Doha

The strike by a group of Cars Taxi drivers entered the third day on Tuesday even as the company authorities initiated moves to settle the issue.
Of the more than 400 yellow roof cabs of the Cars Taxi, a franchisee of Karwa, only a handful were seen on the road on Tuesday.
Late in the evening, some 30 odd drivers of the firm were taken into custody, from their accommodation on Street 32 of the Doha Industrial Area, by police following complaints from the firm's officials, a source said.
Reacting to queries, a senior official of Qatar's taxi regulators, Karwa, said Cars Taxi officials informed them that the strike was called by a "section of the drivers" as they were "unable to tamper with" the new sensor-aided GPS meters which the company installed on its cars.
However, some of the drivers said the reason for the strike was their low salary. It is learnt that a driver is paid a salary of QR900 and receives additional commission ranging between 10 and 15% based on the revenue they generate.
Queried if they were not better off than drivers of other taxi firms as they were being paid a fixed salary besides commission, some of them replied they were not getting any commission worth mentioning.
Even before the formal launch of the service in October, a section of the Cars Taxi drivers had gone on a strike. All those who protested were sent home before the stamping of their visas after the intervention of some of the Asian embassies.
Though repeated efforts were made in the afternoon to contact a Cars Taxi official, nobody was available for comment.