Pune cabbies stare at uncertain future as only 5% cabs ply

PUNE: Only 5% cabs are operating in the district at present despite relaxed regulations, casting a shadow on the future of cab drivers.
With the district administration now relaxing the norms and allowing cab drivers to pick up three people at a time, many in the profession have said that finding passengers itself had become difficult. Most drivers have allegedly moved to their village to skip the harassment from financial institutions over unpaid instalments of their vehicles.
“There is no use of the relaxation as finding passengers has become difficult. The district has close to 1.25 lakh private- or aggregator companyrun cabs. Only 5% of these are presently operational. With many cabbies witnessing little to no income, they have either changed their profession or have left the city so that they can survive,” said Guru Katti, president of Swaraj Vahan Chalak Malak Sanghatna.
A cab driver, who has moved to his village in Aurangabad, said that his income in the past two months didn’t even touch Rs2500. “On most days, I saw no passengers at all. While the vehicle is mine, I work with a cab aggregator company. Just before the 10-day lockdown business was picking up but suddenly the situation was back to square one. I had started getting phone calls from the financial company as I haven’t been able to pay the EMI for the vehicle for four months now. It became difficult to survive hence I left Pune for my village where I at least have my own house and some land. There are many like me who have also left,” he said.