On a recent trip to Bengaluru from its airport to electronic city, I had enough time to strike up an interesting conversation with an Uber driver. He was a 25 something guy, extremely mild mannered and with a feeble voice. Something you don’t expect in cab drivers. This guy was from Andhra and once I got to know that, we happily started the conversation in Telugu.
“Uber threw biscuits at people initially – both drivers and passengers – which people lapped up and attracted them. Now they are extracting their pound of flesh!”
It so happened that there was a protest by app based cab drivers that day. When I enquired about the reason for it, the obvious answer was the dwindling revenues and high commissions. He recounted his first ride as an Uber driver… A fairly long trip to the railway station was charged ~Rs.50/- to the passenger. The elderly passenger was so happy with the new cab, the a/c ride and then concerned about the drivers’ earnings, that he tipped him ~Rs.100/-. Combined, this cost was much lesser than an auto ride for that same distance.
The early set of drivers on these app based cab services made such good monies on incentives that others rushed in to get their cabs onto these system. Many took loans, bought multiple cabs, hired drivers just to ride this wave. Now, the incentives have almost vanished and one has to drive long hours to earn about Rs.20,000/- net monthly.
At the end of the trip, he asked me if I could tell him how much I was charged? The trip cost me a little more than Rs.900/-. Then he showed me how much he got for the trip. A little more than Rs.550/-. He said that within this, he’ll have to pay for the toll (Rs.125/-) and the petrol (distance traveled: 47.8 kms; time taken: 115 minutes).
“Imagine the inconvenience people face when there is no Uber, Ola for a day? How will they get from place to place?”
He then hinted at how these services were killing not just city taxi’s and auto’s but also public transportation. His theory – by enticing the IT crowd with dirt cheap fares, they’ve not just ensured that people become used to the convenience of a cab at their door step but also ensured that their usage of city buses went down. This meant the government neglected upgrading the public transport further by not introducing better (faster, air conditioned) and more buses.
“Samsung phones are the best. The Indian and Chinese ones don’t match up to it in terms of reliability.”
One of the threads of the conversation was on mobile phone brands. I noticed how the phone he had his Uber app on, was clearly fiddled with – the part near the power port was opened up and broken. On asking, the first thing he mentioned with ‘Indian ‘ and ‘Chinese’ brands was the problems of over heating. He had the Uber app and Google Maps opened all day. Constant usage and battery drain warmed up the phone quite a bit, then the phone would warm up some more during charging. This cycle would heat the phone so much that it wouldn’t boot up. Like a true jugaadu Indian, he figured out that keeping the phone holder directly above the a/c vent was a great way of cooling it and make it work longer.
Uber initially gave all drivers (including him) shiny new iPhone6’s with free data to run their app. Then one fine day, they took them back. Just like that. Now, the first thing they Uber asks of someone wishing to partner them is a smart phone and 3g data connection before they ask for license.
“You can’t just trust and make a living on one provider.”
Like most of the Uber, Ola drivers I’ve seen, this guy too was registered with both Uber and Ola. He mentioned that he was also tied up with another tour taxi service provider who gave him outstation trips once in a while. He also had a loyal set of consumers who were very happy with his service as a cab driver and would reached out to him directly for any long trips. This was his way of ensuring that he didn’t part with the commission to the intermediary. If you are wondering, he makes maximum profit on out station trips.
Towards the end of my trip, he enquired if I would be using a cab service in the city again or for a drop to the airport and gave his number asking to give him a ring if I required it.
“There was a time I struggled to get Rs.10/- a day!”
“A drivers life is tough! Trucks often break down. Milk vans and news runs, see a lot of accidents. Taxi’s that way are very convenient.”
And like I most often do, I enquired about the economics of driving a cab. If he owned the vehicle he was driving and why he was driving in Bengaluru and not in a city closer home, say Hyderabad?
That’s when he went into his life. He initially started off as a helper in a dumpster truck that transported tetrapods and gradually started driving these trucks himself. But that was short lived – driving such a heavy vehicle (often without power steering) was physically demanding, these vehicles often broke down and they faced harassment from cops (often at inter state borders and at times within the city citing peak hour restrictions). He then moved to driving vans, both milk and newspaper ones. But, early morning driving and delivery deadlines meant they had to drive fast and often met with accidents. Compared to these, driving a cab was much easy. Though they had to drive long distances, they mostly got sufficient breaks in between to relax and catch-up on sleep.
“I don’t have any bad habits. Don’t eat pan, gutka. Don’t smoke. Don’t even drink tea. If I am feeling sleepy, I chew a gum. That’s good enough for me! Why should I develop a habit which is bad to get over this tough job?”
And finally, he shared his ambition, to save enough to buy a cab of his own soon. The cab he was currently driving belonged to a friend who was kind enough not to charge an extra commission. And, he was confident enough that he’ll save enough to own one soon.
