Mumbai auto rickshaws.
Sharell Cook.
I had a terrible time with the auto rickshaw drivers in Jaipur during my recent trip there. Not one of them would go by the meter. Instead, every time, I was told, "Sorry, meter broken, madam." Then, they proceeded to quote me twice the fare of what a meter taxi would charge.
Coming from Mumbai, where most auto rickshaw drivers will go by the meter, I found it irritating and exhausting. I'm convinced Mumbai's auto rickshaw drivers are the best in India. That's certainly been my experience, and I've been in autos in Delhi and Chennai as well. (The auto rickshaw drivers in Kolkata aren't too bad, but the problem is that the autos there are shared with other people and usually only go to and from certain destinations).
My praise of Mumbai's auto rickshaw drivers sparked off debate amongst my friends though, many of whom it seems have had bad experiences with them.
So, what do you think? Which major Indian city has the worst auto rickshaw drivers? Do leave a comment and share your experiences as well.
I voted Bangalore, but having experienced Chennai and Delhi it was a though call, I have more experience with the Bangalore and Chennai ones, and over the past few years it reached such a point in B’lore that I was divded between going on a killing spree or not going out at all, because or they refuse to take you on the meter, or the take you on the meter but try to extort more money out of you because they got stuck in a traffic jam and one of my friend almost got aggressed by one refusing to pay extra. And that is when they even want to take you on board to where you want, half of the time they flatly refuse, try just getting one after 6pm and you set yourself for an impossible task if your destination is anything other than a big mall or MG Road, they flatly refused to go into any residential area after dark. I once had to walk back from work, the whole 6 kilometers to my home asking every empty auto on the way, must have asked about 20 of these with no luck and by then I was within the minimal fare and that wasn’t worth it anymore.
In Chennai they are though to bargain the fare before starting the ride, but once you agreed to a price they don’t try to extort more out of you upon arrival, and I don’t think I had any issue with drivers there refusing to go somewhere in the first place.
So now I live in Mumbai and frankly I don’t see why people fuss so much over here, because they are by far the most decent lot across the country, it might be a bit harder to get one at peak hour, but I think the maximum number of autos I had to ask before having one to accept taking me was 5-6 max, and they all agreed to go on the meter without discussion, oh and it seems they always have the change, even if the change is 2 rupees, in bangalore you need to have the exact change because the guy will even pretend he doesn’t have 10 rupees notes in an effort to try to bag in more money!
That’s a good point about the change, Cyn. There have been so many times that I’ve gone to get out of a rickshaw in Mumbai without bothering about a couple of rupees change, but the driver has called out to hand it to me.
By Driving nuisance, it has to be Ahmedabad Auto Rickshaw drivers, especially the Kalupur OR Relief Road ones
I wish I had enough experience to take the poll lol. I’ve only used auto rickshaws in Amritsar and Delhi. In Amritsar I’ve had little to no trouble but it also sounds like they are more expensive here than other places. My husband goes and gets them while I’m out of site and negotiates the prices before they see me.
Delhi was a different story. He does the same negotiation while I’m not visible but we’ve had auto rickshaw drivers there refuse to let us in and take us anywhere after they saw me, even though they had already agreed to the trip. This happened more than once. We’ve also had some very good drivers there though. One fended off the beggar children on my behalf and another drove us around on a wild goose chase trying to find our taxi outside of the embassy when he wasn’t where he was supposed to be.
I’m just glad I don’t have to use public transportation often here in India.
In literally hundreds of rickshaw trips in Mumbai, I have never been ripped off. I have not had any issues in almost all other places in India with the exception of Goa, where rickshaw drivers just did not use the meter or make any excuse for not using them. I will say that now Mumbai rickshaw drivers (as well as taxi drivers) are refusing to take certain fares because they’re too close, too far, or could just be a lot of traffic at that certain time. I thought turning down a fare was illegal. Something really needs to be done about this.
I had a terrible experience in Delhi when I had a auto rickshaw driver who must have been drunk. He was all over the place and after my heart landed in my mouth several times I got over my fear and got plain mad and demanded he slow down or I would get out.