The Delhi government's knee jerk reaction to the rape of a woman passenger by a Uber cab may have temporarily solved the problem of unregulated cabs picking up passengers, but it will only worsen the shortage of cabs across urban centres in India.
And following Delhi, there are now reports that the centre has 'urged' all states to follow suit and ban app based taxi services.
According to a report, the circular has come from the Home Ministry and says that people should not hire these cab firms until they get permission to operate from state governments, though transport minister Nitin Gadkari is 'backing Uber'.
"Doesn't make sense to ban services, tomorrow if something happens in a bus, we can't that, the system needs to be changed. The system of giving drivers license is faulty, a new digitalized system will be designed where everyones track record can be viewed", he was quoted as saying by ANI.
The ban on Uber has been justified by the fact that the app does not fall under the definition of a taxi service as defined by the Delhi government's transport department and because its cabs were using all India transport permits to ferry passengers around. The Delhi Transport department has said that only services like Mega Cabs, Meru Cabs, Easy Cabs, Chanson, Yo Cabs and Air Cabs are licensed to operate radio taxi services and all others are deemed illegal till licensed.
While the Mumbai police has already declared that it won't be cracking down on Uber or other aggregators for now, it has told all private cab owners to verify the antecedents of their drivers. Following the Delhi government's example, other state governments could still clamp down on the aggregators like Uber in the coming days, as they may be found to violate norms of various state transport departments.
As pointed out earlier, there is plenty of evidence that aggregators like Uber, TaxiForSure and Ola have been in violation of basic norms. They also escape liability for the conduct of their drivers since they aren't a fleet taxi service and don't have to ensure features like having adequate parking for all their vehicles and other norms that radio taxis have to adhere to.
However, the success, rapid growth and high funding for services like Ola, TaxiForSure and TaxiForSure also point to the burgeoning demand for taxi services in the country. By some estimates, the radio taxi industry has attracted investment to the tune of Rs 1000 crore already and services like Uber and Ola have also attracted high funding ($1 billion and $250 million respectively) as they continue to grow in Indian cities.
What Uber, Ola and even other services like Taxiguide do is bring customers in touch with existing taxi permit holders. While Ola and Uber offer dynamic booking of cabs that are already on the road and nearby, others services like Bookmycab and Taxiguide allow booking of taxis in advance.
While the fleet sizes are still relatively small, these aggregators fill the gap between the supply and demand of taxis in Indian cities. Indian travellers, like their global counterparts, have shown a willingness to embrace these new aggregator services purely because of the convenience they offer. Drivers holding state and national taxi permits have been equally quick to embrace the opportunity since it often means more trips per day and less waiting idle between rides.
There are an estimated 5.5 lakh commercial taxis for its 10 large cities, which have a combined population of about 6 crore and the shortage in supply of taxis in urban cities is a real one, and even the advent of radio taxis hasn't been adequate to fill that gap completely. The shutting of aggregators could be replicated across the country, a move that could only worsen the supply of taxi services in the short term.
Taxi providers like Uber may have squeezed between the gaps of existing legislation to grow quickly, but as the Delhi incident has shown, they cannot ignore essential features like the safety of passengers and adhering to legal norms. However, governments also need to realise the demand for taxis have far outstripped what they have allowed so far and consider allowing for modified legislation to consider how aggregators can function under the ambit of the law.
Surely, there is little sense in punishing the innocent to teach a lesson to the guilty.
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