New schemes to regulate cab services

Mumbai: Following the scheme’s highlights being given out on March 4, the official government resolution (GR) of the Maharashtra City Taxi Scheme has been accessed by this newspaper and found to contain new points for transparency in the context of commuter safety.

The scheme itself was brought in to regulate application-based taxis such as Ola and Uber that have changed the way one commutes but have also largely remained unregulated as compared to auto-rickshaws and taxis which were always under the Motor Vehicles Act (MVA).

Among the new points announced, the global positioning system (GPS) of taxis will not be allowed to remain off for more than a certain time period which will be stipulated later.

In the event the rule is flouted, the driver’s license will be suspended or the incident will be noted in the driver’s record to ensure that both the company and the driver are extra careful in providing the best of technology to passengers.

Further, not only vehicle numbers, license, phone numbers and names will be shared with passengers, permit numbers of drivers too will be shared, considering that commercial vehicles cannot be driven without permits.

A transport official on condition of anonymity said, “Security of passengers is a major concern so, by bringing in transparency, people who use these taxis will know all the details of their drivers.”

Last but not the least, if the passenger hits the SOS button, it must be linked to local police using GPS technology. So, not only does a distress call along with the passenger’s location go out to five emergency contacts, it is also sent to the nearest police station.

Unions are now awaiting the fare scheme for taxi aggregators as they allege that the latter’s low pricing eats into their business.

Taxi union leader A.L. Quadros said, “These points are very vital but it is of the utmost importance that a fare be decided and the meters of these app-based taxis be brought under MVA. We are happy that the scheme has come out as hopefully, it will level the playing field.”