Auto rickshaw journey from Rajender Nagar to Greater Kailash. New Delhi

One of the biggest kept secrets in Delhi is the economics of auto. After all everyone wants to know how much that auto costs and how much is the cost of running that auto. And to hear it from the horse’s mouth, well nothing can beat that. And I must admit what I heard was really surprising.

While driving on the road sometimes you feel you are very rich and all esp. when you see the people driving the autos and in the autos. Now here are some facts to ponder over.

What do you think is the cost of an auto? Well, you can say to begin with it is about Rs 1lakh. But this is the cost only to begin with. It is available only in black market or in the black market way. Then you take loan for it which is paid with interest obviously. So once all these factors are accounted for the on-road price of an auto is approx 5 lakhs, which is higher than cost of all the popular cars viz. Santro, Alto, Spark and all their cousins.

So, next time while riding a car remember on thing, the guy driving that auto is handling a vehicle that costs more than yours. So if that auto brushes past your car look at the situation in this new light where your cheaper vehicle has left scratch on a costlier one and not the other way around.
Another interesting thing that was told to me by an auto-driver was the cost per km of riding an auto. If I use all the information given to me in this regard by different drivers the safest conclusion that can be drawn is that for every 100 rupees that you are charged the cost that is incurred is less than 20 rupees.

Further, the driver if not the owner, which happened only 20% of times with drivers I interacted with, pays around 250 rupees to the owner. And at the end of the month, if he is working for 25 days his income is around 20000 rupees. Not a bad bargain after all. You’ll find this income more amusing if you are aware of the maximum possible entry level salary of a govt. employee.

Now, here is one tip that can come handy to us riders. The other day while enjoying the ‘august auto’ ride in Delhi I met this auto driver who surprised me, again. When hiring the auto I tried to prefix the rent for the journey with him and he told me one interesting thing. He said never let that be your first move because the driver is basically looking for that mode only and by offering him that option you yourself are killing your chances of going by ‘meter’. Why encourage this kind of behavior which actually doesn’t suit you. These were is more or less exact words. Again, some wise words from the horse’s mouth.

After whatever experiences I am going through with these autos I must confess I am getting to know a lot about people and esp. these similar yet so different auto drivers. Hope you are adding something to your knowledge as well.

Written by: Rohit Mishra