Team-BHP - Has your Uber & Ola usage pattern changed in the last 2

I was a regular user of Ola/uber before the pandemic (2/3 times a week minimum. I rarely use them now, because the rates are much higher now, and its irritating to keep waiting for the app to search and finally declare they could not find a cab. Earlier they used to upgrade a mini to a desire a lot of times, but I find that happening very less now, and they send wagonr and kwid and most of them do not have good air conditioning.

Also, even if they assign a cab it shows its far away, and takes 10-15 mins minimum, to come. That tells me they do not have a large fleet now.

The other issue is they have stopped ola postpaid, which was convinient - pay all the bills at the end of the month.
For uber, they somehow managed to block my login (no unpaid bills or anything, just dint use for a long time), and I never bothered to try again.

If I do take an ola now, it is only when I dont have other options, and I book an auto now since the cost of auto is now the same to what a cab used to cost earlier - atleast with auto you reach your destination faster.

The lesser customers they get, the costlier it will get, so I dont see good times ahead for them. Their greed for high commisions has caused issues at both ends. Less cars/drivers since they are not happy with these companies and customers are running away as well. They never even bothered to provide a customer care number, to call, when you had issues.

Drastically reduced their usage

For one, I am game to plunge into city traffic in my bike acquired recently (and they are all solo).

For families visiting, although I had made senior citizens comfortable with booking cabs through the apps; I do not trust the aggregators' driver or driving any more. So it is a (pricey) cab booked from our corporate fleet company, atleast they are safe(r).

I drive to most places than take other means of transport. But if I do take the latter, invariably used to book one of these aggregators to drop me at the station/airport (because, what else can work?) Couple of times I took the fleet cab to my overnight bus pick up point, waited in the car (rather than the wayside with my luggage) and hopped right into the Scania

But my biggest gripe with the aggregators is the condition of the vehicle in general

Worn out/wobbly tyres
Tail lights out of order; Poor misaligned out of focus headlamps
Scratched windshield, many times cracked but held in place with a God-knows-what rivet
Streaky windshield wipers, often a jugaad single wiper resting midway
Squealing brakes (surely no ABS)
Seatbelts (rear) - if you are lucky and don't mind a streak over your shirt

What is the non aggregator but app based option / Pan India player to book a cab for 4 or 8 hours wherever one may be?

Before Uber / Ola me or my wife rarely used to take cabs for local commutes within Mumbai suburbs. We mostly used to drive our cars and occasionally take autos which were easily available and affordable.

Once Uber / Ola launched and offered new AC cabs at the same price of autos we shifted our preference to these ride sharing apps. We even sold one of the two cars we owned. What's more with such ridiculously high incentives I even purchased a Wagon R and asked my driver to ride it under Uber / Ola. I used to make over 1 lacs in profit per month! That party lasted for just over a year after which I sold off that Wagon R after almost tripling the investment in the short span of time.

With the current deterioration of cab quality, extremely high prices (thanks to 40% commission now Uber / Ola charges it's drivers compared to 15% when they were new) there is no incentive to travel in a smelly rickety cab which costs four times compared to an auto. So I am back in the market to buy another car.

In the good old days we used to take Uber / Ola at least a couple of times a week and now it's been almost a year that we haven't used either Uber or Ola. It's either our car or an auto for us now.

I’ve almost never used Ola, but my Uber use dropped drastically after the pandemic. In Bombay, if there’s no valet parking, or BMC parking, only then I use Uber. Uber Go cars are in shoddy conditions, often dirty and the air conditioning is virtually nonexistent. I now book Uber Premiers which here seem to be Swift Dzires. Overall Uber quality has deteriorated exponentially over the years.

Reduced from 12 trips every week to 1 trip a month, that too in extraordinary circumstances.

Reason:
1. Dirty cabs
2. Many drivers' unwillingness to turn on the AC/increase the fan speed
3. Frequent Cancellations
4. Long wait times
5. Very high prices. Used to pay Rs. 95-110 for my 5.2 km office commute till March 2020. The same is Rs. 175-260 now.
6. The odd 20 minute CNG filling break for a 10 minute ride.
Using my own car is cheaper now even though I pay around Rs. 3,000 for parking every month.

I jumped on the Ola Uber bandwagon as soon as they had started operations in Bengaluru and when Taxi for Sure existed. The discounted rates, the convenience of getting a neat, well maintained vehicle when I needed it, also because I couldn't use the public transport for a while. Renting a local auto was a pain - I didn't speak the local language then, and those folks weren't very easy to hire. Even though the rates went up, and the car quality deteriorated, I could manage by renting a pool ride and get done. I just had to plan a 30 mins buffer for every trip.

Post covid, the number of cabs reduced, the parent company's commissions went up and the quality was pathetic. One particular instance where I had to pay approx ₹990 for a 14km ride ( sarjapur road to erstwhile forum Koramangala) turned me away from hiring them anymore. Ended up buying a car though I was very against it initially.

On the rare occasions that I find a good cab - I end up talking to the driver and they also run private. I take their numbers and they come and pick up on call.

Now we self drive if we are sure of finding a cab, or take the metro, or ride our activa out. On the rarest of the occasions when none of these are possible and we cannot get hold of any drivers we know, we spend atleast an hour trying to book one of these cabs and many cancelations later, would find one. I've as much had resorted to using hourly rentals as they are easy to get and dispose after reaching the location and paying a premium.

Off topic : I am aware of Sarjapura cabs as a private and local vendor. Are there any other recommendations from the Bengaluru folks?

I am only using Uber/Ola to book bike rides when I have to attend any office party or going out for drinks with my friends. Haven't faced any cancellation of rides recently, everytime I am booking Uber moto they are arriving for pick up without any calls to check my destination or mode of payment. Earlier I use to book via Rapido but nowadays it has become overpriced with surcharges during non peak hours as well.
Based on my booking experience from recent times Uber is the cheapest for booking bike/auto. For example yesterday night I was looking to book a bike for a distance of 5kms, Ola was charging 85, Rapido was charging 75 and Uber was charging 54.

My OLA/Uber usage was never high to begin with but even after whatever level it was, I have drastically reduced availing the service.

I only call OLA/Uber for when I can't park at the destination or I don't have to come back (Airport, Railway Station with luggage and family during peak hours).

Otherwise I have always been public transport person (including Mumbai Autos and Best busses). I do drive more now so take my car wherever possible but even otherwise, Mumbai still has the least-hassle public transport that I can avail on demand. So I happily pay the auto guy full fair instead of paying any commission to OLA/UBER

Secondly, the wait times these days are crazy. About 2 years back these guys started this feature of driver picking the drop while still not yet completed his current journey and hence our wait times went up. That was/is the most irrigating aspect of OLA/UBER.

Voted Yes, as my usage of Ola / Uber cabs has definitely gone down.

I only use Ola to go from Mumbai airport to my wife's company quarters or vice versa - as I cannot stand the crowd in any metro rail or suburban trains.

Otherwise, when I'm in Bangalore or Chennai or Thanjavur, I prefer to use my car only - mainly because it makes more economic sense (mild hybrid Brezza gives me stellar mileage), I can park at friends' or relatives' places and I find it freeing to take my own transport and not depend on anybody else.

And most importantly, I trust my own driving more than the regular Ola / Uber driver's, however fallacious my thinking might be.

That said, I've restarted using Ola / Uber autorickshaws inside the cities. They're very prompt and everybody has Google Pay these days.

My Ola/Uber usage dropped to zero. I used to take ola or uber auto to and from college 5 km each. I ended up paying anywhere from 180 all the way to 220 which was just unacceptable. People going the same distance took public transport and reached faster.

The auto guys hike prices like there is no tomorrow. I once booked for 80 bucks and the auto guy demanded 150 bucks quoting fuel and everything. These auto guys also accept the fare, get our location and details and the cancel stating customer fault and take us to our destination without Uber/Ola. I once questioned one of those guys and they said, they didnt want to pay the extra 30 or 40 bucks to these service providers. They wanted their network and everything, without cost. Greedy.

Nevertheless, i drive to college daily now, with the occasional use of an electric bike. My commute comes down to 60 or 70 bucks a trip, with the added advantage of not having to hassle for a spot to stand inside a bus, without having to sweat like a pig in the heat. My dad and i drive and there are two cars. Even my mom who doesnt know to drive seldom books an ola or uber.

Fun Fact : My dad, an IT professional of 20+years has not downloaded Swiggy, Zomato, Ola or Uber even for namesake in his phone

Quote:

Originally Posted by ishan12 (Post 5530017)

If the weather is favorable, then for short distances we prefer Ola/ Uber auto. For Pune- Mumbai airport trips, we used to rely on Ola/ Uber but learned our lesson and now would use only the local intercity cab providers.

Same here. Uber and Ola autos are a lot more convenient and faster as well in city traffic. There is no point waiting for a dirty car without a functioning AC.
Prefer to drive myself whenever I can anyway.

Voted: Yes.

The road conditions in Mumbai have definitely changed over the past couple of years and commutes to South Bombay (my office) have improved on the highways at least.

The pricing for majority of these Ola/Uber cabs are atrocious for the rust bucket cabs that are in service, majority of them are not maintained to the point that they are dangerous and smell like a skunk. I'd rather go through the hassle of driving myself in traffic rather than sit in a car that smells like gutka and sweat with a plethora of other olfactory sensations.

The main reason behind my usage changing is due to the horrible service and pricing of the ride aggregators, not worth the money at all. Should they better their fleet and agents who operate the taxis, my usage might change again. As of now, I only use Ola and Uber for Autos as a worst case scenario if I am late.

Voted yes.

I rarely use Ola/Uber in the city. Have a bike (for close runabouts) and a car to take care of city runs. This was the case pre-covid too.

Earlier, my usage of Ola/Uber was primarily for airport/railway station runs. Now, even for that I have switched to local cab aggregators (example, Pola Cabs in Bangalore), who are way more reliable and provide the same service at a much cheaper rate.

There have been numerous instances where I had pre-booked a cab on Ola/Uber, and was still unable to get one at the designated time, leaving me stranded and run helter-skelter at the last minute.