ISLAMABAD: The cab-hailing services operating in the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad once considered a blessing for the commuters have started losing their charm due to the high fares, behavioral issues of drivers, and poor service delivery.
The majority of the people traveling between the twin cities of Rawalpindi and Islamabad on a daily basis have expressed annoyance over extra-charging and low-quality services being provided by the cab-hailing services introduced a few years back.
These cab-hailing services soon after their launch introduced many facilities including low fares, quality pick, and drop services, cleanliness, and quick responses to attract most of the customers, however, with the passage of time increased the fares and started compromising the quality of services.
A working woman, Shahida Khatoon said, “I was a regular user of online cab-hailing services since their launch but in the last few months I experienced misbehavior and harassment from the captain time and again”.
I tried to call on helplines and complained about the captains but neither they responded nor took any action against the captain. “I was using these services due to their reliability and safety but after these experiences, I feel unsafe and now avoid using online services,” she added.
“I was very much excited over the launch of these services in my city and started using them on daily basis due to suitable fares, decent behaviors of captains and speedy pick and drop services but now we are facing many problems while hiring these cabs and situation is totally opposite,” Asima Naz, a working woman said while talking to APP.
She said increased fares, peak factors due to a shortage of vehicles or some other reasons, delays in the arrival of cabs due to inaccurate locations shown on GPS, frequent rides cancellations, and unjustified cancellation fees were the main issues faced by the customers like me on a daily basis.
Haseeb Alam, a government servant and regular commuter of these services shared his views, “hiring these cab services especially when we have to reach somewhere in an emergency becomes so unnerving for us”.
“We have to call the captains again and again to tell them the exact location but they follow the wrong location shown on their GPS system and finally cancel the ride at the eleventh hour or force us to cancel which is extremely annoying,” he said.
“When the cab does not reach for a long time, we have to cancel the booked ride and ultimately pay the fine. Many of the captains are illiterate and belong to far-flung areas so they do not know the exact locations” he said.
Haider Khan, a university student, said that “If the companies which own these cab services make changes in their policies and decisions abruptly, these services will ultimately lose their attraction and customers will move back to the ordinary cabs.
“Most of the vendors have handed over their cabs to uneducated drivers who are unable to understand the latest technologies like following online map locations and also behave indecently with the customers,” he observed. The official at one of the cab-hailing service company offices in Rawalpindi said, “We are trying to improve our services and address all the genuine grievances of the customers.”
