Have you anytime booked a cab through your mobile app and the driver has refused to come at the last moment? Refusal by cabs of app-based aggregators, a pet peeve of Delhiites, could soon be a thing of the past with the city government on the verge of bringing in a regulatory policy that provides for a Rs 25,000 fine for such violations.
This policy promises to cap surge the pricing and also ensures several safety measures. As per the draft rules, the aggregator is supposed to file the police complaint if the case of any molestation or any misconduct is reported to it by any of its passenger and if you fail to do so you are liable for a fine of Rs.1 lakh.
The draft “Licencing and Regulation of App-based Aggregators Rules, 2017” and the City Taxi Scheme, 2017 are being vetted by a panel headed by PWD minister S Jain. The panel is expected to finalize the policies soon and send them to the Delhi cabinet for approval.
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“Cab services are an important means of transportation in a growing city and a large number of commuters are now using taxis through appbased aggregators. There is an urgent need to frame rules to regulate the operation of these cab services,” said a transport department official.
After the rules are implemented, the application based aggregators need to get a licence from the departments for operations in Delhi.They need to operate the call centre 24×7 and also share the live GPS data of all the cabs with the transport department’s control centre.
On surge pricing, aggregators would have to abide by both maximum and minimum fares to be fixed by the transport department or face a fine of Rs 25,000 for each violation. With the help of a new policy, it does not prohibit the shared rides, it says that the cabs need to ply as the contract carriage points that means they cannot pick up and drop various passengers from different points. A regulatory policy for cab aggregators in the works by the government promises not only to put a cap on surge pricing, but also ensure a host of safety measures for commuters.
A decision on pool rides would be taken by the highpowered committee. The policy prohibits drivers from refusing a passenger or discriminating on the basis of gender, race, religion, caste, disability etc. Keeping in view the increasing number of complaints regarding safety of commuters, particularly women, the draft policy proposes a host of measures.
It seeks to make it mandatory for the mobile application of the aggregator to introduce new features. These include enabling the passenger to share their location and cab details with a minimum two persons through the app. The app also must have a ‘panic button’, which when pressed, will immediately alert the local police.
Any person convicted, within the past seven years, of driving under the influence of drugs or alcohol, or convicted at any time for any cognizable offense, will not be permitted to drive. The policy advises aggregators to encourage more women drivers to join their platform.
The taxis will have to install digital fare metres on the front panel and LCD panels on the roof, which will be turned green when available and red when occupied. The taxis must run on clean fuel such as CNG, LPG or electric, and have functional GPS devices with the feed being shared with transport department’s control centre. The taxi schemes bars refusal to ply, tinted glasses or curtains, central locking and shared rides. The taxis also must have first-aid boxes and fire extinguishers.
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