SHUBHANGI SHIFA
Ranchi, Mar 1: Ride-hailing simply wasn’t going to get Priya Mehta one morning a few days back. The Event management professional, who lives in Ranchi, received a call from her Rapido driver inquiring what her destination was. Drivers normally don’t see the destination until they pick up their passenger and the ride has begun, but her driver called in advance and decided, eventually, that her office was too far and she would have to pay almost double the amount of the fare.
After they hung up, Mehta confusedly watched the bike driving around aimlessly on the Rapido app for a few minutes before the driver suddenly canceled the ride. She booked another ride but this continued. Altogether six rides, from Rapido and its largest rival in Ranchi, Ola, canceled on her back to back that day.
Finally, Mehta took an auto to work, arriving nearly an hour late. ‘Even dates haven’t ghosted me this bad,’ she joked in a post on Instagram.
Many other passengers in Ranchi, a large and important market for ride-hailing companies like Rapido and Ola, are complaining on social media about similar experiences of being quizzed about their destination, and the fair before a driver cancels the ride, or watching a car/bike circle around aimlessly, forcing them to cancel and incur a penalty.
“I depend heavily on ride-hailing services to get to work,” said Anisha Singh, a bank professional based in Argora chowk, Ranchi. ‘But I’ve been so pissed at them for the last few months. They’re no better than auto rickshaws,’ she said, whose drivers are notorious for subjecting passengers to their whims.
Pawan Kumar, a student said, ‘I seldom book rides on Ola or Rapido as I have my own bike, however, due to an emergency I had booked a bike recently and was furious when the rider asked me to pay extra than what the fare showed because, as per his words, ‘The company doesn’t pay him enough’. I asked him to cancel the ride, to which he declined. Ultimately, I had to cancel the ride, for which I was charged.’
Ola declined to comment on the issue, and a Rapido spokesperson said it was ‘too early’ to comment on them.
A Rapido spokesperson said in a statement that in addition to evaluating drivers by their star rating, ‘We also keep a close watch on their trip acceptance and cancellation rates. While we do understand that there are cases when driver partners are compelled to cancel trips owing to unforeseen reasons, we encourage them to minimize cancellations for the reliability of the system. They are even charged if they cross a number of cancellations after bookings.’ Ola did not respond to specific questions about its cancellation policy or the raised fares.
Upon being asked about the increased fares, the Rapido spokesperson said that he had not yet received any such complaints. Further, talking of the cancellation policy, he said that the company only levies a cancellation charge under ‘certain conditions’ to compensate drivers for time, effort, and fuel spent in order to reach the pickup location. ‘Our robust systems in place ensure proper adjudication of scenarios is undertaken before levying cancellation charges so neither the customer nor the driver-partner is unfairly treated,’ they said.
