Our Taxis are Safe, Reliable and Trustworthy – Radio Taxi Association

Radio Taxi Association of India, that represents all licensed Radio Taxi operators across India confirmed that all the members of the association follow all the rules and guidelines issued by the State Transport Departments in all major cities.

This involves verification of the drivers, GPRS tracking of all taxis, drivers training for servicing various customer profiles etc. and that in the last 8 years since launch of Radio Taxi Services in different cities in India, all these players have delivered completely safe, trustworthy and reliable services to their customers.

All the major Licensed Radio Taxi operators from Delhi, Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Chandigarh, Punjab, Indore etc. were present at the press meet.

The association comprises these following operators:

• Mega Cabs
• Easy Cabs
• Meru Cabs
• Gee cabs (Gurgaon)
• Chanson Cabs
• Yo-Cabs
• Sky Cab (Hyderabad)
• RBTS (Chandigarh)
• Fab Cab (Chandigarh)
• Star Cab (Indore)

The Association members expressed their concern at the practices being followed by Technology companies like Uber, Ola and Taxi For Sure who follow an aggregation model and operate taxi services without seeking a license from the State Transport Authorities and violating the laws and rules governing the radio taxi industry resulting in such heinous crimes taking place and bringing a bad name to the entire industry.

Sharing the details, the Radio Taxi Association President, Kunal Lalani, said "According to the guidelines laid down by the State Transport departments in different states,all taxi operators have to set up a call centre and ensure that each radio taxi is equipped with a GPS/GPRS tracking device, which must be in constant communication with the Central Control Unit while the vehicle is on duty."

"Each vehicle should display the photograph of the driver and the driver's license particulars are displayed on the dashboard of the vehicle."

"The driver must have a driving license of appropriate category issued by transport authority and the driver's particulars including background verification should be done."

Kunal Lalani further pointed out that the Radio Taxi Operators Association has been requesting the State Transport Authorities to remove the restrictive clauses in the Radio Taxi Schemes covering the Tariff control, geographical restrictions for plying taxis and requirement for cars to be owned by Taxi companies as these restrictions have negatively impacted the feasibility of the taxi operation and consequently the growth of licensed taxi fleets.

Some of the States have responded positively to some of these suggestions but some other states have to respond to these reasonable requests from the industry association as this will help the industry to improve fleet availability for the commuters and also support the driver's engaged in the industry.

He said that in the last few months companies like Uber, Ola and Taxi for sure have started operating taxi services without seeking any licenses from the State Transport Authorities, presenting themselves as Technology companies, following an aggregation model and only placing a mobile application in the car violating all the rules and requirements of the Radio Taxi Scheme under Motor Vehicles Act.

The Association appeals to the Government to consider their suggestions on further improving the services and committed to work with the Government in ensuring completely Safe and Reliable services to the commuters.

The members of the Association voiced their grief over the recent incident and reiterated their commitment to following the rules and guidelines as laid down by law and assured the cab users including women passengers that the licensed operators will continue to provide safe services to all of them.