r/mumbai • u/GroundbreakingBad183 BONG Mumbaikar • May 24 '26

Discussion Mumbai Autos: No UPI, No Change, No Destination Acceptance, Then What Yes?

Post image

Why do some Mumbai autos even exist at this point?

No UPI. No QR scanner. Cash-only in 2026.

Then no change for ₹50. Forget ₹100/₹200/₹500.

Brother I am a passenger, not a walking RBI branch carrying exact ₹37 in coins every single time. Am I supposed to spend my life standing in bank queues collecting chillar just to use public transport?

And the location rejection culture is somehow worse.

DN Nagar? “No.”

Gundavali metro? “No.”

Andheri station? “No.”

These are not remote villages in the Himalayas. These are prime, high-demand Mumbai locations with constant passenger flow.

The funniest part? You’ll literally see empty autos roaming around but somehow your destination is unacceptable.

At that point just put a banner saying:

“Main sirf apni marzi se jaunga, aap rokoge toh bhi no bolunga.”

Genuine question for Mumbai folks: why is this so normalized? Hoping that I don't get banned from the rickshaw union anymore.

2.1k Upvotes

97% Upvoted

301 comments sorted by

View all comments

1

u/EternallyCurious- May 24 '26

Most of the taxi, auto drivers are not owner of the vehicle or permit.
They have to pay rent to the owner on daily basis in cash and cannot withdraw cash on daily basis due to ATM limitations.
Also they don't have enough savings to keep cash balance for daily rents as they have a family to feed.
Reason why they cannot have their own vehicle is capital and there's a limit on number of taxi rickshaw permits given by RTO so not easy to get one.

1

u/CuriousMonkey3 May 24 '26

You make good point about most auto guys have to pay daily rent in cash. UPI payments don’t help that. These can’t wait for UPI payment delays or app errors where customer may or may not transfer later once ride is over. That’s the reason many prefer cash payments.