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The Association of Radio Taxis, which includes Mega Cabs, Easy Cabs and Meru Cabs, sought to distance itself from unlicensed App-based cab services, demanding regulatory steps to ensure passenger safety.
At a press conference here on Tuesday, Kunal Lalani, the Association’s President and Chairman of Mega Cabs, said: “An impression is being created that all radio cabs are unsafe. But that is completely false because we are running licensed services in accordance with rules laid down by State governments.”
Rajiv Vij, Managing Director of Carzonrent, which runs Easy Cabs, said: “Banning is no solution, but our reading of the Government action (of banning Uber and six other cab firms) is that the law of the land has to be followed.”
Without naming US-based cab hailing service Uber, Vij said that in the past few months, certain taxi services were being run by firms calling themselves technology companies, and “in that garb, not following rules and regulations”.
The Association added that these cab services follow the aggregation model and are operating taxis without a licence from State transport authorities.
Vij said the Association of Radio Taxis, which has about 19 members and a fleet of about 25,000 taxis, had raised this issue with the Delhi government and some other State Governments, pointing out that App-based cab services were even flouting Supreme Court directions on CNG-driven vehicles by running diesel cabs.
Radio cab firms, whose “safe and reliable” image has taken a hit after the Uber incident, said all their members were licensed and followed every norm, including employing “badge-holder” drivers certified by transport departments, getting driver details verified by private agencies, installing GPS/GPRS even though there is “no regulatory requirement” etc.
“There have been no complaints against any of our members in the past 10 years,” he said on the sidelines.
Lalani said they had also red-flagged the Delhi authorities, seeking amendments in the Delhi Radio Scheme 2006 and demanding a level-playing field with Web-based cab services.
Earlier, the Association had also approached the Reserve Bank of India over Uber’s credit card transactions, saying it was violating foreign exchange regulations.
Asked if the business of radio taxi operators has been impacted by the mushrooming of Web-based cab aggregators, the radio taxi players claimed there was a huge supply-demand gap in key metros.
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