The Indian Taxi Revolution: Startups & Aggregators

 Growing up in a middle-class family I always used to think hiring a taxi for travel is a very costly affair and only rich people can do that. Fast forwarding to today I believe hiring a taxi is no longer a pastime of the rich but something that almost anybody can do! All this is possible now with Taxi Aggregators like Ola, Uber and Meru. I vaguely remember Uber coming into existence in 2003-04 as an app/service which allows riders to share their vehicle with others travelling in the same direction. Uber has now come a long way. It is now the cheapest and most widespread taxi aggregator in the world and is growing by leaps and bounds. All this is possible now, thanks to the mobile revolution that is taking place.All these taxi aggregators provide app based referral rides that are free and easy to hire in the first place. As people try out the free rides they get accustomed to the service and are more likely to call it up. It is more of a guilt trip kind of thing wherein a customer after having plenty of free rides is willing to spend real cash on a ride which is important and urgent for him/her.Next come the app-based notifications of promos, offers and referrals. Based on big data and analytics of the location and other details of customers mobile devices the taxi aggregators can estimate the number of rides possible for a particular offer. Analytics like these are the reason for the taxi aggregators to promote their apps so heavily with free rides. Customers have now moved on and there have been some serious lifestyle changes that include the hiring of a taxi and reaching places faster at the convenience.  In the end, I would say that by aggregating the various taxi cab drivers, these apps are now trying to reduce the overall cost per ride. By passing on the benefit so obtained to the customer, they are making them addicted to the service due to its affordability. On an average, there has been about  40-50% drop in taxi fares. Fall in prices, in turn, has allowed about 80% more population to hire taxis. The numbers are periodically boosted by the various offers and free rides via referrals and signing ups. Customers have now moved on and there have been some serious lifestyle changes that include the hiring of a taxi and reaching places faster at the convenience.  In the end, I would say that by aggregating the various taxi cab drivers, these apps are now trying to reduce the overall cost per ride. By passing on the benefit so obtained to the customer, they are making them addicted to the service due to its affordability. On an average, there has been about  40-50% drop in taxi fares. Fall in prices in turn has allowed about 80% more population to hire taxis. The numbers are periodically boosted by the various offers and free rides via referrals and sign ups. Where are the cab drivers going with this? Well, it is very easy for the taxi drivers to sign up with the taxi aggregators, as the highly ambitious service providers are always willing to sign up more cabs to avoid any potential loss of business at any point of time. Due to non-availability of enough rides, cab drivers sign up with multiple aggregators. It is relatively easy for a cab driver to log out from one taxi aggregator device/app and switch to other. I have also heard tales from cab drivers wherein they have Ola, Uber and Meru devices all on, at the same time. Whichever Taxi Service gives them a booking; they continue with that while logging out of the others. For instance, in Coimbatore as per Ola records there are about 1076+ cabs registered with them. But on-road it is only about 200-300 cabs. 
The rest of them have already switched on to another service providers such as Uber. Uber is popular due to its cheaper tariffs and hence, a higher number of customer bookings. Most of the cab drivers receive payment as per the number of trips taken during the day. I do remember about the Delhi rape case of Uber driver, but I guess it is that part of human nature which needs to be corrected by the society rather than by the taxi service.  I just hope that Indian cab drivers become mature enough at this #TaxiRevolution and #RespectWomen. 
These are changing times; people are spending more on off-beat sectors like never before. I just hope that Indian scenario changes for the best.