Uber taxis: Two pathetic experiences make me question safety standards

This incident kind of proves that most drivers are looking to do the maximum amount of trips in a certain period of time, compromising passengers and others safety on the road.

BHPian ramubwoyy recently shared this with other enthusiasts.

Fort Kochi is a wonderful weekend destination to go to and me and my father decided to go there to celebrate Father's Day. Other family members took our Seltos for shopping purposes, so we both decided to opt for an Uber because parking at the restaurant we were going to was a bit hard and we wanted to go with a certain ease of mind. Back in my school days, I used to be a regular Uber user, however, I lacked a lot of observation skills about driving and road mannerisms that I gained once I got my license.

So all of my experiences with a taxi before my college days was spent in ignorance, failing to see how unsettling it is to go in a taxi. The well-known phrase- 'Ignorance is bliss' really comes to my mind when I think of those days.

We got ready an hour before noon as we did not want to risk losing a seat at the place in case there was a delay in a driver being assigned to us. Thankfully, we were assigned an UberGo WagonR for our trip. As a person who mostly loathes city car driving I was just mostly looking forward to laying back and enjoying the sights while somebody else drove the car.

The driver was prompt and quickly arrived at our residence. I got in the front seat, while may father got in the backseat. The car was a manual-petrol vehicle and as with most of them the engine required a certain level of rpm at half-clutch to be happy and not vibrate. I grew up driving a manual diesel Creta, so petrol manuals just seemed to lack that low-end grunt and as a result I would always rev it a bit more to prevent stalling. I'm sure I could have become a much smoother driver if I had driven one daily. But comparisons side, one thing became very clear to me, this driver had the most unrefined style of driving.

As soon as the OTP was shared, he put the car into first and we moved with a worrying shudder that rattled the entire cabin. This could have also been the by-product of the car being very poorly maintained as well. I continued to observe the driver's shifts and road behavior throughout the trip, which did nothing but increase my stress levels. But I did not make any comment as I was not in the mood to pick a fight.

Here are some of the key observations I made with the first driver:

• A very big and noticeable laziness when it came to shifting gears. Any bumps or gutters would be met with 3rd or 2nd gear, with him destroying the clutch just because he did not want to down the gear. This also made the cabin shake a lot, which affected our comfort.
• To build on the previous point, this refusal to downshift also meant that he would tailgate most vehicles ahead of us and execute dangerous movements at junctions or intersections to maintain his speed and RPM.
• Indicators and horn seemed to be toys to him. There was a worrying lack of usage of both, which again led to a lot of close-calls with traffic.
• Lane-discipline was non-existent. The driver would drive on the wrong side or the middle of the road many times and paid no heed to it. In fact, he was very cool and relaxed about it.
• Refusal to look around when turning or crossing intersections for other traffic. He seemed to operate under the assumption that all other motorists should and would give way for him.
• We reached the restaurant and got out of the car without any remarks. As soon as he drove away, my father and I could not help but breathe a sigh of relief. Both of us decided to forget about it and proceeded to head into the hotel. But our return was also in an UberGo Renault Lodgy, which turned out to be even more scarier than the first trip. This second trip was also what prompted me to share this experience with other BHPians and get their insights on the matter.

My observations on the return drive are as follows:

• This driver seemed to be in more of a hurry, which meant that his car was not a rattling mess and that he eagerly changed gears.
• This was of course, a welcome change but he began to drive too aggressively a few minutes into the drive. Lurching and swerving all over the place with improper use of the clutch and just a general sense of hooliganism.
• This driver also tailgated a lot of other cars and bikes. But what made it worse was that he would incessantly honk and even flash his lights to bully his way through them.
• One other thing that both drivers had in common was a big lack of lane discipline and a refusal to use indicators.
• There were many occasions where I could visibly see other motorists being confused by this guy's driving and moving out of the way to let him through.
• At no time did we mention that we wanted him to drive fast and yet he continued to floor it every chance he got.
• Overtaking through the left and pushing other motorists off the road to gain a small 'lead.' This was also something that the first driver did a lot, even though he was significantly slower.

Now I don't want to necessarily take an antagonistic stance against all taxi drivers, as there could be many reasons for why their driving has become so corrupted. Firstly, I think similar to bus operators in the state of Kerala, taxi drivers have long hours and very poor wages. This incident kind of proves that most drivers are looking to do the maximum amount of trips in a certain period of time, compromising passengers and others safety on the road. Even when they are not in a hurry, they are very fatigued.

Secondly, I feel that most taxi cabs prefer manual cars because they have more mileage. While that is understandable, I do strongly think that they should make a steady shift to automatic variants (atleast in city regions) to prevent such lazy driving and accidents. I am not sure how much money they would be saving in terms of fuel usage between manual and automatic, but I do not think it is a glaring difference, atleast with hatchbacks and compact sedans. I also have absolutely no idea if there any government policies or regulations imposed on Uber drivers or other taxi cabs that make their working conditions so bad. So any insights on that front would also be appreciated.

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