As long queues have been snaking outside petrol pumps in city across the past few days, city’s Ola, Rapido, and Uber drivers are hit harder than most. With the West Asia conflict pushing global crude past 100 dollars per barrel, this has been causing social media rumours of an impending fuel shortage. Daily-wage drivers are having to spend hours in long queues multiple times a day instead of earning. “Hours a day are going just standing in this line and tomorrow I have to come back again,” lamented Uttam, an Ola driver waiting at a pump near Sitabuldi. “We cannot fill a full tank once and wait like others are doing. We drive every hour. We have to fill multiple times a day and this queue is eating into our earnings directly.” Ankush, an Uber driver confirmed the same.

 

“Unlike private vehicle owners who can fill up once and stay home, ride-hailing drivers return to the pump a couple of times daily.” Another Uber driver, Chetan, shared that the city is stocking petrol and there is already a very high supply cut that they are experiencing at the pump level. “This is just the starting. What will happen if it gets worse?” he said with a furrowed brow. “The confusion around the shortage is compounding the problem. Some say pumps will close, some say nothing will happen. We are confused, but we do not have the option of hoarding stock. So we lose hours standing in long queues. So we stand in line every day and hope,” said Akash. It is not just the drivers who are facing the repercussions on the panic-buying, but also riders.

 

Nandini Sharma, a resident of Khamla, who commutes to her office with Uber daily, shared that she is now adding costly tips just to be able to book a ride in time, but in vain. Same issues have been reported by many other daily commuters. These kind of situations are arising as the Uber drivers now are finding themselves caught up in long queues at petrol pumps. The Government, however, has stated there is no shortage of fuel anywhere in India, urging citizens to avoid panic buying and rely only on official notifications, adding that retail prices remain unaffected as oil marketing companies are currently absorbing the burden of rising international crude costs.