For the previous few days, an interesting story of a Mumbai auto driver had taken the web by storm, one which was hailed as a masterclass in road enterprise. However that viral success story has now come to a sudden halt. The auto driver, who was reportedly incomes Rs 5–8 lakh a month with out even driving, is now again to doing what he initially did — ferrying passengers on the highway.
It began exterior the US Consulate in Bandra Kurla Complicated (BKC), Mumbai, the place this driver discovered a singular hole within the system. Guests arriving for visa appointments usually are not allowed to hold baggage contained in the Consulate premises and there was no locker facility offered.
‘Sir, give me the bag, I’ll hold it protected’
That’s when the driving force stepped in. “Sir, give me the bag, I’ll hold it protected. It’s my every day fare. Cost is Rs 1000,” he would say. This straightforward pitch, shared by Rahul Rupani, a product chief at Lenskart, on LinkedIn, quickly caught hearth on-line.
In response to him, the driving force catered to twenty–30 clients every day, making Rs 20,000–30,000 a day. Multiply that over a month, and also you’re lakhs in earnings — all with none tech, app, or startup backing.
No MBA, no funding, simply hustle
Folks celebrated it as a case of pure street-smart entrepreneurship. No MBA, no funding, no app. Simply timing, understanding of want, and execution, Rahul wrote in his publish, calling it a real-world lesson in hustle.
However as the excitement grew louder, so did the eye, together with from the police. Officers at BKC police station have been shocked after they heard of an auto driver incomes lakhs simply by conserving baggage. Upon investigation, they discovered that this wasn’t a one-off case — round 12 auto drivers had been working related locker-like companies within the space, unofficially storing folks’s baggage.
Safety issues carry the enterprise to a halt
The police, calling the observe a significant safety danger, particularly close to a delicate zone just like the US Consulate, have now shut it down. Additionally they issued a strict warning, reminding the drivers that conserving folks’s belongings with out verification or licence isn’t simply unlawful, however doubtlessly harmful.
Curiously, experiences say that the auto driver wasn’t storing the baggage in his car alone. He had tied up with an area police personnel who allegedly had a personal locker house close by the place the precise storage occurred. The auto merely acted because the pickup level.
Again to sq. one
With the aspect hustle now dismantled, the auto driver is again to plying passengers. The story, although, continues to spark debate — was it intelligent enterprise or a dangerous loophole?
Both approach, it’s a pointy reminder of how India’s casual financial system thrives on gaps till the system catches up.
