Alert Uber cab driver in California saves a 16-year-old girl from pimps

An Uber driver in California picked up a passenger who appeared to be a 12-year-old girl in a short skirt at night. That, to him, was the first sign that something was not OK. There were two women with the girl and halfway to their destination - a Holiday Inn in Elk Grove, Calif. - they asked the driver to turn up the music and, he listened in to their conversation.
He heard them what they would do once they reached the destination - 'Check for guns. Get the money before you start touching up on the guy.'
The driver sensed danger and, after dropping the passengers, he called police and reported that he suspected the women of prostituting the child.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 31 December 2016.

The driver is a 34-year-old husband, father and quinceañera photographer by day and had begun driving for Uber just a few weeks earlier. This incident has made him an instant celebrity. His suspicions were confirmed because the teenager was being sold for sex at the Holiday Inn - the eavesdropping Uber driver had saved her.
The girl was apparently a runaway and was taken "to an alternative housing location" and later reunited with her family.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Buses missing from the roads of Kolkata due to Diwali

While Diwali is a festival for enjoyment, people of Kolkata faced a hard time when it came to public transport in the city because thousands of them faced inconvenience as most private bus operators had withdrawn bus services due to Diwali. Against the normal availability of eight thousand bus and mini bus in the city and its outskirts, there was hardly five hundred buses and six hundred mini buses.
This has been reported in thestatesman.com dated 30 October 2016.

Many of the bus operators have stooped plying their fleets since the pre-Diwali night and the state-run transport corporations also reduced the number of bus services because many bus drivers and conductors were on leave for celebrating Diwali.
To make matters worse, there were fewer taxis on the road and yellow cab drivers who did ply were charging exorbitant rates and people who landed up at Howrah station were in difficulties. Of course, new age taxi operators, like Ola, Uber and BookMyCab, operated more or less as usual and provided some relief to commuters. Incidentally, an Uber driver is said to have made 18 trips between 9 a.m. and 6 p.m. while a Uber operator made 11 trips between 8 a.m. and 4 p.m.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org


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Taxi drivers in Jakatra go off the roads to protest against Uber and Grab cabs

Taxi drivers in Indonesia are up in arms against the intrusion into their territories by modern day cab operators like Uber and Grab who are snatching away the livelihood of taxi drivers who are not linked with app based cab operators. In order to show their anger, thousands of taxi drivers caused traffic chaos in the Indonesian capital in a rowdy protest against competition from ride-hailing apps like Uber and Grab.
This has been reported in nzherald.co.nz dated 23 March 2016.

Long lines of taxis blocked a central expressway with the drivers setting tyres on fire and jumping on vehicles that did not want to join the protest. It seems drivers surrounded one taxi and forced its female passenger to leave the vehicle with her luggage.
This protest is the second major protest by taxi drivers in Jakarta in the current month. Ride-hailing apps do not face the same costs and rules as regular taxis, and this has severely affected and reduced their income. Many of the drivers come to Jakarta from other parts of Indonesia and rive taxis to support their families back home.
Incidentally, Uber has been trying to penetrate the markets in Asia and are intensifying competition in a region where there already was a slew of ride-hailing apps.
The protest by the taxi drivers did not get much sympathy from commuters because Jakarta is a city that is already struggling daily with massive congestion.


Image courtesy wikimediacommons.org

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Sale of pepper spray doubles after the Uber cab rape incident

#Nirbhaya #pepperspray #ubercab It has been revealed by a firm that sells pepper sprays that the sale of this product was negligible till the Nirbhaya rape incident and, suddenly, the demand of this spray has increased. This is because it is a non-lethal weapon and an effective one.
As the owner of the outlet explained - whenever any case of crime against women makes the headlines, the sale of the pepper spray increases. He added that after the recent Uber cab incident, the average sale, which was earlier 7,500 cans a month, has doubled in NCR. Moreover, they get online queries for the product and many go in for online purchase.
This product is sold in 6,000 pharmaceutical shops in the city and only 3,500 are registered retail outlets which also sell pepper sprays. The number of customers who arrive to buy pepper spray at these shops has reportedly increased by 30%.
Bulk orders usually come from BPOs, the aviation sector, banks, sales-related offices, real estate firms and media houses in the NCR. The price usually varies from Rs 150 to Rs 500 in sizes varying from 10gm to 55gm.