Consumer Awareness: Chennai Auto Rickshaw

It is very hard to believe that the Chennai Auto Rickshaw drivers are making more money than their counterparts anywhere in India. However, those who have been to Chennai may be aware that there are chances for that because they always demand more from the customers even for a short distance journey. Let me explain to you how this works.
Before starting, I wanted to tell you some of the assumption that we have made based on data collected from other valuable sources such as internet, and so on. We have assumed that every auto rickshaw travels around 100 Kms per day. However, some of the auto rickshaw drivers used to travel more than 150 Kms per day. Therefore, we decided to keep the average distance travelled by the auto rickshaw as 100 Kms per day.
In the beginning, the auto rickshaw drivers have to spend a huge amount. However if we consider the amount of profit they are making, it is nothing big. An auto rickshaw will cost around two lakhs rupees, the auto permit and driving license will cost around INR 5500. Therefore, they need to spend hardly around INR 150 per day to pay off this debt.
Most of the auto rickshaws in India give an average mileage up to 35 Kms per litre. However, the minimum average is 22 Kms per litre. Therefore, let us take the average mileage as 22 Kms per litre. The cost of petrol per litre and oil will cost him INR 60. Therefore, to travel 100 Kms the auto need less than 5 litres of petrol. The fuel costs INR 300. Suppose the auto rickshaw driver is spending INR 1000 per month for maintenance. Per day, it will cost him only around INR 33.
The minimum auto rickshaw fare is INR 21 for the first 2 Kms and INR 9 for every additional kilometer. Therefore, let us take the average fare per kilometer as INR 10. Since the auto rickshaw travels 100 Kms per day, they will make INR 1000 per day. However, they will make around INR 2000 or 3000 per day because they will never user the meter and if their customers are traveling for the first time, they will make more money. The auto rickshaw driver has to spend around INR 400 to INR 450 for petrol, maintenance and for paying off the debt. They will be making a good profit even if they charge the consumers based on the meter fare. However, they still charge a very high amount from the customers.
I have no idea why this is continuing for a very long time. Does it show the inefficiency of the government officials or the government itself? We can see many complaints and reports regarding the Chennai auto rickshaw. After seeing all these issues, one of the police officer had the courage to oppose this. That officer was a woman. She was doing her job perfectly and confiscated the auto rickshaws that did not follow the rule. However, she was transferred to another post with promotion. The government gave her a promotion because no one will create any problem regarding the transfer of that officer. This shows that there are many influential persons involved in this business. They are making very good profit and this fact is unknown to most of the customers. To protest against this, a group was formed in some of the social networking sites like facebook to stop using auto for a single day. This protest may have some impacts but nothing big.