The government has allowed cab aggregators such as Uber, Ola and Rapido to charge up to two times the base fare during the peak hours. Earlier, these aggregators could have charged 1.5 times of the base fare as surge price or dynamic fare during peak hours.
In the revised Motor Vehicle Aggregator Guidelines, 2025 released on Tuesday, the Ministry of Road Transport and Highways (MoRTH) said that during non-peak hours, the aggregators can charge a minimum of 50 per cent of the base fare.
The fare notified by the state government for the respective category or class of motor vehicles, shall be the base fare chargeable to passengers availing services from the aggregator. The states have been advised to adopt the revised guidelines within three months.
“The base fare chargeable shall be for a minimum of 3 km to compensate for dead mileage including the distance travelled without a passenger and the distance travelled and fuel utilised for picking up the passenger,” according to the new guidelines.
No passenger can be charged for dead mileage except when the distance for availing the ride is less than 3 kilometres and the fare shall be charged only from the point of origin of the journey to the point of destination where the passenger is dropped off, it said.
The driver onboarded along-with the motor vehicle with the aggregator shall receive at least 80 per cent of the fare applicable including all cost under driver’s fare and the remaining charges may be retained as the apportioned fare by the aggregator. The payment may be settled daily, weekly or fortnightly but not later as per the agreement between the driver and the aggregator, it added.
“With respect to motor vehicles owned by the aggregator the on-boarded driver shall receive at least 60 per cent of the fare applicable, including all costs specified in Driver Fare and the remaining charges shall be retained as the Apportioned Fare,” said the revised guideline.
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On cancellation, it says that if a ride is cancelled by the driver after accepting the journey, in that case, a penalty of 10 per cent of the fare not exceeding Rs 100, shall be imposed where such cancellation is made without a valid reason.
Similarly, if a passenger cancels the ride without valid reason, a penalty of 10 per cent of the Fare not exceeding Rs 100 will be imposed.
The Ministry said that the new guidelines, a revised version of the 2020 guidelines, are an attempt to provide a light-touch regulatory system while attending to issues of safety & security of the user and welfare of the driver.
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