Today, we are mainly dependent on public transport for our survival in the city. Public transport is meant for convenience of the Common Man, but the shortage of buses and the crowd is the reality. Ultimately, we have no other option than to travel using an auto rickshaw or a kaali peeli or your fancy Radio Cabs, which are the newest modes of transport.
Apart from shelling out huge amounts from our pockets, sometimes we end up paying more to these guys. Hereunder are a few favourite common tricks used by the Rick Driver/Cab Driver to make you pay more:
- Tampered Meter – While, this has been the most common practice used by most of the Auto Rickshaw and Cab Drivers, many a times the Meter just seems to be running non-stop. Agreed that the city traffic is pathetic but sometimes the Meter runs faster than Ussain Bolt.
- Shared Travel – Shared Auto is generally preferred by regular officer goers because it is assumed that it is cheaper. But wait did u calculate this. When you travel by meter from Andheri station to say D.N. Nagar during the peak hour it may cost you some 75 Rs. but if you take a share auto it will cost you some 30 Rs. Per seat, Plus no luxury of being dropped right below your building. Well this may seem cheaper if you are travelling alone, but it is a big loss if you are travelling together as a group. Plus even if the traffic is less, the charges per meter may be only Rs.50 but you still have to shell out Rs.90 for 3 people travelling together.
- Terminating your journey midway – Many a times it happens that the Cab Driver or Auto Driver will take you and then suddenly halt your journey mid way claiming that the fuel is less, the traffic is more, he will not get a return journey, he is simply tired. Yes this also happens even if you book an Ola or Uber. They just randomly take your booking and then refuse to travel.
- Not registering your payment – travelling by ola and uber – I didn’t realize this unless this happened to a close friend. So They see you are single woman travelling. They tell you that Ola and Uber charges 26% of the trip, so if they could switch off the GPS and terminate your trip so that you can pay him full whatever was the estimated amount that OLA messaged you first. 1. Either you are scared that he will rape you. 2. You feel sad for him and agree to the same. Consequence of step 2 – he terminates your trip and takes you safely to your destination or will help you get another cab and take the full payment (which he says is a concession) and ref
- Taking longer routes – Many a times the Drivers claim a particular road to be jammed and therefore suggest sweetly that you take an alternate longer route to reach your destination faster.
- Deliberately missing turns – Many a times it happens that they forget to take the U turn or miss out on the left and right turns and then blame you for not warning them in advance.
- Sweet talk – Many a times they sweet talk with you so that you are totally distracted and in the meanwhile they just deliberately drive slowly (even when you tell them you have an emergency).
- Halting for their personal work and keeping the meter on – While, many a times it has happened that the Drivers halt the vehicle with the passenger for their personal work like visiting a washroom or asking the garage people for spare parts but they do conveniently forget to do is to stop the meter or pause the meter.
Well, every field has a good and a bad side and good and bad people. These are the few experiences that I have come across. Do share your inputs on the same.