A union of drivers working for cab hailing services like Uber and Ola are staging protests in Delhi on February 10, against their claims of unfair pricing and work conditions. The union called Sarvodaya Driver Association of Delhi has organised the strike with allegations that drivers are being forced to work for companies like Ola and Uber. The association is a Delhi based registered NGO and have thousands of drivers from the national capital region as its members. The protest was started at the Ramlila Maidan in Delhi from early morning on Friday.
According to the association, it expects more drivers to join in the protests including the ones who are not a member. There are many members who had even planned a hunger strike. According to the association, there were regular problems in payment. Other issues which the union claimed that the drivers were facing were that these taxi hailing services were not open to adding more cars to their fleet, the ride-sharing option also a problem and the fact that the tariff in Delhi is only Rs 6 per kilometres. The union also claimed that the drivers were lured into buying cars with the hopes of making a lot of money, but due to the flat rates, they were not able to earn much.
Meanwhile, operating with the limited number of drivers available on the roads for Uber and Ola has led to a surge in prices, which has been causing a lot of problems for commuters. The app users, who are the regular customers, have been complaining about the sudden rise in rates since Friday morning.
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This is in addition to the problems Ola has been facing, which has been struggling to raise fresh funds to take on rival Uber, its chief financial officer Rajiv Bansal has quit from his position.