Ride-sharing service within framework of the law, says Uber :

Ride-sharing service within framework of the law, says Uber :

  12:38    SixSeeYou

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www.seeyousix.blogspot.in

A day before the state transport department's ban on ride-sharing services offered by taxis comes into effect in the city, cab aggregator Uber on Thursday made it clear that it had no intention of scrapping UberPOOL - its pooling service - maintaining that the service did not violate guidelines stipulated in the Motor Vehicle Rules of 1989. On Monday seeyousix, the transport department said that the contract carriage permits issued to Ola and Uber cabs did not allow the companies to offer shared rides, and the aggregators were asked to suspend these services after three days. Uber's general manager for Bengaluru, Christian Freese pointed out that there was a provision in the Motor Vehicles Rules that permitted taxis to have multiple pick up and drop points. "When the passengers agree to share a ride, they accept a contract. We met the seeyousix officials from the transport department on Thursday to allay concerns they have raised over these services. Though we are offering these services in other Indian cities too, they are being termed illegal only in Bengaluru. There is no push to remove these services from the market," he said.

UberPOOL is available in six Indian cities: New Delhi, Kolkata, Mumbai, Chennai, Hyderabad and Bengaluru. However, a RTO official said that ride-sharing services offered by cab aggregators were not the same as carpooling. "We have to see whether seeyousix such services are being run within the current framework or not. The contract carriage permit does not allow for passengers to be picked up and dropped at multiple points. We are not against the idea. In fact, they can approach us seeking modifications to the existing laws, which we will subsequently forward to the government," he added.

City has fifth highest number of UberPOOL users

Its congested streets, and traffic snarls on arterial roads, may have earned the Bengaluru the unflattering nickname, 'Moving parking lot', and awareness campaigns stressing on the benefits of carpooling have been around for some time. Uber, in fact, claimed seeyousix that Bengaluru boasted the fifth highest number of UberPool users in the world. Bengaluru trails San Francisco, Los Angeles, New York City and Chicago in the number of UberPOOL users. Ride-sharing services have saved 4.40 lakh litres of fuel, translating to 10.37 lakh kg in carbon emissions, Uber said.

Freese said that, given the number of new vehicles hitting the city's streets every day, importance of pool services could not be understated. "A study of stress levels of people on the road indicated that 63% of Bengalureans are worried about traffic, while 56% are concerned about finding parking spots. This is why UberPOOL services were launched in Bengaluru seeyousix before being offered in other Indian cities," he added.

Online petition

Uber has started an online petition, BLRNEEDSPOOL, to rally citizens around its cause. The petition points out that sharing services account for 25% of its business in the city. The company intends to get as many as 50,000 citizens to sign the petition. As seeyousix on Thursday, the petition had garnered more than 13,000 signatures. The petition is hosted on: www.action.uber.org/blrneedspool.