Busting the taxi mafia’s myths

Goan taxi drivers are sons of the soil and all that blah-blah, alright. But as the first point of human contact with the tourists, they are the ambassadors of the state. Now considering the tourist hotspot Goa has turned into, every other business/ industry has employed technology and modern practises to facilitate and enhance the tourist experience, barring these primary ambassadors who the tourists have to face the moment they land at the airport or railway station.

These people, who are supposed to be the first to greet the tourists, have shown zero will to be better ambassadors of the State. Here's how:

Goan taxis fares are the highest in the country, with drivers quoting whatever they please. Anyone offering competitive prices is dealt with by the taxi union. The taxi union has formed a cartel which prevents any individual driver to offer better prices even if he wishes to.

Goan taxi drivers don't want any meters to spoil their party. They believe that they can charge higher during peak seasons only because flight and hotel prices go up during that time. What they don't realize is that the airline and hotel industry have already gone online and has a healthy amount of competition, thanks to portals like Makemytrip and Goibibo.

While the global traveller has been pampered by services like calling a cab through an app in every other destination, tourists in Goa have to call taxis the primitive way -by hunting for stands - or wait for someone to approach them while they pass by a hotel.

Taxi unions will not adopt technology or use any other innovation to make better the customer experience. Further, they will not allow someone else to do it either. It's like them saying:  'We will give crappy service for insane prices, and we will not allow anyone else to threaten our livelihoods by offering 21st century conveniences to any passengers”. They do not want customers to benefit from modern technology like those available through big players like Ola and Uber. They do not want customers to benefit from lower fares even if a venture capitalist is funding those discounts rather than shelling it out from their own pockets.

There's always this absurd argument that shacks, stores and tourist activities don't have any regulation of prices. While the tourist can choose whether to eat at a shack or select another restaurant, there's zero choice left for him to get out of the airport to his hotel, with that entire luggage. Stores have proper regulation due to printed MRPs, and even if some products don't have printed MRPs, the open market and competition will always ensure that the consumer will get best deals. Same goes for tourist activities- there's no cartel involved in any of these, and the tourist won't find himself stranded, if he doesn't patronize these businesses. Taxis are employed out of compulsion.

This arises from zero accountability. There's no one to tame the ill-behaved among this lot. Hence you will often find yourself paying outrageous fares for shabby taxis, with uncouth drivers who have no regards for traffic discipline (in terms of speeding, overtaking, cutting lanes and honking). You don't even have to sit in a taxi to experience this; just stand on any busy road and you will see who the most maniacal drivers on that road are.

Even if you're a local, you must have faced some argument with a taxi driver who probably whined about the route you made him take, or demanded that you pay extra for finding co-passengers to share the taxi with. You must have also encountered them calling in other taxi drivers to settle a dispute, in which case, you must have humbly backed out because you didn't have an appetite for an intensified altercation or a few blows on your face.

Often taxi drivers throw in their entire economics to defend their exorbitant fares. With vehicle prices, maintenance costs, fuel charges and EMIS... they have all the figures to boggle your mind, with the attempt to make you believe, that they indeed are into this 'social service for tourists'. If this profession was not lucrative, drivers would simply opt out like in case of any other financially unattractive profession/ business. Besides, if business is so bad, how do they explain the surge in applications for taxi licenses? And aren't expenses/EMIs/salaries/maintenance/rent a regular cost for every other business? Have other business houses not innovated/ are unaffected by competition? Why should only taxi drivers be granted immunity? What sort of value addition do they do to the tourist industry that they feel they deserve a monopoly?

It's a good thing to be ambitious, and we'd always pray that the current lot of taxi drivers make a lot more money in their lives than what they make now. But their loot (cartel explained at pt.1 and pt.2 above) is not a legitimate/ethical way to earn money. You can't fleece people with outrageous pricing as though it's your privileged birthright, and then at the same time expect those victims not to grumble about it. Provide good service and charge accordingly; don't prey on the helplessness/ dependency of passengers.

Hence, the term ‘mafia’ is being used correctly. Anyone who has a problem with that term is expected to refute my argument point by point instead of merely shouting out 'Goenkarponn, Goenkarponn'.

(The writer is a Goan author)