The Hindu : Tamil Nadu / Tiruchi News : The end of the road for call taxi operators

Online edition of India's National Newspaper
Friday, May 13, 2005

Tamil Nadu

Tamil Nadu - Tiruchi

The end of the road for call taxi operators

R. Krishnamoorthy

FIGHT FOR SURVIVAL: Additional investment on CNG kit has not helped them in any way. Photo:M.Moorthy

TIRUCHI: Call taxi operators in the city are in a quandary, due to declining returns on investment, accentuated by the recent drive by the Food Cell Police and Transport Department authorities, and the vigil maintained by oil companies against the rampant use of Liquefied Petroleum Gas cylinders, meant for domestic purposes, as transport fuel in cars.

The number of call taxis plying on the city roads, which exceeded 200 a few years ago, when the concept caught up, has been gradually receding over the recent past, say call taxi operators.

They lament that it was unviable for them to run the taxis - Maruti Omnis - with petrol, for, when combined with other overheads such as maintaining an office, drivers' salary and booting mobile phone bills of drivers, the expenditure overshot the revenue.

Now, a scenario of call taxis being let on auction by creditors of call taxi enterprise, due to non-payment of dues by the operators, has become quite common, according to an operator. A good number of the operators were not able to pay beyond the fourth or fifth due, resulting in few months-old vehicles getting auctioned at 25 to 30 per cent depreciated costs.

Only a handful of owner-cum-drivers of call taxis are able to scrape through a livelihood by using petrol as fuel.

Normally, the rate charged for a call taxi is Rs. 35 for the first three kilometres and Rs. 9 per kilometre beyond that.

The mileage of omni cars, say operators does not exceed 14 kilometres per litre of petrol, in the city, and the cost incurred for fuel hovers around Rs. 3 per kilometre.

When run on LPG, they used to incur half the cost. It is the `empty return' factor, which causes heartburn for call taxi operators. After dropping customers at

their destination, the expenditure incurred on fuel consumed for returning to the starting point eats drastically into the profit margin.

The expenditure, in fact, exceeds the revenue, taking into consideration the distance covered by the call taxis from the stationed point to the pick-up point, explains another operator.

Unnerved by the drive against use of domestic LPG cylinders in cars, which resulted in payments of fines up to Rs. 4,000, call taxi operators have equipped their vehicles with standardised CNG (compressed natural gas) kit, replete with fuel tank, costing nearly Rs. 22,000 for obtaining endorsement from the Regional Transport Office.

However, it is of no use since, there is no CNG filling station in the city. Realising the legal implications of unauthorised gas filling (from cylinder to cylinder), the handful of units involved in the activity, have closed shop.

Enquiries with oil companies reveal that a CNG filling station in the city in the near future is impossible, since it is not in appreciable demand even in Chennai, a metro, where one such bunk was first opened in the State. A faint hope for these operators is the talk doing the rounds that a private petroleum company has plans to start a CNG bunk here in six months.

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