Bangalore's Auto Rikshaw drivers never cease to annoy and irritate me. Especially the ones who park their vehicles at the auto stand near my place.
If you walk up to them and politely tell them you need to go to place A , they do either of two things : Look away from you and pretend they didn't hear you. Or, give you a nasty look ( as if I asked to be chauffeured to the neighbouring galaxy! ) and shake their heads.
Sheesh! What is wrong with these people ? Am I not paying for the service ??
Hmm, makes me wonder where this arrogance comes from. My first thought is the Demand - Supply Dynamic , there are probably way too many people who want to travel via autos.
Or, say I am an Autowallah. I probably make too much money already ! So, I don't have an ECONOMIC INCENTIVE to strain myself doing that extra trip to place A. The gain from that extra trip is at best marginal. So, why should I care ? ( Call it 'Freakonomic incentive' if you have read that amazing book )
An autowallah is a self-employed person. What can incentivise him to do more ( or better ) ? Well, if you were a Company or an Institution , you would easily answer that question. There are SO MANY things you could do : Expand your business, diversify into different products, produce more , improve quality and so on.
But what should an Auto driver do ? If there were a private agency running these autos , you can rest assured the driver's manager would stretch him, push him harder. ( Ah, we all have personal experience , don't we :D ) At least, you are assured of a commutation facility to place A. But, with a self-employed auto driver who is answerable/accountable to NOBODY, you have a very difficult problem on your hands.
Yes, probably the Government could intervene and make those meters tick slower. In fact, the Government is probably the source of all trouble ( heh! ) , why did they fix the pulse rate so high ?
I will end by making a comparison with Hyderabad where I lived for nearly two years. Most places in Hyderabad are connected by "Shared Autos". Now, shared autos are a very interesting concept. To put in software parlance, they are highly customizable :-) . Which means, if Person A is going from X to Z, and you are person B - you can get into the Auto by stopping it at some place Y ( between X and Z ) , and get down at ANY place W ( again between X and Z ). Amazing ! So, you must have guessed that - it is not 1 or 2 people travelling in these autos - they are literally bursting with people ! Commuters can just drop off where they want , and new ones get in. Yeah, very similar to a bus service. Of course, you pay only for that fraction of distance you have travelled. Oh yeah - those auto wallahs can quickly proportion the money you need to pay. All this basically implies that people get to quickly travel short distances by paying small amounts - 3 to 4 Rs. It really helps them do a lot of things in a day, travel is no longer a constraint, unlike Bangalore.
From the economics perspective, Auto Drivers in Hyderabad end up COMPETING to get customers by stopping at various points. Naturally, competition drives prices downwards. Also, they are cordial and well-behaved , after all they want you to be their guest :-)
To summarize, it is not self-employment that is the fundamental problem - but, the ECONOMIC ENVIRONMENT where self-employment is practised.
5 comments:
A few points. What I have noticed are these and mostly my analysis.
Places like Hyd and Delhi are better. I concur. But the reason I think is because both are much bigger than Bangalore. Hence an autowallah would on an avg make 600 Rs per day as profit due to large share of pl traveling longer distances. Hence when you approach then for a shorter distance ride, they would oblige. But in Bangalore since the city itself is small, and the cost of living going high, autowallahs have to concentrate only on those longer distance ride so make a decent living.
And this is another fact. If I take an auto from my house to Ramakrishna circle (Pramod's house), they easily oblige. But If I ask them to extend to Uma takis (just 1/2 a km more), they wouldn't. The reason being the petrol-to-distance-to-profit proportion. The extra km would not profit them as much as just stopping by Ramakrishna circle.
And another weird fact is that most autowallahs have this tendency to accept a non-localite more than a localite who knows his route. Let me tell you an example. On the other day, I was boarding an auto from Forum to my house. It costs 25-27 Rs. The time was 9 pm. I asked this auto guy in kannada. He said 1 1/2 kodi. I said no way. Right behind me a nothy guy asked for Vanivilas rd. and he said 15 rs extra and the norty guy delightedly agreed.
But I am hoping that the upcoming B-Trac program implements that easy-auto scheme well.
http://www.easyauto.in/abtea.htm
[Quote from the link]
Do you use Auto rickshaw for your day-to-day commuting?
# Then you must be wasting an average of 20 to 30 minutes on the road trying to get a willing auto to take you in. REFUSAL!! This is a major challenge that an auto rickshaw passenger faces everyday. This is not only a challenge for you, this is a issue for the law enforcement agencies as well.
# “Double meter and one-and-a-half meter” are the other challenges that we face in our daily commuting. Despite a reduced fuel cost, the auto wallahs refuse to ply to a destination that we need to go to many a times unless we comply to give them “extra” on the meter charges. This “extra” is almost always either one-and-a-half times the meter fare or twice the meter fare.
Haven’t we cursed the auto drivers for refusals, rude behaviour and over charging? But have we ever tried to understand why we ever face such issues? Have we tried to find a solution for this problem?
Easy Auto Service is a call-auto service that is an initiative of the Bangalore City Police and the Regional Transport Authority of Karnataka. By establishing a call-center that co-ordinates the passenger and auto finding, at Easy Auto it is our vision and commitment to make your auto-commuting a pleasant experience.
At Easy Auto we feel that this is the beginning of a social change, especially because this is a thought process of none other than the Traffic Chief of Bangalore City Police, Mr.M N Reddi. The scheme has been authorized and approved by the Government of Karnataka.
We are working with the authorities to make this happen. Of course, like us, YOU – the Auto rickshaw users also will play a major role in making this happen.
man...u r using economic terms n managerial lingo...way to go man......u dont even need an mba now :P
Places and occassion.. fares depend on that.. If u get down at Kalasipalayam early morning ( abt 4 AM ), autowalas demand as much as 200+ for an 8 KM trip to Madiwala :(
Interesting post!
A major factor in pricing is whether the rickshaw driver gets a giraaki on the return journey. So it's a combination of distance, time taken (traffic) and destination.
I've no idea why shared autos have not been implemented in Bangalore. I have a feeling it's due to some regulation or unionization. Left to himself, each auto driver would strive to make the most money on a journey.
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