Bharat Taxi cabs to hit Pune roads in May amid cabbies’ arrogance

Pune: Bharat Taxi would be launched in the city by May this year, said Pune RTO."The new service has several perks for drivers, including guaranteed minimum base rate per km and assurance to return 80% of the profit. This new service will surely help cab drivers and elbow out the tendency to hook on to illegal means to earn money. Any cabbie using Uber, Ola or Rapido apps can use Bharat Taxi simultaneously," a senior Pune RTO official said.The Centre launched the new govt monitored cooperative cab service, Bharat Taxi, earlier this year. It is presently operational in Delhi and Gujarat.Pune deputy RTO Swapnil Bhosle said they had written to the commissioner's office to immediately introduce Bharat Taxi in Pune. "We have been in talks with other aggregators constantly on adjusting their applications as per govt approved rates, but it has not happened yet. We have asked them to give us the same in writing and implement it. In the meantime, Bharat Taxi will be launched and if needed, we will talk to cabbies and associations about the same," Bhosle told TOI.Keshav Kshirsagar, the president of the Indian Gig Workers Front, said, "We will study the application and see if it actually helps cab drivers before asking them to be a part of it. The state govt should let us know what exactly happened to the aggregator policy and why it hasn't been implemented until now."Commuters expressed doubts over benefits of the new app. "The RTO has been unable to curtail the ‘onlymeter' platform, and control fleecing and violent behaviour of cab drivers. What is the guarantee that Bharat Taxi will be a game changer?" sales professional Prateek Sinha said.A majority of cabbies have been pressuring commuters to pay by the illegal "onlymeter.in" application rather than the fare shown on applications of aggregators, as the state government's cab aggregator policy is yet to be implemented. Many aggregators said they were now practising the SaaS (software as a service model). Their job was only to show the estimated fare, and the actual fare had to be decided between cabbies and commuters, they said. It has led to a lot of discontent and anger among commuters.An RTO official said, "If someone feels that s/he is being fleeced, the individual just needs to register a complaint. We have taken action against autorickshaw drivers and cabbies based on complaints filed by commuters on the WhatsApp number (8275330101). We mainly get complaints against autorickshaw drivers and action is initiated based on the investigation and the proof given. We feel that ‘Bharat Taxi' will be helpful to address this issue."