Autodrivers back to earth with a thud

Autodrivers back to earth with a thud
By: S Suresh KumarDate: 2009-01-19

Bangalore:

Early birds: Some autodrivers do the rounds of Cantonment and Majestic railway stations from 4am. file pic

Autodrivers are no longer the rajas of the road: No arrogant turn of the head, no demands and they willingly take you where you want to go, long distance or short. Guess why? Recession.

Manuel, an autodriver from RT Nagar, said, "It's really tough to run the family now. In the last three months, the number of passengers have reduced and daily collection is tough. Earlier, I used to do 10 hours' duty but now I am doing 14 hours to equal that collection."

Dull nights

It's no different for Khan who does night duty. He said, "There are no passengers after 10 pm these days. I would make at least 700 bucks at night but now it's down to Rs 200 and that too, with great difficulty. I go regularly to Cantonment or Majestic stations at 4 am. I had no choice but to drop and pick up school kids. That's one reason why my collection is the same."

Autodriver Raju said, "I can't afford to go back empty because gas will be wasted so when I drop a passenger, I wait there to pick up the next one. We would earlier lose time in traffic jams but now we lose time waiting.

When I go back home, my wife starts shouting, asking me what I'm doing because of the decreased collection."

No rent cut

It's a far worse situation for those who drive rented autos. Nawas is one of them. "No matter how much I earn, I have to give the owner 150 bucks. Earlier, I would get at least 800 bucks and it was easy to give around Rs 4,000 a month but not anymore. I've asked him to reduce the monthly rental but he hasn't agreed. I'm hoping he'll understand the situation and reduce it."

The talk in town is that many people have left Bangalore in the last three months. Even New Year's on Brigades and MG Road was a dull affair this year.

A shopkeeper said, "Every day, I used to see more than a thousand people working for export companies cross this road but now I rarely see those people..."

Explains, doesn't it, why autodrivers have stopped being Bangalore's worst nightmare.

Innovative ideas
Many companies in Hosur have shut shop. But some have resorted to other ways of staying afloat. Instead of sending people home, they have got one set of people working only on Mondays, Tuesdays and Wednesdays and the other set from Thursday. Salary is cut, but that's better than being laid off. But for autodrivers, it's still bad business.

Give and take
Pawnbrokers have stopped giving loans to cab and autodrivers. They are wary about recovering the amounts from them later.

But there are other people to rely on for business. They now have many people pawning their valuables, particularly jewellery.

Cost cuts affect cabbies
It's not only the autowallahs reeling under recession. Many cab companies have business at call centres. That's because cost-conscious companies are cutting down on the number of trips, even clubbing together employees staying in different directions. A private bank is said to have seized more than 2,000 cabs from companies that have not been able to pay their EMI.