In an attempt to eat into Kaali-Peeli taxi and autorickshaw business in Mumbai, Uber has launched a scheme wherein drivers who rent either a taxi or auto for a living are being given an opportunity to lease out their vehicles.

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As not all the auto rickshaws or taxis are plied by owners, there are thousands of drivers who rent out the vehicles for 8-12 hours daily for anything between Rs500-Rs800 for a living in Mumbai.

Therefore, having a focus on this lot of drivers, taxi aggregator Uber has launched a scheme for them. On a Rs27,000 down payment, they will get to drive in partnership with Uber. Daily they will be charged Rs700 and Value Added Tax of 12.5 per cent.

"In the current scenario, drivers pay daily rentals still do not end up owning a vehicle. As per our scheme, they have to pay the lease amount daily and at the completion of three years they become owner of the vehicle," said Shailesh Sawlani, general manager (West), Uber.

There's another scheme too for individuals, who will have to pay a down payment of Rs25,000 and monthly installments to finance companies for a certain duration.

Sawlani added: "Through this special scheme we wish to encourage existing taxi and auto drivers to become financially independent by reaping the benefits of our platform. In a survey conducted few months ago, over 30 per cent of our existing driver partners were found to be ex-taxi, auto and radio taxi drivers in Mumbai alone, and it's encouraging to see people from not just driving professions but various professions become micro entrepreneurs by partnering with us."

Already, auto-taxi unions, owners and drivers are up in arms against this mode of taxi hailing business as it has already consumed their share of business. The average daily revenue has gone down. With the introduction of the new schemes, it will only build up anger against such cab aggregator companies.