Think of hired transport in Chennai and the first image that comes to mind is the yellow three-wheeler contraption called the auto rickshaw.

'Ill-mannered', 'Greedy', ' Rash and Reckless'. These are terms that are often synonymous with auto drivers in Chennai. But that is only one side of the coin.

Chennaibest.com decided to get the real story and spoke to auto drivers from various parts of the city. There were revelations and confessions (with most of the auto drivers admitting their mistakes quite candidly). Their only plea was that the public should understand what was really their situation.

A day in the life of an auto driver in Chennai

Murugan gets up at 4.30 am. At 5.00 am he hires an auto from its owner, after surrendering his original license.

His first stop is Central Station. He gets his first customer at 5.45 am. A middle-aged man. There is some haggling over the rate. Finally, it is agreed to pay Rs. 5 over the meter charge.

After the first trip, Murugan has his breakfast with other auto drivers from his stand at a local mess. For the next three hours he does not get any customers. When he finally gets one, the customer wants to go for only for a short distance, which means that Murugan will have to return to the stand empty. But because he is idle, he accepts. The 10 rupees given by the customer is just enough for his lunch.

In the afternoon he hits Mount Road (Anna Salai) and is lucky to get a few customers. Suddenly a police constable stops him and fines him Rs. 50/- for not having the black spot on his headlight. In the inevitable scuffle with the constable, the indicator light is broken. Half his day's earnings have gone. He gets a few customers going home after the evening show from Devi Theatre.

After a few night trips, he returns his rented auto. He pays the rent of Rs. 100/- for the day, and is left with about Rs. 80/- after the expenses for the petrol and replacing the broken indicator. The time is 11.45 pm when he has his dinner. He will rest for the better part of the next day and take the auto only for half day.

80% of the autos in Chennai are rented as very few auto drivers own their autos.

Lawrence, who is 29 years young, has been driving an auto for the past six years. He makes about Rs. 100 on an average, each day. He drives the auto four to five days a week, for nearly 16 - 18 hours each day. His weekly earnings come to around Rs. 600/- to 800/-, which is just enough to help him feed his old mother and himself. He has no plans of marrying in the near future, because he is not in a position to support a family. He says, "It is not just that policemen harass us, but even the customers think that we are criminals. It is not like that. I know an auto driver who returned Rs. 3 lakh, which a passenger had left behind. He went and returned it to the previous Police Commissioner Kalimuthu and he was even awarded a certificate. Very few people are aware of deeds like this. They only see us as if we are criminals. And so many of the drivers in our stand have helped whenever there is an accident, by taking the injured person to General Hospital."

When queried as to whether his meter is fixed, he admits candidly that his meter is indeed fixed (in local parlance it is 'hot'). It shows an extra of 50 paise for every kilometre. He justifies this saying, that though everyone speaks of the minimum fare, no one seems to take into account the free running miles. Only because his meter is 'hot' is he able to breakeven. The main problem is that 75% of the time one has to return from where one started because there is no customer.

There are even different trends of fixing the meter in various parts of the city. Auto drivers who operate mostly from Central Station and Egmore Station have their meters fixed to show Re. 1.00/- or even Re. 1.50 extra for every kilometre. This is because the auto driver does not have much chance of meeting the same customer again, unlike in a local stand, where the customer will avoid the auto driver if he is aware that the meter is fixed. He also says that the new diesel autos, which can seat from four to eight people, have really taken a big bite out of their earnings.

Bajaj produces most of the autos that are running in the city. Crompton Greaves' Garuda diesel auto rickshaw has still not been able to penetrate the urban market, but is more widely used between suburban and city areas. These autos are generally five or eight seaters, taking passengers on a flat rate, and operating on a point-to-point basis.

In the 70's, the number of autos that were plying the city was very low because the permit for driving an auto had risen from Rs. 300/- at one stage, to about Rs. 27,000/-. This price ceiling, of astronomical proportions, discouraged many people from choosing this as a means of livelihood. In the 80's, an open permit was issued which enabled anyone to apply with ease. This literally threw open the floodgates and the demand for auto rickshaws grew. Because of the conditions prevailing earlier, only few autos were sold in Tamil Nadu. So when this open permit was issued, many people went to the neighbouring states like Kerala and Karnataka and bought auto rickshaws from there, and started plying them in Chennai.

In the 70's, there were hardly a few thousand autos plying in and around Chennai. Between 1980 and 1990, the number of autos zoomed from a few thousand to around 20,000. Today, by the official count of the Road Transport Office, there are over 40,000 autos plying city.