Mumbai: The Regional Transport Office (RTO) Tardeo has received 400 complaints in the last 50 days against errant taxi drivers, including app-based aggregators.
On September 1, RTO formed a special squad and provided a helpline number and email address to all passengers. The main aim of this was to take action against errant drivers adding chaos.
From the 400 complaints that have been made against taxi drivers, 263 drivers have been sent notices and 137 have been counselled, the rest are still wanted by the RTO.
“Ideally, a passenger must first check if the taxi driver is available and if yes, then board the vehicle. The passenger need not mention the location in advance and the driver can ask for the location only after starting the vehicle or metre. The passenger must sit immediately in the vehicle,” said a senior officer from RTO.
The RTO till now has levied a fine amounting to ₹30,000 through this initiative. “With the help of our dedicated control room, we are able to take immediate action. It also becomes effective only when the passenger complains as soon as the incident occurs. It will not be helpful if the complaint is made on the second or third day. We have received thank you messages from many women who did not want strict action against the driver but are keen on counselling them,” said Bharat Kalaskar, Regional Transport Officer, Mumbai (Central).
Moreover, a three-member special squad has been set up that will interact with taxi drivers randomly and explain to them the rules of the Motor Vehicle Act. This squad will be doing rounds across key locations in Mumbai to nab drivers who refuse short journeys according to RTO officials. The special squad will also warn taxi drivers to not behave rudely, not refuse passengers or overcharge them.
Till now this squad has visited 65 locations and alerted more than 7,000 drivers, this includes drivers of kaali peeli taxis and application-based aggregators. “Complaints and action against drivers of application-based taxi aggregator services. Hence, we have alerted the application-based aggregators as well about these instances,” added Kalaskar. Apart from complaints against refusing short-distance fares, complaints of misbehaving with passengers and not returning lost items have also been made against taxi drivers.
All those who wish to register complaints can contact RTO’s special squad at 90762010101 from 7am to 7pm. Apart from this time period passengers can drop a message or WhatsApp to file their complaints. Another option is to send a mail to mh01taxicomplaint@gmail.com the complaint will be forwarded to an inspector rank official.
Instance 1
A woman had complained last week about a driver refusing fare towards Mumbai Central station for a 3 km distance. As soon as the RTO got the complaint, they traced the taxi driver at the RTO office he counselled and let go. According to the complaint the driver initially agreed to go but after knowing the location he refused the fare.
Instance 2
Another woman from Byculla had complained about rash driving by a driver of a popular application-based taxi aggregator service. The incident happened at night and the complaint was attended to the next day. The RTO contacted the driver and not only counselled him but alerted the aggregator service provider as well about the incident.