
Drivers of Ola, Uber protest at Mumbai's Andheri on Monday (PTI image)
On Monday, many of them refused to work. Thousands of workers participated in the countrywide strike, crippling traffic and creating massive headaches for commuters.
The drivers say they have no other choice: They're simply not making enough money to survive. Many can't even afford to make car payments.
"Drivers are in huge debt," said Sanjay Naik, president of the Maharashtra Navnirman Sena political party's transportation union, which organized the strike.
It wasn't always this way. When ride-sharing companies such as Uber first entered the Indian market in 2013, they offered great pay. Drivers told the Times of India that they'd been promised monthly incomes of about $1,500. (Per capita income in the country hovered around $1,600 a year in 2016, according to the World Bank.)
It was so appealing that some salaried workers quit their jobs to drive. Farmers sold their land and bought cars instead, often on credit.
But the promised rewards never materialized. The huge influx of willing drivers meant ride-sharing companies didn't have to compete so hard to woo drivers. At the beginning, drivers said companies took a 10 percent commission from every ride. Now, drivers say, they're forced to give back up to 30 percent.
They are also unable to set their own prices, meaning their fare earnings suffer when Uber or Ola (a locally grown competitor) offer promotions or cut rates.
"We are not able to meet our needs from Ola and Uber," driver Tanveer Pasha told Quartz. Pasha said he makes about $10 a day, and nearly all of that money goes to repaying car loans. "I can't live on the remaining Rs200 [$3] and run a family," he said.
The workers say they'll strike until Uber and Ola commit to paying workers their promised $1,500 a month. They're also calling on the companies to stop low fare booking. And they want some drivers, dropped because of low ratings, to be rehired.
Uber did not return an email asking for comment. Ola told news outlets that it would wait to see how the strike progressed before weighing in. Last year, ride sharing companies made $371 million in revenue in India. Experts predict that that number will balloon to $761 million in the country by 2022.
(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)