Monday, June 30

Autowallahs

Pffttt!! This is so awesome, being a business grad. makes me appreciate the way people think and do their daily business. The fact that I am getting robbed in broad daylight is irrelevant.

I moved to Hyderabad in the December of '06, and I barely knew my way around. I thought myself very fortunate that the Autorickshaw stand was nearby and my friend knew some of them. Naturally, they operated on a fixed price basis. That sucked, since I knew they had a nice fat operating margin of 15%. I paid, I fell to the cartel's ways ... and soon everyone of them was earning supernormal profits at my expense.

This went on for 18 months, then the government of India hiked the petrol rates and inflation peaked to more than 11%. What that essentially meant for autos, was higher meter rates. Since what I was paying them was higher than the meter rates, I kept on paying the same amount. The smart buggers that they are, decided to hike up my fixed rates as well ... upon this, I was quick to point out that my rate should not increase, since their costs are not increasing by a significant amount (Rs. 5 per litre, an auto which gives an avg of 24 kmpl and I have to go 8 km, which means an additional cost of Rs. 1.66).

For a couple of days, this worked. Today, they told me, that I am not profitable enough for them, and that their opportunity cost has gone up!! Indicating, that while they are dropping me off at my office at a normal profit level, they could be earning higher profits somewhere else as well. If only I had so much business sense when I was a b-schooler :-)

A related rant from Hypnos is here.

9 comments:

The Big K said...

Hmmmmm...

Okay, I paid Rs. 350/- to travel from Senapati Bapat Road to Pune Airport.

Normal Fare: Rs. 180/-

My Case:
1. I just had 75 mins to reach the airport.
2. Most of the 'short-cut' roads to Airport were blocked because of the 'Pandharpur Palkhi'
3. It was raining heavily.

:( ..

Yes, three hundred & fifty rupees! WTF! WTF! WTF!

Hypnos said...

@K

Whoa!!! Even by the prepaid rates, it takes 220 bucks from airport to Jagtap Dairy... Senapati Bapat Road is like just halfway!

yes WTF!

Unknown said...

@K - Yes, Amit also stays in Pune
@Amit - You've been had :-).. join the club

Unknown said...

Prasad, have you heard of this thing called a motor-cycle? You should drive it. But then again you shouldn't.
My boss (and a very dear friend of mine ... I know it doesn't sound right to have a boss who is a friend) died in a motor-bike car accident last week. Reason? The car thought it should not stop at a stop sign and check if anyone else is coming along on the main road.

Unknown said...

@Ash - Shucks man :-( ... thats sad when someone else has to pay when some other fker does not follow the rules. I was considering buying one recently, but then I thought better about it and now I have to be content with the no. 11 bus or the autowallahs!!

Hypnos said...

had?

BTW, it wouldn't have hurt to cross-link to a blogpost of mine about rickshawwallahs in Pune... :D

Unknown said...

Yeah.. why the heck not. How do I cross link in blogger? :-)

Hypnos said...

duh... this post by Hypnos should work, right?

Unknown said...

ptch .. there's another way ... Links to this post ...