The woes of taxi drivers

Taxi-driving, once considered a smart business option for the middle class to earn livelihood, is no more profitable due to the gas crisis and sky-rocketing petroleum prices.
As the petroleum prices have increased to an alarming proportion, the taxi drivers have had to raise their fares accordingly. Therefore, lesser people are able to afford traveling by taxi, making most taxi drivers sell their vehicles to find other sources of income.
“I have been running a cab since 2005 and never faced such difficulties in my business as I had to face in the past three years and now I have finally decided to leave this business,” said Husnain Khan, a taxi driver. He said, “First the government started three-day CNG load-shedding but it may not have been enough to force the poor man to commit suicide, so it has also increased the petroleum prices to an alarming proportion.”
Another taxi driver of Rawalpindi said that the Punjab government has started the yellow cab scheme but only the people who had an approach in the government could succeed in getting a cab. However, he added, the people are not showing much interest in the said scheme jus because of the prevailing gas and petroleum crisis.
Taxi Driver Association President Aftab Ahmad told Pakistan Today that most of the people think that the drivers have deliberately increased the fares but what can the poor drivers do if they get petrol at Rs 96 per litre and could not get CNG for three days a week. “The media has also criticised us, alleging that the taxi drivers were fleecing commuters but we also want to highlight our plight,” he said, adding that, “A large number of taxi drivers have now been leaving the business of running cab as nothing is left in it.” He said that another problem being faced by the taxi drivers was that no one was ready to now buy a taxi worth Rs 0.4 million on even half of its price.
Aftab said, “Previously, during the three-day CNG load-shedding, the taxi drivers ran their vehicles on petrol, which was unaffordable now and they were compelled to let their taxis stand for three days as they could not afford petrol on more than Rs 90 per litre.”
“The government pledged us that it will allow two or three CNG pumps to provide CNG to the taxi drivers during the load-shedding but nothing has been done in this regard,” he said.
According to a recent notification issued by OGRA, the price of petrol has been increased by Rs 5.37 per litre, High Octane Blended Component (HOBC) by Rs 6.29, kerosene oil by Rs 2.59, High Speed Diesel (HSD) by Rs 4.64 and the price per litre of Light Diesel Oil (LDO) has been increased by up to Rs 3.43, with immediate effect.
After the massive increase announced by the authorities, the new price of petrol has been fixed at Rs 94.91, HOBC Rs 118.20, HSD Rs 103 46, LDO Rs 90.21, while the kerosene oil will be sold at Rs 126.11 per litre.
On the other hand, the commuters have alleged that the taxi drivers were taking advantage of the increase in petroleum prices and increased did not increase the fares according to the percentage of increase in petroleum prices. “We know that the government has increased petroleum prices and the three-day gas load-shedding also continues but why do the taxi drivers demand higher fares during the remaining days of week,” said Yasir Ali, a commuter.
He said that the taxi drivers were not incurring losses as they adjusted their loss by overcharging the commuters. “Instead of understanding our situation, the cab drivers are asking for Rs 500 from Bhara Khu to Islamabad,” describes, Abdul Majeed, who travels to Islamabad everyday.
The local administration has also not put any check on the fares adjusted by the taxi drivers and the rates charged by different cabs lack uniformity. At one taxi stand, if a taxi driver asks for Rs 150 for a particular distance, another will demand Rs 100 for the same distance.