Even though the Karnataka Government has banned surge/peak pricing on cabs, cab aggregator Ola continues to flout rules by overcharging as well as charging peak time pricing which is multi-folds more expensive.
The woes of IT employees belonging to the Silicon City (Bangalore) were addressed earlier this month when cab aggregators such as Ola and Uber were no longer allowed to bomb the passengers with hefty charges in the name of ‘Surge Pricing’ or ‘Peak Pricing’. This was under the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology aggregators Rules, 2016. As per the norms, the maximum per km fare will be Rs. 19.50/- for AC cabs and Rs. 14.50/- for non-AC ones.
However it has been found that Ola has clearly been violating the rules. One of our readers hired an Ola cab on 20th April 2016 and paid Rs. 232/- for a 5.4 km ride (which accounts to Rs. 43 per km); the price also included ‘peak pricing’ which is again violating the above norm.
Ola has been advertising its offering of Rs. 6 per km but eventually the customer ends up paying at least 4 times the promised value. There is a need for the regulatory bodies to step in and see that rules are not only set but also followed. Recently the Delhi government warned cab operators on the same issue and as per the information we received, the same aggregator has removed surge pricing in the Capital city. So why these double standards?
