Cabbies, passengers lock horns over new fares

Islamabad: The taxi and rickshaw drivers are facing a major crunch in their businesses after increase in the petroleum prices as most of the passengers are not able to afford this ‘luxury’.

“The app-based cab services have already destroyed our business and now new petroleum prices have done the rest of the damage. When we demand fare according to the petroleum prices the passengers start quarreling with us,” said Nadeem Akhtar, a taxi driver.

“The passengers are not ready to accept the ground realities and often demand to charge previous fares. If we get petrol at Rs. 145 per liter then how can we run our taxis on old fares,” he said.

Tariq Yaseen, a rickshaw driver, said “The passengers threaten that they will complain to traffic wardens against undue fares. Everyone works to earn livelihood and despite high petroleum prices we are still charging decent fares and not creating problems for the passengers.”

On the other hand, the passengers maintained that the taxi and rickshaw drives are trying to cash in on the increased petroleum prices. Sajid Hasan, a passenger, said “I usually use private cab services but my mobile phone was not working due to which I approached a taxi driver on Tipu Road.”

“The taxi driver asked me that he would charge Rs600 from Rawalpindi Medical College to Khayaban-e-Sir Syed despite the fact that distance between them is hardly twelve kilometers,” he said.

He said “The government has raised petroleum prices but it does not mean that the taxi drivers should consider it an opportunity to mint extra money from the passengers.” Similarly, another passenger Zahoor Abbasi said “I used to give Rs100 to rickshaw driver from Katarian Market to Commercial Market. Now all of them are charging Rs150 for a distance of almost three kilometres.”