The Karnataka state transport authority has announced standardizing city taxi fares for services like Ola, Uber and others to curb mounting overcharging complaints from riders. The new rates have been structured as per associated vehicle costs under three price slabs of – under ₹10 lakhs, ₹10-15 lakhs and above ₹15 lakhs.
The base fares start at ₹100, ₹115 and ₹130 respectively for the first 4 kilometers across categories. Additional per kilometers have been capped at ₹24, ₹28 and ₹32 in the same sequence. Guidelines around baggage fees, waiting and night charges amongst others intend transparency.
Addressing Frequent Price Surge Issues
With rides increasingly embedded in urban commute preferences, lack of pricing guardrails resulted in precarious dynamic pricing especially during peak hours or adverse events. Standard taxi meters got abolished over the years exacerbating ambiguity and exploitation potential.
The new notification brings structure back emphasizing social obligations alongside commercial viability for aggregators, preventing disproportionate burden on citizens. Rules around baggage handling, waiting time compensation etc inject more fairness.
Ensuring Consistent City-Wide Rate Cards
More significantly from a market standpoint, the slabs linked to asset costs incentivize operators maintaining clean, well-kept fleets that assure quality but cap fares based on investments. This intends improving and standardizing rider experience across metro cities plagued by vehicular diversity earlier.
By pegging upper ceilings as per market pricing tiers, authorities foster consistency minus variability that frustrated passengers since base fares kept fluctuating arbitrarily across vendors, locales and times. Assimilation however remains key.
