I have lived in Mumbai for almost 4 years now. All along auto rickshaws have been my primary mode of transport. The reasons for using rickshaws numerous... that for later.
Today I was reading an article on how the meters are manipulated. After having travelled on the same route for almost a year I can say fairly confidently that at max 1 in 50 auto that you get in would charge you the correct fare.
Not that the auto-wallahs are not honest. They take you by the normal route. They charge you what’s on the meter... but here's the catch... the meters are tampered.... I used to wonder how they manage this... They at times will even return things that you have dropped in the auto...not always but many a times...
this is what I learnt from on auto-driver:
the gear that is used to calculate fare is supposed to have 18 teeth...but normally any auto will have a 16 teeth gear... and some too honest ones will have 14 teeth gear...
you can do your own calculation.
2nd auto-driver gave me another insight:
reduce the tyre diameter...the wheels revolve more and so the meter runs more. I am not sure about this but this is what he told me...
Some of these guys also made allegations against the RTO/meter manufacturers
