Union Cooperation Minister and Home Minister Amit Shah on Monday said the newly launched cooperative ride-hailing platform Bharat Taxi will ensure that drivers on its platform do not earn below a fixed base rate per kilometre, positioning it as a worker-owned alternative to private aggregators.
Addressing a town hall with cab and auto drivers from Delhi-NCR and Gujarat, Shah said existing ride-hailing companies had avoided setting a minimum earning floor for drivers.
“I asked all three companies whether they had fixed a minimum base rate. They said no,” Shah said. “We will not do this. Whatever business you do, your minimum should be fixed. Whatever is above that will come back to you.”
80% profit share for drivers
Shah said Bharat Taxi will return 80% of its profits to drivers based on kilometres driven, while retaining the remaining 20% as cooperative capital. The platform will allow drivers to become co-owners by purchasing a share worth Rs 500. As membership grows, seats on the board of directors will be reserved for driver representatives, he added.
Drawing parallels with the dairy cooperative Amul, Shah said the mobility platform is modelled on a similar structure of shared ownership. “In a private company, profits go to the owner. In a cooperative, profits go back to the producer,” he said.
Three-year expansion plan
Bharat Taxi is currently operational in Delhi-NCR and Rajkot. Shah said the platform aims to expand to every city with a municipal corporation within three years.
He added that the full benefits of the profit-sharing model may take up to three years to materialise, urging drivers to remain patient during the initial scale-up phase.
Women-focused feature, grievance system
The minister also announced a dedicated “Saarathi Didi” feature within the Bharat Taxi app, which will allow women travelling alone to prioritise female drivers for their rides. The announcement followed a representation from a woman driver at the event who said her account had earlier been suspended without notice by another aggregator.
Shah said Bharat Taxi will set up a three-channel grievance redressal mechanism for drivers, online, physical and call centre-based, to address complaints. He added that policy changes on the platform will be communicated at least one week in advance through app notifications.
No commission model
Unlike established aggregators such as Ola and Uber, which typically deduct 25–30% commission from drivers, Bharat Taxi currently charges no commission, Shah said. The platform, backed by eight cooperative organisations, was launched on 5 February after a two-month pilot and plans a phased national rollout over the next three years.