Just wanted to throw my opinion to the readers on the Chennai Auto menace and the auto driver’s unrealstic demands from the passengers.
Whilst their demands can be termed as "Day Robbery" to be more plain, its "pagal kollai" in tamil.
From Taramani to T.Nagar, I usually pay 100 bucks for 10 kms ride whenever I take an rick. Which works to 10 rs. per km. Here, the fuel alone works out to 25-30 Rs approximately, adding the drivers labour and the fixed overhead component (daily rent of 100-150 rupees per auto) which are all being born by the passenger at the end of the day.
The Auto drivers think tank works well when they are bargaining with people who do not know the Chennai topography or people from other states or people who come down in search of an auto from Big infrastructures - IT companies and BPOs.
And with 1.50 lakhs of Auto rickshaws running pillar to post in Chennai, the drivers are at the helm of things, drive like mad and have the least road sense, causing threat and terror in the minds of co-commuters and walkers.
An auto driver in chennai typically earns 600-800 per day and his net income per day would be about 450 Rs. (800 minus 200 for petrol and 150 for daily rent, not to mention cops - mamool which will be a part of the outflow breakup of an Auto Driver) but inspite of all this still an AutoDriver earns neat 12000 to 15000 Rs per month. may be a little more or less, still its a decent take home for most of them are either school dropouts or hail from a very poor academic background and profile.
And the "UNUSED AUTO METER" is just a "NECESSARY EVIL" for the Auto drivers. Any given day, they would touch it once may be early in the morning to wipe of the dust from it, else it is just kept as a "SHOW PIECE", and its high time that the govt. authorities tighten the screws here, and make the use of METER as a mandate for every travel. This will only help the passengers from the un-realistic demands of the Auto drivers.
In short, Chennai Autos - a distant dream travel for us... :-(