Imagine it is four in the morning and you have an early morning flight to catch. The taxi provider doesn’t deliver at the last moment and suddenly you face the prospect of missing the flight. To make such experiences a thing of the past, Aprameya Radhakrishna and Raghunandan G. have started TaxiForSure.com, a taxi aggregator that works with taxi operators and enables them with technology to ensure that customers get an accessible and safe taxi ride.
Aparmeya says, “We graduated from IIMA a few years ago and had jobs that included a great deal of travel locally. We found that the taxi infrastructure in most cities was too complex and thus taxi4sure was born. The website ensures that you can find cabs registered with us, at the location that you choose. You do not have to call up six different operators, wait as they check for taxis etc. We aim to make it like a makemytrip of sorts as far as taxi rides are concerned.”
He adds, “We plan to place GPS locaters in all taxis that we have business with. It will help the customer pick up a taxi service of his choice from the website. With the driver details also provided, this eliminates the need for the time consuming call centre interface most customers are stuck with when they want to book a cab. They can call the driver and directly make the booking.”
Why did the duo pick up Bangalore to start the business? “We have been born and bought up in the city and know Kannada well, which is very important in this business. We also felt that Bangalore is more tech savvy than most other cities and would find more takers.”
Raghunandan adds, “We have managed to bring in most of the major players into the fold. We are also in talks with local cab services, which command a major part of cab operations in the city. With auto prices almost as high as taxis, we think that the service is bound to get more popular.”
The duo say that plans by some forums to organise auto drivers into taxi-like models have not been successful. “Some of our classmates from IIMA have attempted a franchise model for autos in Ahmedabad, but it has not been very successful.” They plan to introduce the aggregator in other Indian cities as well.
