In response to a rise in customer complaints against cab aggregators, the Central Consumer Protection Authority (CCPA) has called a meeting of ride-hailing platforms such as Ola and Uber next week to know more about their pricing and cancellation procedures. can be obtained.
In the last 12 months, users of these services claimed that they are facing issues like cancellation of rides by drivers, hike in price, longer wait times and cancellation charges.
According to a study by LocalCircles, 71% of the respondents said that drivers canceled their rides and 45% said they were charged over the hike price limit.
However, 60% of the respondents were satisfied with the drivers’ adherence to the COVID-19 guidelines.
The survey asked app-based taxi consumers how they felt about ride cancellations by drivers in the past 15 months compared to the previous 15 months. Despite the existence of Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines 2020, around 71% of respondents claimed that ride cancellations by drivers continued, indicating weak enforcement.
The survey also highlighted the fact that 45% of app-based taxi consumers said that despite the limit set by the Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines 2020, they were charged more than 1.5 times in surge pricing, indicating poor implementation and enforcement. Is.
In the case of this study, over 65,000 App Taxi users from 324 districts across India responded to the survey.
It should be noted here that due to the increase in fuel prices, Uber increased fares in some cities last month. In addition, cabs in cities such as Delhi, Lucknow, Kolkata and Hyderabad launched a model in March in which cab drivers charge customers an additional cost for turning on the air conditioning.
However, now CCPA Chief Commissioner Nidhi Khare told PTI, “We have received several complaints from consumers regarding cancellation and pricing policy of cab aggregators. The number of complaints are huge and hence we have called the cab aggregators to clarify their policies.”
According to Khare, the authority has received several complaints of suspected unfair trade practices, such as cab drivers forcing customers to cancel trips and pay charges as drivers refuse to accept rides for any reason.
She also said that established customers are charged exorbitantly for rides, while new customers are tempted by lower costs for the same distance.
Additionally, Khare said: “It appears that cab aggregators are using algorithms to lure new customers, thereby hurting old customers. This is an unfair practice.”
Hence, according to Khare, the regulator wants to know about their algorithms and other policies to act as cab aggregators in the country. The meeting is likely to be held on May 10.
read all Breaking News , today’s fresh news And IPL 2022 Live Updates Here.