After Bengaluru, Ola and Uber drivers in Delhi go on protest now
The troubles for cab aggregators OIa and Uber are not over yet. After Bengaluru and Hyderabad, Uber and Ola drivers in Delhi-NCR region now are planning to go on a five-day strike. This news comes immediately after the Delhi government calling for a ban on Ola Share and Uber Pool. The Karnataka government was the first to question the legality of Ola Share and Uber Pool.
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 24x7 call centre, accident and health insurance, increase of tariff from Rs 6 per kilometre at present, lesser targets, higher incentives and others.
According to the Sarvodaya Driver Association of Delhi, over 2,000 driver partners working for both the platforms have gone on strike. The association says it expects more than 50,000 cab drivers to join the indefinite strike. The association has also called for banning ride-share services.
The protests in Delhi are on similar lines as the one in Bengaluru recently. The source within Ola claims that the company's teams in Delhi are in talks with the driver partners to find a possible middle ground and solution. The source also said that there are some drivers who currently aren’t willing to be part of the system are instigating other drivers to protest.
Both Ola and Uber hadn’t responded to the email queries by YourStory at the time of publishing this story.
The week hasn’t gone very well for Ola. Apart from protests in Karnataka and battles with the Karnataka government on ride-sharing, the cab aggregator has also had its valuation slashed by over 40 percent to $3 billion. Softbank has also written off $475 million of its combined investments in Snapdeal and Ola. On Thursday, Ola’s CFO Rajiv Bansal and CMO Raghuvesh Sarup quit.
A filing by Vanguard, the US-based investment firm also said that Ola’s shares have dropped from $311.27 per share in the previous quarter to $182.7 apiece. Vanguard now holds over 166,185 shares of Ola valued at over $30.37 million. If sources are to be believed, Ola has been in the market to raise its next round of funds, but hasn’t been able to do so.
