3 min readJun 24, 2026 12:05 PM IST
First published on: Jun 23, 2026 at 06:02 PM IST
As soon as a passenger sits inside 45-year old Arun Kumar’s taxi and he enters the OTP to start the ride, a robotic voice speaks out from the phone: “Yeh AC ride hai. Kripya AC on rakhe (This is an AC ride. Please keep the AC on).”
“Yeh awaaz sunke gussa aata hai (This voice makes me angry). It just reminds me of my budget,” says Kumar, adding that his earnings have been squeezed in the past two months.
Cab drivers in Delhi have witnessed their earnings drop due to hikes in CNG prices and the constant functioning of ACs owing to the summer heat. While this has led to higher expenditure from their side, drivers claim that ride-hailing apps Rapido and Uber have not increased fares to pass on the higher costs to customers.
Uber and Rapido did not respond to requests for comments by The Indian Express.
In May, in a series of hikes, CNG prices shot up from Rs 77.09 kg to Rs 83.09 kg, along with hikes in petrol and diesel, as the war in West Asia had led to a closure of the Strait of Hormuz. The complete halt in vessel movements through the maritime route impacted India’s crude oil and liquefied natural gas (LNG) imports.
Around 40% of India’s oil imports and over 55-60% of LNG imports come from West Asia through the Strait; as for LPG, a whopping 90% of the country’s imports depend on the narrow waterway between Iran and Oman.
“Earlier, I used to get my entire tank filled for around Rs 600. Now, it costs me around Rs 700-750,” says Kumar. “At this time, they should have increased fares automatically for passengers, but they are scared that the passenger will take the other app,” he adds.
At the same time, the city has also been hit by the summer heat: temperatures crossed 45 degrees Celsius several times in the past weeks. This means that the AC in the cab has to be on and turned to the highest level all the time, which brings down mileage of the car. So cab drivers also have to spend more just to drive the same amount of kilometres they were doing previously.
“In winters, I can drive the car for around 180-200 km on a full 8-kg cylinder. In summers, it drops drastically to less than 150 km because the AC is on all the time. No passenger will agree to sit without the AC,” says 38-year old Umesh Thakur, another driver.
Gurvinder Singh, 28, says he would get through the day with just one cylinder, but now needs to fill his cylinder twice. “After paying for gas, rent and commissions, I am left with around Rs 1,500 in a day, compared to an average of Rs 2,000 earlier,” he says.
Some drivers also complain that due to summer holidays in schools and the extremely hot summers, they are getting significantly fewer bookings.
45-year old Arun Kumar says his earnings have been squeezed in the past two months. (Express Photo) 
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