Ola, Uber services haltingly back on in Delhi

The fight between Delhi's cab drivers and aggregators has reached a stalemate of sorts. On Saturday, commuters were able to book their rides on both Ola and Uber, albeit at higher prices.

Early this week, a court order in Delhi restrained two cab drivers’ unions — Sarvodaya Driver Association and Rajdhani Tourist Driver Union — from stopping or blocking the cars, removing devices, or in any manner obstructing or interfering with the legitimate business of the plaintiffs’ (cab aggregators) driver partners.

A report in Mint stated that the waiting time for cabs has also been higher than normal.

A source within Ola has claimed that the driver partners in Delhi began by distributing flyers across the city and urging all the drivers to join the protest. The source also claimed that their demands included a 24×7 call centre, accident and health insurance, increase of tariff from the Rs 6 per km at present, lesser targets, and higher incentives, among others.

While the cabs might be back on the roads, the strike, according to Sarvodaya Driver Association, is still on and will continue until both Ola and Uber fulfil their demands.

While the fight with the driver partners is temporarily stalled, Uber and Ola have another battle that is yet to be fought — the ban on Ola Share and uberPOOL by the Government of Karnataka. Currently, the aggregators and the government are on a cease-fire.

This is not the first time the cab aggregators have been caught in a jam. Since their launch, there have been regular run-ins with the Karnataka government. However, they are not the only ones to have been accused of ‘traffic violations’. The shuttle bus aggregator, ZipGo, had to shut down in 2015 after facing a similar situation.