Uber has partnered with SabRentKaro, a renting marketplace, which let drivers rent out smartphones which can be owned after a certain period if the drivers desired to own them, reports Economic Times. It seems that this partnership is live only for Hyderabad, Bangalore and Visakhapatnam where 2,000 Uber drivers have already gotten phones on rent in the last 3 months. Drivers can apparently rent smartphones for Rs 300-500 per week for 6 months after which they’re free to keep the phone. We’ve written to the company for more details and will update this if we hear from them. SabRentKaro currently operates in Delhi, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Vizag. Note that in September last year, Ola and Uber had started charging their drivers Rs 300 a week as phone, mobile internet and other services charges. Ola had sent a message to its drivers stating that it would charge Rs 300 per week for the next 6 months and Rs 75 per week post 6 months as a ‘Platform Management Fee.’ Uber charged similar, although the company provided drivers the option to use their own phones to avoid having to pay the Rs 300 fee. When MediaNama spoke with multiple drivers across Pune, Bangalore and Delhi, they said that they preferred using their personal phones on the Uber platform because they had the mobility to make data recharges of the amounts they wanted. They said that this was still cheaper than paying Rs 300 a week and that having their own phone also…
