JOIN USWhat may seem like a heart-warming gesture to most people is a normal practice for Sunil, a driver with Ola, a popular mobile app for transportation.
A customer booked an Ola cab on May 23 as her father had to go for a medical check-up. Sunil arrived promptly with a car and took the family to a hospital. The bill totalled Rs 140. But he refused to accept and left saying he does not charge for journey to a hospital.
The girl, who had booked the cab, had shared it on social networking site. “Both my parents tried a lot, but he was adamant,” said the customer. “In today’s day and age, Sunil is a gem,” she wrote.
Before he started driving with Ola a year-and-a-half ago, he was a driver at Zilla Panchayat office here. After a painful personal experience while traveling to a hospital, Sunil understood the pressure that families traveling for medical treatment undergo. It was then that he decided not to charge anyone heading for a medical treatment. He gets three to four hospital rides in a week.
“When I drop a customer at a hospital, I feel that I am contributing to the society in some way. I deliberately don’t charge my customers even if they insist on paying me,” Sunil said.
“I feel blessed to serve a customer at a critical time of medical need. I can’t associate this with my commercial gain. As a cab driver, I have a steady income and hence, I don’t feel the necessity to think differently when it comes to helping customers at a critical time,” he said.
An Ola spokesperson said driver partners like Sunil who go above and beyond their call of duty to help customers and fellow citizens are a stellar example of the company’s philosophy of creating a positive impact on the society.