BluSmart drivers stare at dead end as payments stall, future unclear

Tirthankar, a 37-year-old driver’s daily ritual includes waking up at the crack of dawn to drop his child to school, before travelling to the BluSmart hub in Nehru Place, a south Delhi locality. On Thursday, he received a message from the cab-hailing service that came as a bolt from the blue.

 

The message read:   Dear private partners,

 

Operations are being stopped temporarily for a few days due to an audit of vehicles. Once the audit is completed and operations are resumed, you will immediately be called back. You will receive a message for slot booking.

 

Until then, kindly co-operate with us. Your patience and co-operation is very valuable to us.

 

Thank you from the heart,

 

Team BluSmart 

 

“My son just got promoted to class 1. The expenses, despite being in a government school, have considerably increased. I am the sole breadwinner of my family. Who do I turn to now?” he said.

 

Electric vehicle (EV) only ride-hailing platform BluSmart on Wednesday temporarily suspended bookings in major cities, including Delhi-NCR and Bengaluru, following the financial turmoil that unraveled at its key backer and fleet provider, Gensol Engineering Ltd (GEL). 

 

The suspension of services comes a day after Securities and Exchange Board of India (Sebi) barred Gensol Engineering and its promoters - Anmol Singh Jaggi and Puneet Singh Jaggi - from the securities market over allegations of fund diversion and corporate governance lapses.

 

Sebi in its probe found that Gensol Engineering had availed ₹977.75 crore in term loans from institutions like IREDA and PFC. Of this sum, ₹663.89 crore was earmarked for purchasing 6,400 EVs.

 

However, the company purchased only 4,704 vehicles worth ₹567.73 crore. Sebi stated that an amount of ₹262.13 crore remains unaccounted.

 

This unexpected chain of events has left thousands of drivers without income or clarity about their employment status. There are more than 10,000 drivers affected because of the ongoing issues.

 

Tirthankar was not the only one facing such issues.

 

Dharam (name changed), another driver working for the company and driving in Delhi-NCR, received a similar message. He spoke to other drivers who reported to have a ‘breakdown’- a term they use when services are stopped. They saw that ride slots had been cancelled and they were not being allotted any more rides. 

 

“We reached out to the company. Most of us weren’t able to get through and the ones who somehow managed to were told that this (the aforementioned message) was the only message they have. They have left us in a difficult situation,” he said.

 

He adds: “The company paid some of us for the past week. We get nearly ₹8,000 per week. But that’s all that we got. This won’t suffice. Unlike other cab-hailing services, we don’t operate our own cars. In Ola and Uber, drivers have their own cars. So in such cases, they can take up personal work. But our cars were provided by BluSmart. We have nowhere to go.”

 

The Gig Workers Association has also stepped in the matter. “We have written to the company. We have four demands from the firm-immediate disbursal of income, compensation equivalent to three months of salary, alternative employment opportunities, and taking back the charger the driver bought,” says Nitesh Kumar Das, organising secretary, Gig Workers Association.

 

“We have sent our demand and asked for these compensations because most of our drivers are single earners of their families. The company has to help them go through this crisis. It has given us a week’s time, so we will wait, but if they do not meet our demands, we will come out on roads for protest,” he adds.

 

The issue around the chargers has left the drivers in a lurch. Another driver, on the condition of anonymity, said: “Any driver who wants to keep his car at home has to buy the charger for ₹5,000 from the company. This is like a security deposit. Now that the services have been halted, what do we do with these chargers? The company should take it back and repay us the amount.”

 

Ashish, another driver working for the company, said some drivers had an inkling of irregularities persisting in the company but didn’t realize it snowball into something like this.

 

“We have been discussing the matter within ourselves a few days ago. The stepney for some of the new cars that were bought were being taken out and installed in the old cars. We thought something was going on but didn’t pay much heed to it until Wednesday,” he said.

 

“On Wednesday, we got a message from the company to park our cabs back at the hub in Vasant Kunj. When we asked our chief in-charge about the reason, he said the company is shutting down and we’ll be notified whenever operations resume. No information has been given to us since then. We got paid for the previous week but some of us haven’t been paid anything this week. It’s difficult to imagine how we will sustain through this,” he adds. 

Future tense 

> Over 10,000 BluSmart drivers are affected because of the current turmoil

> The company paid some drivers for the last week, with others yet to receive their dues for this week

> Unlike Ola and Uber, BluSmart cars were provided by the firm and the drivers could not take up personal work

> Drivers who purchased the charger for ₹5,000 from the company look to return it and get the amount