How Safe Are Your Cabs? Operation Taxi Helps You Find Out

New Delhi: The single biggest transport innovation in the country, in the last four years, has been the introduction of the app-based cab service.

The affordable app-based cabs have allowed senior citizens, working women and the party goers to travel alone at any given time of the day. The service runs mostly on the duopoly of Indian start up Ola and the multinational giant Uber.

But somewhere down the line, these companies began to compromise on the promised verification of the drivers. Security, the biggest selling point of these companies, was compromised for quantity. Between 2015 to 2017 at least eight heinous crimes were committed inside an Ola or an Uber cab.

As the number of crimes against women committed by the drivers of these apps began to rise, it appeared that in this hunger for growth, safety of the commuter was the first casualty.

How safe is the cab that you are booking with that smartphone of yours. Are the safety parameters met? Or are these companies short-changing the Indian consumer? CNN-NEWS18 embarked on a fortnight-long extensive investigation.

Twenty five reporters from across the country went on a four-city extended investigation. At the end, after taking over 300 cab rides, CNN-NEWS18 found some shocking loopholes in the system.

We broke into four sub teams in four cities that included the national capital region, Kolkata, Chennai and Bengaluru.

In the nine-part investigation, we show you the reality of these cabs in the national capital region. We took over 20 Uber and Ola rides over a period of four days, and recorded our conversations on our spy camera.

The idea was to get the drivers to drop their guard and give us the insider details of the cab business. For the first time you are about to hear, your cabbies uncensored, spilling the secrets and how your cab is a ticking-time-bomb.

Take a look at these investigative reports, carried out by undercover reporter Saahil Meghani and video journalist Vikas Kumar and you may never want to ride that cab back home again.

The first problem that came to the fore was the fact that there was one registered cab and multiple unregistered drivers. Often you would notice that the cab driver whose picture comes to your app isn't the one driving you to your destination. Ever wondered why? That is because he had never registered to drive this cab. Watch the inside details of the murky cab world here.

The driver of your cab could be using a fake driver's licence. This means the verification of this driver is based on fraudulent papers and hence would be untraceable after any crime. Did your cab service provider inform you about this?

on the question of drivers forging identies, Uber, in a statement, said: "Ability of driver partners to forge their personal documents and police verification certificates presents a huge challenge for not just Uber and the cab aggregator industry but the country at large. We are committed to support the law enforcement agencies, the Government and the industry at large to find a solution to this menace."

If you are a woman, Chances are you will not get a cab post 11 pm. Have you ever tried to book a cab from any party destination. Chances are if you are a woman you will find it difficult to book a cab, while your male friend will get it immediately. Watch this video to know why:

Both Ola and Uber didn't respond till Wednesday evening to repeated attempts by CNN-News18 to get their reactions.