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Cabs Come Clear: To Give Printed Receipts For Taxi Fare To Commuters In Next Month

By Shashank, Section Local Taxi Cab Experiences
Posted on Tue Jul 08, 2008 at 02:37:10 AM EST

Come next month and taxi commuters will receive printed receipts displaying the fare payable, distance travelled among host of other facilities. Various Taxi Associations are pressing for printing machines with digital taxi meters. This facility, however, is not compulsory for either the existing or the new taxis.

“The Public Vehicles Department (PVD) will give license to 300 new taxis next month. We have written to the director of PVD, asking to make it mandatory for all these new taxis to install the printing machines,” said Bimal Guha, general secretary, Bengal Taxi Association.

The receipt will give details of the taxi boarded including the contact number of the owner. “This facility will be of great help if a commuter leaves anything behind in the taxi,” said Guha. “Also if they want to lodge a complaint they can do so by directly contacting the owner and not the taxi associations,” added Guha.

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“This indeed will help the commuters. But, I beleve this cannot curb tampering. We are contemplating if printers can be made compulsory for all the taxis,” said Sumantra Chaudhuri, principal secretary, department of transport.

Guha, however, claims that this facility will be able to combat the problem of tampering, as tampered meters will not be able to print receipts.

Earlier, the Bengal Taxi Association had introduced complaint cards for passengers in the first week of March. The move was discontinued within ten days of its being launched.

The association had procured 2,000 card kits incurring Rs 40,000. These small cards contained all the information about the taxi. It was supposed to be handed over to the passenger by the driver. “We had distributed about 1,500 kits. But, the passengers never bothered to take the cards along with them,” said Guha.

Guha is banking on market competition for taxi owners to install the printers and also to attract passengers.

Many companies have already shown interest in manufacturing the printing machines. One such company revealed that attaching a printer to the existing meter would cost about Rs 3,000, while installing a new meter with a printer will cost close to Rs 5,000.

Source: Express News Service 08/July/2008

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