You must have by now heard about Ola and Uber planning to raise their fares. This comes as real bad news for all the commuters who had started relying heavily on Ola and Uber taxis for their daily commute, owing to their economical pricing over the exorbitant fares charged by local taxis and autos. However, it seems commute is going to be a big problem all over again.
Both cab aggregators have announced they are increasing their prices in the lowest category of cabs - the bracket used mostly by the middle and upper- middle class commuters.
In Delhi, where Ola was charging Rs 6 per km apart from the base fare of Rs 40 for its Micro cabs, it will now be charging almost double - Rs 12 per km after the first 20 km.
Same is the case with Uber. In Delhi for instance, an UberGo commuter will now have to pay Rs 12 per km after the initial 20 km against Rs 6 per km they were paying before.
In Pune, the cost has been fixed at Rs 15 per kilometre for UberGo rides beyond the first 15 km. For Vizag it’s Rs 12 per kilometre after first 15 km and for Kolkata, it is Rs 12 per km after first 10 km.
Similarly the Ola commuters in Bangalore would also need to shell out Rs 12 per km as compared to Rs 6 all through the journey earlier.
For Chennai, Hyderabad, Ahmedabad, Kolkata, the fare scheme for Ola Micro is same as Bangalore.
Both Ola and Uber have taken this move to earn profits, as per the news reports. However, this price war also poses the right opportunity for rivals like Meru Cabs to grab their share in the market.
Interestingly, Meru is already giving discounts to customers. It has recently introduced Exactometer, a system where the rider needs to pay exactly the fare estimated before the start of the trip, to counter the disruptive fare rates of Ola and Uber.
It remains to be seen how this steep fare hike will go down with customers, and who really will have the last laugh.