New Delhi, May 10 (Agency) The Department of Consumer Affairs has directed all ride-hailing companies to become convergence partner in the National Consumer Helpline, to enable better grievance redressal for consumers, an official statement said on Tuesday. The companies have also been detected to comply with Consumer Protection Act, 2019 and E-commerce Rules, 2020.
The direction was given during a meeting chaired by Secretary DoCA, Rohit Kumar Singh with major online ride-hailing platforms, to discuss major issues which affect consumers in this sector. Furthermore, all online ride-hailing platforms were advised to respond to the concerns of commuters with utmost priority and take remedial steps to ensure adequate protection of consumer rights. The meeting was attended by major ride hailing platforms including Ola, Uber, Rapido, Meru Cabs and Jugnoo. Nidhi Khare, Additional Secretary, Anupam Mishra, Joint Secretary and Vineet Mathur, Joint Secretary, also attended the meeting. Ms Khare, Additional Secretary, highlighted major issues which affect consumers while availing services through these platforms. Major categories of consumer grievances as per the National Consumer Helpline (NCH) were highlighted during the meeting.
As per the data received from NCH, deficiency in services occupied 56 percent of the overall grievances during April 1, 2021, to May 1, 2022. The major grievances highlighted during the meeting were deficiency in service, lack of proper response from customer support, pre-ticked boxes including add-on services such as insurance with the ride charges, without obtaining consent by explicit and affirmative action, among others. During the interactions, the companies claimed to have a robust mechanism of redressal of consumer grievances. They however assured that concerns raised in the meeting will be duly taken into consideration. As regards the cancellation charges, they stated that it is levied to compensate the drivers for efforts made towards fulfilling the order, the statement added.