Gaurav Taneja, recently shared a concerning incident when he booked a Rapido. Taneja was travelling to Kanpur via flights and had used a cab service in between. As per the Youtuber, he had ordered Rapido for travel but things were very different when he reached the destination.
Flying Beast, revealed that the driver had not started the ride which he also didn’t noticed as he was busy on the phone. Upon reaching the destination, Gaurav was forced to make the payment whatever the driver demanded.
Gaurav emphasized to be wary of such tactics as this is not a safe way to travel.
“After we started moving, the driver asked me how much the fare was shown in the app. I told him that it was around Rs 800. When he reached the destination, he told me to make the payment. I told him please end the ride and show me the bill. That’s when I realized he hasn’t started the ride in the first place.
I asked him for the bill. I didn’t fight with him but gave him the money which he was demanding. But this is a new type of scam. Please make sure that your ride has started before you move in the vehicle.”
— Gaurav, said on his vlog recounting the harrowing experience
When Gaurav contacted the customer care of Rapido, he was told that there is no record of the ride he just made with the driver. This is because the driver had not accepted the ride in the first place.
Why do drivers cancel booking immediately after starting the ride?
The above incident by Gaurav Taneja is not something which has happened for the first time. Many people have faced the same. The primary reason why drivers tend to do is because they save commission money which they have to pay to the booking platform. And they do it cancelling the ride or not accepting the ride in the first place while the customer gets to know about it only after reaching the destination.
However, it also begs the question as to why the driver did such cheap tactic when Rapido and many booking platforms have moved onto a subscription based model rather than commission based. Rapido now charges a fixed fee from the captains (Riders) in order to get bookings from their platform.
