Airport parking fee added to bill but app-cabbies seek 100 more in cash
Times of India | 23 February 2024
KOLKATA: Multiple passengers who took Ola cabs from Kolkata airport on Thursday, a day after it returned to the pick-up bay after one-and-a-half years, complained of being charged the parking fee twice - once on the app and again by the driver in cash.
"I had booked a ride on Ola from the airport to reach home in New Town for Rs 508. I didn't know it included the pick-up and parking charges and so I was happy when the driver asked me to pay Rs 600 instead of 608 while asking me for Rs 100 more as parking fees.It was only after I checked the invoice on reaching home that I found I was cheated. The pick-up and parking charges were included in the Rs 508 fare that the app had shown," said Jitendra Shukla, a New Town resident who had returned from Gujarat on Thursday.
At least two other passengers TOI met on Thursday shared the same story of being duped by the app-cab drivers.
While there was no formal response on the issue from Olacabs till late on Thursday, Ola supervisors and booking facilitators at the airport told TOI that no passenger is supposed to pay the extra parking fee and that if a section of drivers was charging extra, they were fleecing the passengers.
"The drivers pay the parking fees to the airport parking agency but they are reimbursed over the app. No passenger is supposed to pay more than the fare shown on the app. If any driver demands extra, the passenger can lodge a complaint against the driver," said a booking facilitator at the airport.
A senior member of Online Cab Operators' Guild claimed ignorance on part of multiple drivers.
"The parking charges have started getting included in the bill only from Wednesday. Hence, many may not be aware of the same and are thus asking the passengers for it. However, if someone does it intentionally, it's a crime. We will brief the drivers about the new norms," he said.
Both Ola cabs and Uber had lost access to the pick-up zone at Kolkata airport in July 2022 after their service licence at the airport as a cab service aggregator had expired. Since then, passengers had been burdened with an additional fee of Rs 100 as parking charges that the agency managing the parking at the airport was charging from the app cabs every time they entered the airport to pick up a passenger.
However, the situation was supposed to have eased since both aggregators had renewed the licence. While Uber had returned on Saturday, Ola began picking up passengers from the parking bay from Wednesday.
But the situation turned worse as TOI reported on Tuesday about Uber passengers being charged Rs 170 as pick-up fees, considerably increasing the overall fare compared to its competitors. Passengers, too, were paying more than what they had been paying before the change. Following the report, Uber has addressed the issue, passengers said on Thursday.
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