining its drivers? Cancellations from the driver ruin the customer experience. It should impose penalties for drivers cancelling trips after accepting them.

Thanks @GTO to highlight this common nuisance.

I was completely dependent on the UBER for many years to pick and drop my kids from academy. It was always a challenge, initially I use to refuse telling the drivers about the destination and most of times they would cancel.

Another big issue was the payments, we prefer the wallet mode of payments over the cash because every time drivers will come up with excuses of not having change.

Both UBER and OLA, they don't have any dedicated call center and this makes us feel really helpless.

I wonder are we back to where we were initially with our black and yellow taxis?

Due to all these issues we bought our beater car and living happily there after