The online taxi driver union has not impacted major cities in South India. However, the strike has created difficulties for commuters in Mumbai. In Mumbai, the cab aggregators strike was called by Raj Thackeray’s Maharashtra Navnirman Sena’s transport union.
The strike has been called to address various demands of the drivers who are operating in association with the online cab aggregators like Ola, Uber, among others.
When contacted an Ola spokesperson said, “We have been informed by the Mumbai Police that they have proactively taken all the necessary steps to ensure the safety of commuters during their cab rides in the city.” Earlier in the day, there were some instances of attacks against cab drivers who operated without participating in the strike.
The strike which impacted commuters in the financial capital of the country had little impact in the IT capital. The Ola and Uber drivers union in Karnataka did not participate in Monday’s strike. However, the association said it supports the driver’s strike in Mumbai.
“We have done many strikes in the State but we were not able to achieve anything as the State government is with the companies. We hope that the new government will come after a couple of months and our issues will be resolved,” said Tanveer Pasha, president of Ola and Uber drivers and Owners Association.
According to estimate, in Karnataka alone, there are about 70 lakh taxi drivers of which 30 lakh operate with online aggregators. Many drivers believe that the companies won’t accept their demand and going for a strike will only result in one day’s earning. The companies follow an entrepreneurship and provide model financial assistance to drivers to buy own cabs.
Similarly in other southern cities like Cochin, Chennai, Coimbatore, Hyderabad there was no impact of online taxi strike and fleets were operating normally. “We did a strike on February 23 and at that time the online players had promised us of solving our issues by March end. We are waiting for their response,” said Shajo Jos, joint secretary, Kerala Samsthana Motor Thozhilali Union.