Ever since the Delhi rape incident, legalisation of Taxi Hailing apps has been a topic of constant debate. While there have been instances of equal ‘red’ and ‘green’ signals to this argument, none of the mainline cab aggregators including Ola, TaxiForSure & Uber, have yet received the Radio Taxi Licence from Delhi govt.
Contrary to the state of these big players, a Mumbai -based taxi aggregator, BookMyCab was recently issued a Licence for Operations of Radio Taxi service in Delhi by the Transport department. Quite interestingly, BookMyCab also stands licenced by Govt. of Maharashtra.
Which leads us to the question – What is, that the other aggregators have been compromising on?
According to our past research, Most of the aggregators don’t have a physical office presence as these companies follow an app route which made it really tough for the Delhi government to track the number of operators in Delhi.
CEO BookMyCab, Avinash said– “The old players don’t have any record of the drivers working for them, making it hard to identify the driver in any case of mishap.”
He also added, “Not only the driver’s records are missing, even the drivers don’t have any contact number to reach the companies; in fact these companies are depending on emails to interact with the barely educated cab drivers.”
To get a better insight into the question, we reached out to the aggregator, which has apparently figured out the right way to do it –
What Makes BookMyCab Stand Out ?
1. Selection Of Drivers
- All the drivers are verified by RTO.
- Every driver is required to have public service vehicle (PSV) badge, which is given only after the applicant has participated in a training module by the transport department. The training is not only about informing the applicant about regulations but also sensitizing him about passenger benefits and rights. The procedure needs three basic criterias to be fulfilled –
- Domicile of considered city,
- Local and location knowledge
- Education upto 8th standard
The smart card on PSV chip contains data like address and licence number of the driver, validity of the licence, police verification details and a photograph on the transport department’s record. Such a database would be very helpful to identify the driver in any mishap or crime.
2. Ease in Accessibility
There are three channels available to book a cab –
- Call Center – Passengers can book cabs by calling on 02261234567, which is available 24×7.
- Online booking by visiting www.bookmycab.com
- Mobile App
3. Product Categories
- Airport/ Railway Transfers
- Intercity Cabs
- Hourly Rentals
- Pre-Booking of Cabs
4. Better Customer & Driver Experience
- SOS Button is integrated in both cab and mobile app, which sends the immediate message to nearest police station and company
- Unlike other aggregators, BookMyCab has a city office.
- Both, customers and drivers can easily reach the company through a mobile call.
BookMyCab was founded by Avinash in 2012. The company currently has about 5,000 cabs and charge INR 14 / Km + waiting charges at the rate of INR 1.4/min for the cab rides. Also, the average time taken by the cabs to reach a customer is 25-30 minutes. Company earns a percentage of driver’s charge on per booking basis.
Company had raised up to Series A of funding from investors like YourNest, Mumbai Angels and Contrarian Vridhhi Fund-I. They are presently operating only in Mumbai but plans to expand to other metro cities by 2016.
Somak Ghosh, Managing Partner, Contrarian Drishti Partners – which led investment in Bookmycab in January this year – said: “Over the last 6-7 years, the radio taxi sector has witnessed a huge growth. This market is currently growing at the rate of 15-20% per year. Due to rapid expansion that is likely to be witnessed in future, it is expected that this segment will further grow at 20-25% in the coming years.”
The app-based and radio taxi segment has earlier witnessed a growth rate of 30-40% a year, most of this growth has come from these key metros where operators have been rapidly expanding their services. Delhi is the second largest market after Mumbai for the radio taxi segment.
Almost one-third to half of the revenues for taxi operators come from airport operations in major Metros. Delhi specifically is the biggest market for airport operations in the country with highest growth in international and domestic passenger traffic. The Delhi licence gives Bookmycab the first mover advantage to tap this huge segment. This is one move that is going to change the way radio taxi services operate in the national capital and is sure to create waves in the sector.
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