Bengaluru: Cab booking service TaxiForSure, which is now owned by Ola, is cutting prices for the second time in six months and launching its cheapest offering Nano in more cities as it seeks to increase its customer base by 10 times this year and become the largest economy taxi brand in the country.
TaxiForSure is also introducing a new version of its mobile app that will let customers book cabs much faster than earlier, chief executive officer Arvind Singhal said.
After its $200 million takeover by Ola in March, TaxiForSure has set a target of increasing its customer base to 20 million users from 2 million currently, Singhal said. To help the company reach this goal, TaxiForSure lowered its prices this week across its 52 cities by taking out extra charges and cut the minimum fare in Mumbai by half to Rs.49. The company had slashed its rates in November in response to price cuts by rivals.
“We want to be the brand for the masses and completely take over the economy segment. So we’ve removedthe surcharge (Rs.50) and peak price (during the day); now we only have a surcharge after midnight,” Singhal said.
“The next step in becoming the most economical brand is providing the experience to customers that we are committing to. Our teams on technology, product and supply are working together on this. So we’re doing increased levels of driver training, increasing cab availability so that customers get a cab when they want, apart from making our prices lower, transparent and consistent.”
Price is one of the key ways of acquiring customers, said Aditya Nath, associate director at PwC, a consulting firm.
“The taxi business is now about which company can acquire the largest customer base and attract investor money. And pricing is one of the ways that cab services are acquiring customers. Now that a majority of the cab bookings happen on digital platforms, cab companies save a lot of costs on call centres. Along with the investor funds, this is what is fuelling low prices,” Nath said.
“We’ve started a referral programme for our drivers, in which they get an incentive by referring their friends and colleagues to become drivers on our system. We’ve got a lot of traction from there. For Nanos, we are considering other markets apart from Bengaluru,” Singhal said.
In April, Ola received $400 million in fresh funds from DST Global and others and the company said it would put in $100 million towards expanding TaxiForSure.
A shift in consumer habits towards convenience and on-demand services, and, most crucially, low prices, have fuelled a boom in demand for taxi-hailing services such as TaxiForSure, Ola, Uber and Meru. Ola became the market leader last year and increased its lead over others by acquiring TaxiForSure.
TaxiForSure is currently generating roughly 60,000 orders a day, up from 30,000 three months ago. Of this, about 65% were booked on the company’s mobile app, compared with 35% three months ago. Singhal said TaxiForSure would launch a newer version of its app this month and add features that will make it easier for customers to book cabs.
“There are app features that we will launch in the next two weeks that will improve the customer experience. And (over time), our app will become a one-touch booking experience and become seamless,” he said.
