Ban on carpooling impacts income and efficient transportation

The ban on these services were made in an attempt to prevent charging more than what is approved by the government

The Mumbai government recently banned the use of non-transport vehicles including two, three, and four wheelers for carpooling and bike sharing purposes. A non–transport vehicle is a vehicle which is being used for commercial purposes despite not being registered under yellow number plates.

RTO officers have claimed that the use and pricing of these services are not approved by the government and the operators and users of these services are not monitored or administered. This decision came after numerous complaints of overcharging were placed against the auto services on these apps, where the base fare started from ₹ 100 instead of the government approved ₹ 30.

Rapido, the popular bike sharing app, has claimed that this decision comes with the deprivation of a reliable and efficient transportation service in urban cities. A Rapido bike driver (33) said, “It is unfair to the employees of these service apps. We have suddenly lost our main source of income and people have lost a quick method of transportation.”

While on the other hand, taxi and cab drivers had been awaiting this action for some time now. Mr. Suresh (42), a kaali-peeli driver from Mumbai Central said, “These bike services had greatly impacted our income. People preferred taking a bike over a taxi because it was faster and easily cut through traffic. Now with the ban we are hoping to have the same level of income that we previously had.” Another taxi driver, whose brother-in-law used to be one of the bike riders, said that although he feels empathetic towards the people who lost their income, he is hoping that his increased income will support his family better.