The Karnataka transport department on Friday raided the cab hailing service Uber for illegally operating UberMoto, the two-wheeler taxi service in Bengaluru for which it has no permission.
The department has seized 12 vehicles and is interrogating the drivers.
Soon after its launch earlier this month, Bengaluru’s regional transport authority said that the taxi services piloted by both Ola and Uber were illegal, and it would pursue legal action against both firms for not seeking permission first.
Following this, Ola had withdrawn the service while Uber resumed the service after halting it for a while, calling it a two-wheeler ride sharing service. It was much on the lines of services offered by startups like Letsride.in and Rapido, which just provided a platform for people to connect and share a ride on the user-owned motorcycles.
According to the police, Uber seems to have used the same drivers it hired for the UberMoto service and has allegedly made them users on its platform to escape the laws and continued to operate the service as ride-sharing.
Speaking to FE, N Kariyappa, senior RTO inspector in the transport department said, “We have seized 12 vehicles and are interrogating the drivers. Some claim they are innocent and they were paid Rs 4 per kilometre by the company on each ride. First of all, this is a commercial service and they were operating under the white board which is illegal.
Second, none of these drivers had any ID cards or valid permits. We have sought an explanation from Uber.”
Uber was not available for comments. Following its launch in Bengaluru, the company has also launched the bike-sharing service in Gurgaon.