I've recently increased my frequency of travelling by cabs - thanks to the daily picking up and/or dropping of Baby at day care. And was very amused to come across two Uber drivers with such diametrically opposite views on the company.
The first driver was a typical quiet fellow, my only small peeve with him was that he refused to wait for 5 minutes as I picked up Baby. He said they weren't technically allowed to wait, and I should just rebook another Uber once I'm ready to go. Alright. If you're going to be so "by-the-book" I won't hold it against you. (Ok, not too much. But I'll still be a little resentful.) As luck would have it, when I rebooked an Uber after all or 4 minutes, big surprise - the same cabbie got assigned to me! Ha! A sheepish smile, and then the rant begins. He went on for the rest of the journey about how Uber is being unfair to drivers. They keep 20% of the fare, "aur unka kya kharcha hai?! Office mein teen log bithaye hain aur system chalu kar diya. Kharcha aur mehnat toh humari lagti hai" (What expense do they have? Just three employees and a software. We are the ones who have capital expenses, and it's our effort after all.) He accepted that Uber initially was very good to drivers, but according to him, they are now being greedy. Even gave me some back-of-the-envelope calculation for how an entire day's very hard work only yields him around Rs 1000 per day. Just went on and on about how all Uber drivers were unhappy and are pretty much on the verge of staging an agitation, apparently.
But basically, he had no excuse for why it was so hard for him to wait for 5 minutes, and instead decided to bombard me with his life's "dukhad katha".
Cut to the next day. For the same trip, I get a happy-go-cheerful fellow. He's wonderfully chatty about everything including how he's just had a leisurely lunch and afternoon siesta at home. And in complete contrast to the previous day, this fellow just couldn't stop talking about how brilliant Uber is. "They give money in the bank, on a regular basis. They aren't putting a gun to my head and forcing me to work. I even went to my native village for a month, no one asked me any questions. So much freedom." According to him, Ola had too much of an "ego problem" (his words), and had started running helter skelter as soon as Uber came on the scene. That day was one on which some autos and cabs were on strike in Mumbai, and Uber was incentivising drivers with an extra Rs 100 per pick-up. Despite that, he happily offered to wait as I went in to the day care (ha!).
Alright I'll admit he was probably one of those souls who sees the silver lining, or rather just decides to paint the cloud all shades of silver and be glad about it. But the point is that he wasn't blindly optimistic. I liked that he seemed to have a solid understanding of the way business works, had no qualms about a false sense of entitlement. I work, I get paid for my work, I don't need any dole-outs. And hell, life is good!
Of course it comes as no surprise that I was so much happier travelling with the second guy. His positive energy was such a refreshing change from all the Cribby-Mc-Cribbersons that a lot of these taxi drivers are. Really turned my end-of-work-day-tired frown upside down.
And made me realise yet again, that no one (or no company) can keep everyone happy or everyone unhappy. There're always both camps in every situation.
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