Knowing your potential is not enough unless you act on it. You have always known you could be an entrepreneur but hesitated, doubted your capabilities?. Do not, because India has entered the age of free enterprise, private businesses if you have not already noticed.
World Bank has predicted 11+% GDP growth rate for India in Year 2021-22 far higher than any major world economy. Is it possible without the start-ups/entrepreneurial spirit? No, it is not. So why not dismiss your fears and be a part of India’s growth story.
Have you been dreaming to get into transport/cab business. This write-up covers everything you need to know.
Ola & UBER are two mega multi-national transportation companies of the world that though provide public transport but give the benefits & feel of a private transport to its commuters. That was the main motivation for people to choose their services and they succeeded in meeting their customers basic needs – Quick, cheap, ease & round-the-clock hassle free service that was.
The fundamental business model of these cab aggregators is simple. That is connecting commuters (customers) seeking on-demand cabs with the company’s driver-partners through a company owned mobile app.
The company earns its revenue by way of commission or fees levied on each ride hailed. (Both these taxi services can be booked through their respective websites too.). So in how many ways can one do business with UBER and Ola. In addition, what is the process from start to finish. Let us find out.
How to Start a Business with Uber?
There are three Ways to Earn With Uber Drive Business:
Driver cum owner
You have a car, are willing to attach it with Uber and you also drive your own car.
Commercial driver under partner
You do not own the car but wish to drive under the Uber platform. You get to drive a vehicle owned by an Uber non-driving partner.
Note: You can even choose to drive a commercial auto-rickshaw or motorbike/scooter if that service is available in your city.
Non-driving partner
You own the car, attach it with the Uber platform without self-driving any but have to manage at least one driver.
There you go. Choose any of the three depending upon your resources and earning needs.
Step-by-Step Process
Step 1. Sign up on the Uber platform through its website, by entering your basic details like name, phone no, email, city.
Step 2. If you choose first or third option from above, you’ll land up on this page
If you choose the second option, you’ll land up on this page
Step 3. Now set up your account as directed i.e. by submitting all of the above document files online. If you do not have them online, click a picture from your mobile or scan it using a cam-scanner app and upload. You can upload all the docs in the same manner. It is much easier & faster than submitting hard copies by queuing up in the office.
Step 4. To Activate your account, Bring your car to a local green light hub. These hubs are locations in a city where you must bring your car for inspection and other things. Requirements vary by city, so sign up to know.
Step 5. Once your account is set up, you can look up all the necessary information you need to know about doing business with Uber. You can even get help by contacting their phone support number.
You have a car that you want to attach with Ola platform. You also drive your own car.
Register yourself in less than a minute by entering your name, phone no. and your city. Ola team will get in touch with you within 24 hours. Additionally, be ready with these basic documents.
Benefits of this plan are:
Choose your own working hours
Choose from 100 cities to work in
Daily payments 365 days a year
Get a booking on your way home
24/7 helpline for support
Lease a Car
You know driving and need a car to drive. Ola provides you with a car without you having to worry about maintenance and insurance. Register yourself in less than a minute by entering your name, phone no. and your city. Ola team will get in touch with you within 24 hours.
Following documents are all you require to begin driving independently with Ola.
Other benefits you will derive with this plan:
Get a car at zero risk
Free accidental insurance of 2 lakhs
Zero maintenance cost
Drive a new car of your choice
Two paid holidays each month
24/7 helpline for your support
Note: If you are an auto driver, you can also attach your auto by submitting the documents, downloading the app and start to drive with Ola.
Become a fleet operator
You own a fleet of cars and you want to attach it with Ola. You just need to track & control your fleet through specialised app.
Register yourself in less than a minute by entering your name, phone no. and your city. Ola team will get in touch with you within 24 hours.
Following basic documents are required. These are also the exact same documents you will need under option one i.e. to become a ‘partner with a car’.
Benefits under this scheme:
Get detailed reports of total earnings
Monitor driver logins and other trip details
Live tracking of all your drivers and cars
Get alerts like payments, logouts, etc.
Check your fleet’s performance anytime
Receive 24/7 phone support
Sure you will have further queries like ‘registration charge, initial payment if any to lease a car or two drivers for a single car’ etc. For this, you just have to visit the Ola Partner Portal.
Note: You can also attach your Rickshaw or Bike with Ola. To know more, visit the above web page & send your enquiry through a quick action tab.
Things to Consider Before Starting business with Ola or Uber
There is no definite answer but there is an answer definitely that can help you decide whether to do business with either/both of them or not. Here are two Factors to consider.
Profitability
You will surely get a ‘fare’ share of the rent but will you also get a ‘fair’ share? Is it profitable to attach car with Ola or Uber? To find an answer to this, you need to know the cost structure of both companies. Here’s the cost break-up if you rent a car:
According to the source site, you have to work 3-4 hours just to break even i.e. to earn enough to not make a loss. Therefore, in order to make any profit, you will need to work more than 3 hours a day.
And what if you attach your own car. You already have all the cost & pricing details, so just pick up a pen-paper and calculate your likely earnings, deducting all the costs.
This is a very crude analysis, which you can take as a starting point. However, it can certainly help you build a business/earning plan that suits your specific requirements.
Ease of operation & technological superiority
These two factors directly add to your job satisfaction. Consider each carefully. App features-wise & its daily payment feature make Ola look superior to Uber. Even though some may contest that Uber is cheaper in general.
However, according to user experiences, Ola & Uber fare differently in different cities. Hence, a ground study & research is the best approach before you decide to choose one of the two.
Conclusion
Both Ola & Uber have ambitious plans for the future. While Uber has a vision of becoming the top urban mobility platform, Ola is striving toward building mobility for a billion people. Whoa! Why dream small, right!
FAQs
Can I do business with Ola & Uber both?
Yes, you can do Cab business with both Ola and Uber.
Are there fixed work hours or timings for Cab drivers in Ola and Uber?
No, there is no fixed time or hours of business with either Ola or Uber. You can choose when & how much you want to work.
What are future service offerings of Ola & Uber?
For Uber few of the future business offerings could be electric scooters, bike-sharing & autonomous (driver-less) vehicles. Apart from its wide range of cab booking services, Ola plans to launch its own line of electric scooters via its ‘Ola electric mobility’ subsidiary.
Is putting the car in Ola profitable?
You can easily profit over Rs. 15,000 a month by giving car to Ola.
What percentage does Ola/uber take?
Both Ola and Uber take 25–40% of the amount as their commission.
Company Profile is an initiative by StartupTalky to publish verified information on different startups and organizations. The content in this post has been approved by Lyft.
The urging need for a better and safer travel system is fulfilled by Lyft. Lyft has become a household name from the time it was launched in 2012. Lyft is highly considered by the citizens of the United States and Canada for booking their rides.
Lyft was launched in 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer as the second-largest ride-sharing company in the United States. From the time of its launch up till now, it is known to provide multiple facilities such as providing a ride, arranging the driver, delivering food, etc.
Lyft has its roots expanded and well-developed in its field. Let us have a look at other important details such as founders, back story, mission and vision, business models, etc.
Let’s go through the Lyft success story and know about Lyft, its founders, business model, revenue model, funding, startup story, competitors and more.
Mobile Apps, Ride Sharing, Software, Transportation
Area Served
United States, Canada
Revenue
$3.2 billion (2021)
Total Funding
$4.9 billion (2022)
Website
www.lyft.com
Lyft – About
Lyft is an American-based mobility provider providing service that is considered the second-largest trusted ridesharing service in the United States. Lyft provides an application of its own that works in favour of people to help them with their travel plans. Apart from managing their travel, it also offers other services such as food delivery, ride-sharing, and renting bicycles types of services.
Lyft uses 58+ technology products and services in its application and website. This enables the easy and updated use of its technology. Lyft is not a cab hiring service, instead, it connects the user with the facility provider to earn profit.
Lyft – Industry
The mobile application industry is the fastest growing industry due to the increased number of users. Along with mobile applications, the usage of personalized software makes it much more compatible to be used by any startup. In recent years, the software industry along with the mobile application industry has been combined to give out better results and eliminate the restricted use of models due to medium.
The ridesharing industry is the new talk of the town as the assumption to be believed is that the global ride-sharing market is projected to grow with a 16.6% CAGR with an estimated USD of 85.8 billion in 2021 to be around 185.1 billion by 2026 as per the report published by marketsandmarkets.com.
The transportation industry deals with the economy and the movements of people from one place to another. Lyft works together in this industry to provide relevant services with a profitable business.
Lyft – Founders and Team
Logan Green
Logan Green, CEO and Co-founder of Lyft
Logan Green, highly recognized as the CEO and co-founder of Lyft, was born in Los Angeles in 1983. Green is recorded to complete his schooling at New Roads High School, California. For his higher education, Green attended the University of California, Santa Barbara (UCSB). He completed his bachelor’s in 2006 and is recorded to hold a degree of Bachelor of Arts in Business Economics.
During his education, Green had achieved and served a few great responsibilities. Green had created the Green Initiative Fund while still being a student. He also served as a board member for Isla Vista Recreation and Park District in his early life.
Before the launch of Lyft, there was another carpooling service founded by Green and his friend John Zimmer named Zimride in the year 2007. After the success of Zimride, Green was not yet satisfied with his work and went forward to embrace the risk with the launch of Lyft in 2012.
John Zimmer
John Zimmer, Co-founder and President of Lyft
John Zimmer is a co-founder and president of Lyft born in 1984. He completed his education at Cornell University School of Hotel Administration. He was known to be a member of Sigma Pi Fraternity during his college years.
After completing his education, Zimmer went on to work as an analyst for real estate finance at Lehman Brothers (New York City).
While working for the Lehman Brothers, Zimmer along with his dearest friend Logan Green went on to launch a ridesharing platform named Zimride. After some time, Zimmer left his job at Lehman Brothers and again went on to give rise to another ridesharing platform named Lyft with the equal contribution from Logan Green.
Lyft – Startup Story
Initially, Lyft was started just as a part of Zimride. The story behind it becoming the sole project of John Zimmer and Logan Green is quite interesting to look at. Lyft is not any on-road ridesharing enabling platform, instead, it is the second most used ridesharing service in the United States.
To know the exact reason behind Lyft, one must be aware of the story of Zimride. As for the start, Lyft was a part of Zimride only before selling it to a private company.
The founders of Lyft met each other through a common friend and got to know each other on Facebook.
Logan Green used to travel to Los Angeles to meet his girlfriend. Green used to make sharing rides for travelling the distance. However, the key point in their travelling was mostly his anxiety about unknown drivers and passengers.
On the other hand, John Zimmer used to own a car but didn’t have any possible rider to share his ride with. He noticed that 80% of seats are empty on American Highways.
Both the friends put up their thoughts together and created the carpooling service named Zimride in 2007. The logic behind naming Zimride was taken from Zimbabwe, where they encountered people sharing rides as their basic transportation.
Zimride was created by keeping college students in mind. It was created in a way to provide easy travel access to the campus carpooling. They also provided a good way for students to earn money through Zimride. Till the year 2012, Zimride had thousands of users with 150+ universities participating in the business. Even after the great achievement, the co-founders were left with some dissatisfaction in their minds.
To improve the business and provide more easy ways to the users, Logan Green and John Zimmer gave rise to Lyft.
“Lyft came out of a hackathon project where we were trying to figure out what does Zimride look like on mobile.” – Logan Green.
With the concept in mind, they built and launched the Lyft application in the year 2012. Soon after the launch of Lyft, it started raising enough funds for its development. Lyft also proved as a healthy competitor to already existing ride-sharing company Uber.
With the constant expansion of Lyft, the co-founders of Lyft concluded renaming Zimride “Lyft” in 2013. Along with that, they sold the Zimride services to Enterprise Holdings.
From there on, Lyft has successfully tried to accomplish its goal and is still on its way to success even after some rough waves.
Lyft – Mission and Vision
The mission stated by Lyft is to “Improve people’s lives with the world’s best transportation”.
The vision of Lyft is stated as “ride by ride, we are changing the way our world works. We imagine a world where cities feel small again. Where transportation and tech bring people together, instead of apart. We see the future as community-driven and it starts with you.”
Lyft – Name, Tagline, and Logo
Name
Lyft name of the vehicle is the general word “lift” and shares the same meaning. The idea behind naming Lyft ” originated after Logan Green observed people sharing minivan taxis in Zimbabwe. From there, the idea to name their startup Lyft ” originated, However, it was made in use after a few years when Zimride was renamed Lyft.
Tagline
The tagline of Lyft is Your Friend with a car.
The Initial thought of the Lyft founders was to enable safer and secure travelling options for daily commuters. The tagline itself suggests that a customer can trust their rider like a friend and can travel comfortably without worry.
Logo
Lyft Logo
In the first logo of Lyft, The Pink Moustache with the name Lyft was made. However, with time, only the name is left as its logo.
Yet, Lyft vehicles were found to have a big pink moustache attached in the front. The prime reason behind this was the old friend of the founder of Lyft named Ethan Eyler. Ethan Eyler was known to run a company at that time selling big pink moustaches that can be attached to vehicles in the front.
As for the logo of Lyft, all the letters of Lyft are written in small letters with Pink colours on a white background. The reason behind selecting the colour pink was to normalize the Lyft brand as more friendly for females riders. Lyft was originally planned as a fun-filled and friendly ride-sharing option for its users and hence selecting such a vibrant colour gives out a similar vibe to daily commuters.
Lyft is an on-demand ride-hailing platform. It enables the online connection of a ride needing the user to the rider available at the nearby location. The typical business model of Lyft works on the principle of Peer to Peer model.
It combines all the necessary details such as base charge, the distance covered, the per-minute charges, the per-mile cost, time of day, ride type, the chosen route, number of available drivers, current demand for rides, and any extra charges or taxes. With all this calculation, the only remaining part is the time required to reach the destination. After going through all these elements, the final fare is decided.
There are four basic steps in the Lyft Business Model. However, Lyft itself is compromised of two different parts, riders, and drivers.
Riders
The four basic steps for Riders are:
Requesting a Ride
In this step, a rider needs to download the application of Lyft and complete their profile. Once done with the basic process, they can start with the available options and decide according to their needs.
Coordination
This step is mainly done by Lyft. Lyft enables the nearby available Lyft ride as a suggested option as per the rider. Once matched, basic information is shared on both sides such as the live location of the driver with the vehicle information, and the driver’s name is shared with the rider. And the personal needed information about the rider is shared with the driver for their easy access to each other.
Ride
Once the request is accepted by the driver and the ride is accessed by the rider. The actual map of the destination is shared with the driver and real-time tracking is enabled for the safety of the rider.
Final Check With Payment and Ratings
Once the ride is completed, the final amount is displayed to both parties with the option of rating each other. A rider can rate the driver with needy comments and the same facility is given to the driver to rate their rides.
Drivers
Lyft has a slight change to the business models for those wishing to make money through driving but does not have their vehicle. For such people, Lyft has a dedicated Express Drive Program through which one can easily rent a car to drive. Before that, they need to get eligible to bypass the profile screening test. Once all this procedure is done, the driver can then start with their allocated process of four steps:
To Register As A Driver
For this process, Lyft has assigned them another application known as Lyft Driver App. After downloading the application, the driver needs to set up their profile with honest details. Once completed, they can then enable themselves on a Drive Mode to receive notifications from neighbouring locations.
Receiving A Request
After the drive mode is on, the Lyft application allows the nearby passenger’s details to be sent to the driver for the ride. A driver has the option of either accepting or neglecting the ride request based on their judgments.
Completing A Ride
When a ride is accepted by the driver, basic details are shared on both the sides by Lyft Application. Along with that real-time tracking is enabled for higher safety. Once the ride is completed, the Lyft application automatically calculates the payment based on multiple factors and displays them on the screen.
Payment and Ratings
A rider needs to pay up a shown amount to the driver. Once the whole process is complete, a driver can rate their riders on a scale of 1 to 5.
Lyft – Revenue Model
Lyft gets its revenue mostly from the bookings made through it. Bookings stand for the completed rides done through Lyft Application. Lyft takes a commission from each of those rides. 80% of each completed ride goes to its driver whereas 20% is taken by Lyft.
In the year 2020, Lyft earned its revenue of approximately $2.3 billion.
Lyft generates its revenue from multiple sources.
Commission From Bookings
This is the majorly constituting source of revenue. As explained above, Lyft cutes 20% of the total payment made by riders after completion of their rides as its commission.
Supply And Demand-Based Fare
Lyft has its prices hiked at certain periods of the day. This is done at the time of traffic, high demand for rides, and similar situations. In this model, Lyft hikes its price temporarily and earns extra profit through each ride.
Availing Subscription Plan
The subscription program of Lyft is called Lyft Pink for riders. Lyft allows its users with the subscription plan of paying $19.99 per month or $199 per year to avail of various benefits such as 15% off on rides, a few additional discounts, and many others. This model also earns Lyft a good source of revenue.
Multimodal Business Plan
Lyft is not confined to a single ride-sharing platform, it has a few different similar services on hand too. Lyft is an on-demand ride-sharing platform giving out four different options for rides. They have scooters and bikes, public transportation, ridesharing service, and a self-driving facility.
Amongst them all, users can easily select their preferred options such as for shorter distances, one can prefer bike and scooter or for some specific reason, one can go with the option of the self-driving vehicle. All this has also contributed to the revenue collected by Lyft.
DOOH
Digital-Out-Of-Door stands for the method of advertisement in a ride. This method is used by Lyft itself also to advertise for the self. Apart from that, Lyft also gives out advertisements to others in exchange for certain fees.
Lyft – Employees
Lyft has its headquarters in San Francisco. Apart from that, it has its offices set up in various locations. The total count of locations is 31 different located offices covering the parts of 6 countries.
As of 2021, Lyft was calculated to be having 4369 employees working for it.
Lyft provides its employees with several facilities as per their job positions. Some of the facilities given by Lyft are Insurance of different types, retirement plans, maternity and paternity leaves, paid holidays, etc.
Some of the key people of Lyft are:
Logan Green- CEO of Lyft
John Zimmer- President Of Lyft
Anthony Fox- Chief Policy Officer, Senior Advisor to President & CEO
Brian Roberts- Chief Financial Officer
Kristin Sverchek- President of Business Affairs
Eisar Lipkovitz- Executive Vice President, Rideshare and Engineering
Lyft has a total of 79 investors and 13 lead investors investing on its platform.
Date
Transaction Name
Money Raised
Lead Investors
Mar 1, 2019
Secondary Market
–
–
Jan 25, 2019
Secondary Market
–
–
Sep 20, 2018
Secondary Market
–
–
Jun 28, 2018
Series I
$600M
Fidelity Management and Research Company
May 4, 2018
Secondary Market
–
–
Mar 16, 2018
Corporate Round
$200M
Magna International
Dec 6, 2017
Series H
$1.1M
–
Dec 5, 2017
Series H
$500M
CapitalG, Rakuten
Oct 19, 2017
Series H
$1B
CapitalG
Sep 15, 2017
Secondary Market
–
–
From the time of its start till now, Lyft has participated in 27 rounds of funding and has received the amount of $4.9 billion. Their latest funding was raised on March 01, 2019.
Lyft – Acquisitions
Lyft has a total of 11 acquisitions with an investment of around $342M.
Kamcord
Leo
Cherry
YesGraph
Halo Cars
Flexdrive
Blue Vision Labs
Motivate
Hitch
DataScore
Lyft – Growth
Lyft was launched three years after Uber. Uber is considered the largest and most trusted ridesharing service in the United States. Earlier, Lyft was started as a ride-sharing company for long distances. But with time, they gave out different options for short distances too.
With this initiation, Lyft came out to be the biggest competitor to Uber. Uber was a well-settled company at that time, yet the growth seen by Lyft in its expansion was commendable. Lyft expanded roughly from 60 cities to 300 cities by the time of 2017.
Another thing that worked in the favour of Lyft was the anti-Uber Campaign in 2017. The campaign allowed Lyft to make its name by eating up Uber’s popularity. The market share earned by Lyft increased from 22% to 33% in the year 2018.
Lyft – Advertisement and Social Media Campaigns
Lyft uses multiple methods to advertise its brand. Lyft is known to take help from social media influencers for its typical advertisement of itself.
Some of the celebrity endorsers of Lyft are LeBron James and Nigel Sylvester. LeBron James is the celebrity influencer used by Lyft for its advertising strategy, whereas Nigel Sylvester is a YouTube content creator, helping them to reach a wider range of users.
Apart from this, Lyft also takes the help from passionate influencers having the ability to reach heights and advertise their platform.
Another common method used by Lyft for its advertisement is in the form of Digital-Out-Of-Home (DOOH). This means advertising a platform within a ride. Lyft also advertises itself by using this method. Lyft also uses Google Ads for socializing its platform.
Each brand keeps on introducing different campaigns to gain the attention of users. The two most successful campaigns launched by Lyft are:
Riding is the new driving.
How to Human.
Riding is the new driving– It was launched in 2016 with a one-minute message showing the traffic drive with a heart vibe.
How to Human campaign was launched in 2019 to normalize the world after a long fight with the COVID pandemic. Even though at that time, the pandemic was not over, few things were coming back to normal. During this campaign, Tinder also teamed up with Lyft for this campaign to avail free rides for the customers as an effort of easing the concept of socializing and dating.
Lyft – Online and Social Media Presence
Lyft has an active Social Media Presence across different platforms. Lyft uses social media platforms as a way of advertising itself. Along with that, it also uses different platforms for announcing new steps.
Social media platform
Followers
Twitter
289.3k
Instagram
180k
Facebook
658k
Lyft – Competitors
Lyft has about 30+ competitors in the market. The top three amongst them are:
Uber Technologies Inc.
Gett.
DiDi.
Uber
Uber is the biggest competitor of Lyft. It was launched in 2009. Uber Technologies Inc. is an American-based mobility service providing company. They serve 72 countries with approximately 10,500 countries. Services given by Uber include, ride-hailing services, food delivery services under the name of Uber eats, package and courier delivery, renting a vehicle, etc. Uber is the leading ride-sharing platform in the United States acquiring about 71% market share of rides sharing as noted in Jan 2022.
Gett
Gett, previously known as GetTaxi, is an Israeli-based transportation provider founded in 2010. Gett mainly focuses on Corporate Ground Transportation Management (CGTM). Areas served by Gett are Israel, Russia, the United States, the United Kingdom, and Europe. Services provided by Gett are corporate fleet, taxi, ride-hailing, and providing limos to their customers as per their request.
DiDi
Didi Chuxing Technology Co. is a Chinese vehicle for hire company launched in 2012. The company deals with application-based transportation services. DiDi provides services to 400+ cities. Common services given by DiDi are Taxi, Express, Premier, Bus, Designated Driving, Enterprise Solutions, Bike Sharing, Car Rental, food delivery, etc.
Lyft – Future Plans
“Now more than ever, we need to work together to create cleaner, healthier, and more equitable communities,” said John Zimmer, co-founder, and president, of Lyft.
Lyft plans to reach 100% electric vehicles on its platform by the time of 2030. This move will help in decreasing the harmful emissions to the environment. Lyft plans to use 100% electric vehicles in 10 years. All the vehicles used on the Lyft platform will be either eligible as electric vehicles or will be reliable to zero-emission technology.
To fulfil this dream, from the year 2017, Lyft was known to work towards the development of electric cars. However, Lyft sold its self-driving unit to Toyota’s unit Woven Planet in 2021.
This step might seem like a hurdle for the future vision of Lyft. But on the better aspects, both the parties are bound in a contract to share data. This allows easy sharing of work between both the companies.
As no developing company would like to work on two aspects together. It is better for Lyft to work towards its main business of ride-sharing and for Woven Planet to work solely on the development part rather than taking interest in the ride-sharing business. With this assumption, we can look forward to having a better and clearer environment through the efforts of Lyft.
Lyft plans to fulfil its dream of establishing 100% autonomous vehicles but with a slight change in the actual plan by mainly focusing on its B2B branch.
Lyft – FAQs
Who is the founder of Lyft?
Logan Green and John Zimmer are the founders of Lyft.
What is Lyft?
Lyft is a ride-hailing service founded by Logan Green and John Zimmer.
Who is the CEO of Lyft?
Logan Green is the current CEO of Lyft.
When was Lyft founded?
Lyft was founded in 2012 by Logan Green and John Zimmer.
Ola cabs is an Indian ride-hailing platform that was founded in 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati with a mission to offer easy travel for millions of Indians. It is India’s largest ride-sharing service app with a market share of $6.5 billion.
Foodpanda is a Germany-based online food delivery platform which is owned by Delivery Hero. Foodpanda currently operates with 20 brands in 50 countries around the globe and has its headquarters in Berlin, Germany.
Foodpanda’s business in India was procured by Ola for all offer arrangements in December 2017. The total Amount Invested by Ola in Foodpanda was around $40-$50 million.
TaxiForSure.com
TaxiForSure is an aggregator of vehicle rentals and cabs for people to get an effectively available, reliable, and dependable taxi ride. They work with different taxi managers and empower them with innovation to guarantee that people get taxi rides. As the name suggests, TaxiForSure.com promises a sure taxi ride.
The Banglore-based company was acquired by Ola Cabs in 2015. After the acquisition of TaxiForSure.com, Ola gained a massive lead over its biggest rival, Uber, and boosted its revenue. Ola has invested around $200 million in this startup
Ridlr
Ridlr is an Indian public transporting and ticketing app used for intra-city travel founded in 2012. Ridlr permits travelers to get ongoing data about the different modes of travel. It also books tickets and tokens through the application via online payments. Ridlr has a firm connection with BEST (Brihanmumbai Electricity Supply and Transport)
Since Ridlr has strong connections with BEST and Ola always wanted to be the biggest transporter, Ola cabs made its second acquisition in this public transport ticketing app. Ridlr secured funding of over $25 million from Ola in 2018.
This was a big achievement for Ola since it always wanted to expand its business beyond extensive ride-hailing and get into public transport as well.
Geotagg is a startup founded by IIT Madras graduates, zeroed in on giving systems in the field of Intelligent Transportation Systems. Geotagg has designed a GPS-based public information system specifically for Indian traffic scenarios. Ola, the country’s biggest online taxi aggregator, is hoping to solidify its client base by venturing into related vehicle organizations including transport administrations, carpooling, and bike taxis.
Qarth
Qarth, which runs a versatile installments application called X-Pay, is Ola’s second investment in the mobile payment space. Ola has acquired mobile payments organization Qarth to encourage its wallet administration Ola Money dispatched in November 2015.
Ola consistently is searching for digital cash move administrations for its Financial Arm Ola Money. It will assist buyers to pay using the digital wallet for both food and grocery. You can not only use Ola Money for making payments for Ola rides, but it can also be used on other online platforms like Lenskart, Oyo Rooms, Saavn, and Zopper.
FAQ
What are the Startups funded by Ola?
The startups funded by Ola are TaxiForSure, Geotagg, Qarth, Foodpanda and Ridlr.
Who is the founder of Ola?
Bhavish Aggarwal, Ankit Bhati founded Ola cabs in 2010.
Is Ola an Indian company?
Yes, Ola is an Indian ridesharing company founded in 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati.
Uber and Lyft are working together in creating a database of their drivers. They are creating a database of the drivers who have been accused of sexual assault from the customers. They are taking the list of drivers who have been banned from the platform for sexual assaults and other crimes.
They are creating a database of people who have raised passenger-safety concerns in their platform. This safety programme is done because of the promise made by Uber, they will look into the crimes related to sexual assault. 15 months ago, they had revealed around 3,000 sexual assault cases had been reported on the company’s platform by passengers.
Let’s look at the new initiative taken by Uber and Lyft towards increasing customer safety.
The database developed by Uber and Lyft will contain information about the drivers who have been banned from the platform. Due to their involvement in sexual assaults and other crimes.
In the initial stages, Uber and Lyft will list the drivers who have been banned by the platforms in the U.S. This database will be overseen by the company HireRight. HireRight is a company that specializes in background checks and they will take care of getting more detailed information about the drivers and listing them on the database.
Reason for Creating a Database of drivers
Uber and Lyft have been criticized in the past by U.S lawmakers regarding the safety concerns for their passengers. Since then both the companies Uber and Lyft are working together towards antitrust and privacy-related concerns.
Sharing the information about the sexual assault faced by passengers by the drivers is really important. Most of the time the victims don’t file a formal complaint against the drivers. This acts as an advantage for the drivers who have been involved in those crimes and they easily escape from facing the consequences for their actions.
These drivers would easily shift from one platform to another as there are no legal procedures and actions taken against them. This would increase such crimes and the safety of the customers would be at risk.
This database platform is mainly concentrated on increasing the safety of the customers. This will make the companies in selecting the right drivers for their companies which will increase the safety of the customers.
Uber and Lyft have said that they would maintain the privacy of the victims, and wouldn’t provide any information about the victims of the incidents.
They have categorized the incidents for dismissing the drivers in six different categories which are
Attempted non-consensual sexual penetration
Non-consensual touching of a sexual body part
Non-consensual kissing of a sexual body part
Non-consensual kissing of a non-sexual body part
Non-consensual sexual penetration
Fatal physical assaults
Uber and Lyft have said that only a very small amount of the drivers have been involved in behaviors that are listed in the above categories. Hence, the companies who have access to the database can allow drivers to provide services for their platform after their own background checks and investigations.
The Companies which are involved in food deliveries, e-commerce deliveries, and companies involved in similar business models would get access to the database. Since there is a third-party company that specializes in background checks, the companies will be able to get detailed information about their drivers.
Any company that has access to the information in the database is free to hire those drivers according to their own background checks. This database will help the companies in maintaining their goodwill and increasing the safety of their customers.
This added layer of protection is being added because of the criticization made by Rape, Abuse, and Incent National network. It is a victim’s rights group which stated that the platforms are not doing a proper screening of their drivers.
FAQ
Who are the Founders of Uber?
Travis Kalanick, Garrett Camp are the founders of Uber.
What is the valuation of Uber?
As of May, 2019 Uber’s valuation was $75billion.
Who is the founder of Lyft?
Logan Green and John Zimmer are the founders of Lyft.
Conclusion
Uber has been asked to pay a fine of $59 million by California’s Public Utility Commission. When Uber had released the details of the past abuses faced by the customers, the commission had asked for the details of the victims. Uber refused to provide the details of the customers as it wanted to maintain the privacy of their customers and hence the company was asked to pay a fine.
Lyft is waiting for Uber to solve the issue related to privacy concerns so that they can release the reports about the past issues faced by their customers. This joint initiative from both the companies can be really helpful for a lot of companies and make the customers using their platform to feel more secure and safe.
StartupTalky is one of the strongest online entrepreneurial communities in India and engages with several professionals who are doing great in their lives and have achieved the impossible. To share their learnings and inspire as many people as possible, these ‘StartupTalkers’ will be featured in StartupTalky’s “Know the StartupTalker” series.
One such StartupTalker is Dhruvam Thaker. Dhruvam is the founder of ‘The SMART Taxi’. You will learn a lot from Dhruvam Thaker’s journey in his own words!
If you want to know more about the founder of Smart Taxi, Smart taxi Business Model, the smart taxi revenue, Startup Story, Challenges they faced etc., what better place to know about it than from Dhruvam Thaker, himself.
I was born in a middle-class family in a small town named Jamnagar (Gujarat). 3 months after my birth, we shifted to Ahmedabad, where I grew up. My childhood was engulfed in Indian music as my father was fond of singing and playing the harmonium.
According to my parents, I was very calm, patient, a good observer, and full of deep understanding. On the other hand, I was very shy in nature and apprehensive of interacting with others (excluding my family members). I loved playing with toys, mainly cars and trucks. I used to spend hours playing with them without craving for company. As I was growing, playing cricket interested me; it groomed me to converse and connect with people. The cricket fraternity in my society had a dearth of left-handed batsmen and since I followed this style, it gave me an advantage when it came to being selected for the local team.
Coming back to the present day, my father is a retired government bank employee, my mother is a homemaker, brother is a graphic designer and painter, and my sister is a commerce graduate. My siblings have hearing and speaking related disabilities. My wife is an architect and I have a kid who is 3 years old.
Talking about academics, I was good in studies and usually ranked amongst the top three in class till the 9th grade. My family enrolled me in a Gujarati medium school from kindergarten due to financial constraints. The school was close to my home and was a well known one. When it was time for me to start the 10th grade, our financial condition had improved significantly. So I shifted to a new school which was far from my place but better than the Gujarati medium school. I managed my travel to and from this school by cycling. My father has spared no expenses in giving me the best educational facilities.
My academic history and inclinations compelled me to take up science in senior secondary school. It was my dream to become an engineer and another reason to pursue science stream. However, everything shattered when I failed in the final exams of the 12th grade. My parents were disappointed. I was stressed and gloomy; the feeling that the society’s assumption of me had changed engulfed my thoughts. It was difficult for my parents to see me this way. But they pinned their hopes on me and asked me to join a diploma course based on my 10th grade results. I agreed and secured an admit to Nirma University, one of the most reputed institutions of Gujarat. I was back!
The innate passion for automobiles and machines never left me and spurred me to opt for mechanical engineering. I performed exceptionally in each semester, and was awarded a silver medal for standing second in the entire university. I was actively involved in co-curricular activities but didn’t secure any awards. The consolation participation certificate was more than an award to me; I’ve always considered participation more important than focusing on the result since it brings valuable experience.
Staying idle was never a choice for me, so I started doing part-time jobs with short tenures. Each of those tenures taught me some life lessons which I recall, apply, and follow every day. Thanks to the campus placement drive, I had a job in my hand from a well known MNC in Bangalore, that too before completing my diploma! My mother was hesitant as it meant moving away from Gujarat. It was my father who ultimately convinced her and I landed in Bengaluru in 2008.
Planning ideas and executing them was a skill I was passionate about from my college days. Hence, I selected production planning as a function. Staying in Bengaluru was heaven for me; it was poles apart from Ahmedabad from a weather perspective. I had troubles communicating with the locals in the initial days.
However, I learnt Kannada, the native language of the people from Bengaluru and overcame this obstacle. My office colleagues helped me a lot in learning Kannada. In a span of 2.5 years, I was well versed in Kannada, and despite leaving Bengaluru in 2013, I still find it easy to communicate in Kannada which is evident from conversations with my ex-colleagues from Bengaluru.
During my professional journey, I always believed in one variable: change. I was constantly looking for opportunities where I could try my hands on something unexplored, something different. Many times, I was responsible for troubles that halted the entire production line! On the other hand, successful efforts have proven as head turner for the organization. My senior was a source of support and encouraged me to explore. Seeing my curiosity to learn, he enrolled me in activities related to process improvements, production re-engineering, 5s, Poka Yoke, Kaizen, ISO, etc. I was enjoying this since I was a catalyst for bringing changes in my organization.
In the year 2010, I got married to a girl who was my school friend, and she joined me in my Bengaluru journey. An architect by profession, she chose to focus on her career post marriage and got the opportunity to work with a reputed architecture company. In the year 2012, I first felt the need to do something of my own. But lack of courage dissuaded me from taking any step.
In 2013, I got an opportunity from a well-known tower infrastructure company for a position consonant with my past experience. The position was in Ahmedabad. I wanted to stay with my parents and did not waste any time in accepting the role.
I never fathomed the shift in my motives and aspirations the relocation to Ahmedabad brought. I joined the company and was aligned with its culture and pace after a few arduous days in the beginning. During those days, my inner voice kept nagging me to get serious about my own venture. I kept neglecting it, subduing it with other thoughts or by focusing on the job. I discussed it with my family but they asked me to focus on my full-time job and regular income rather than taking the risk of starting something from scratch. On the other hand, I was gearing up to go for it! Finally, my inner voice superseded my fear of failure and other self-created mindset barriers one day. I resigned from my job without informing anyone. When 15 days of the notice period remained, I apprised my wife and told my parents about it a week earlier.
A disaster was in the making because of me. I was bombarded with questions about future plans and goals and I did not have a clear answer and repeated the same line, “I want to have my own startup.” As usual, some of my friends, society members, and colleagues started making fun of my decision. But this time, the negative comments were only adding fuel to my fire. Despite heavy resistance from each direction, I began.
What Does the SMART Taxi Do?
The SMART Taxi
The future is all about delivering a unique experience and not just delivering a service. We understand this very well! The SMART Taxi—a call based taxi service—is about creating the best in class cab riding experience, specially crafted for business class people and corporate companies.
We achieve this by providing well-maintained cabs loaded with state of the art features and driven by well trained, courteous professionals. We have observed an upward trend in demand of Indian consumers for the best quality services. There is a class of people ready to pay premium charges to avail such services, and they are our targeted audience. All our cabs welcome customers with a defined welcome speech followed by soothing music for a relaxing ambience. Moreover, we offer water bottles, cookies, snacks packet, and chocolates to our customers as part of their package.
Our cabbies (drivers) are trained and tested in terms of behavioral skills and driving skills to add value to the overall customer experience. With us, customers can customize the experience by making it richer and prestigious as per their needs. This is possible by the addition of WiFi connections, Amazon kindle, cold drinks, magazines, and many other features. We do constant market research for adding more and more features in our list as per the market trend for enhancing customer experience.
We offer cabs for hourly rental and outstation. Hourly rental is best suited for roaming within the city and starts with hiring cabs for 8 hours/80 KM. Outstation journeys are traveling outside cities for one or more days.
The SMART Taxi was launched in Ahmedabad with one cab on Sep 16, which I was driving. Today we are an aggregated company with 60+ best-performing cabs; this includes a mixed portfolio of Sedans (Dezire, Etios, Xcent, and Amaze) and MUV ( Innova, Eartiga, and others). We are present in 7 cities: Ahmedabad, Vadodara, Rajkot, Jaipur, Pune, Indore, and Bhopal, and have a strategic time-bound plan in place to expand to other cities of India.
When And How Did You Come Up With SMART Taxi Idea?
It all started in 2012 when I was associated with an MNC and traveled in taxis. I was noticing every aspect of ride hailing and it wasn’t up to the standards for what the customers were paying. Poor car condition, rude behavior of the drivers, etc. were some of the factors persistent across all of my rides. On the contrary, traveling in flights and staying in hotels were fantastic experiences.
One day while traveling back from Bengaluru via flight, an idea struck me through a a single liner, “what if a taxi could offer hospitality like the airlines and the facilities of a good hotel?” I started analyzing the prospects and gathered the courage to launch this idea. It took me 4 years to finally go for it and that’s how we started The SMART Taxi.
How Did You Come Up With The Name And Logo Of Your Startup?
The SMART Taxi Logo
As the entire concept was articulated by a single line, “A cab offering hospitality like the airways and the features of a reputed hotel“, I was clear on the fact that our logo would have to capture all the elements. Secondly, it was all about a cab smart enough to understand customers’ expectations.
To make a perfect combination of the above two key requirements, I along with my brother (who is a graphic designer) made around 22 rough sketches, with various design combinations, fonts, colors, and styles. We selected smart taxi as a name which turned out to be very common when we googled it. To distinguish it from the others, we put ‘smart’ in upper case to highlight it and added ‘The’ as a prefix to the name since it reflects supremacy and uniqueness.
Finally, it came down to the last and the most important word, ‘Taxi’. We wanted to keep the taxi flavor alive in the logo, and thus, selected yellow and black as the color combination with a badge on both the sides. We wanted our brand to exude the comfort and hospitality of the airways and applied bird wings vector on both the sides to reflect it.
We are a cab aggregation company mainly targeting B2B customers. We onboard cabs of individuals or fleet owners like the other companies. The only thing which differentiates us from them is our process. We do not keep any hatchbacks in our portfolio! Sedans and MUVs are the only two car segments we invite for the initial screening.
All individual cab owners and fleet owners have to cross five steps of the selection process to get on board and drive for us. It includes every minute step: verifying the vehicle condition, testing the cabbies (driving skills, behavior with the customer, their capabilities to handle physically challenged, senior citizen and pregnant women), and taking telephonic interviews to test their understanding. Without clearing it, one cannot join us. It’s a clear process which we have been following from the day of inception with a zero compromise policy. To put it precisely, after completing all formalities, only 1-2 out of 5 cab applicants finally on board our venture.
Next, we keep an optimum number of cabs according to the city load and distribute sufficient amount of business amongst them to keep them motivated. We also monitor cab occupation ratio constantly and hunt for new cabs (from a database of cab owners collected from campaigns). We start inviting new applications only if there is a rising trend in demand. We have kept our on-boarding process short, crisp, and fast enough so that it takes only 3 hours to get a cab join us without skipping any part of the evaluation.
Being a bootstrapped startup, we take help of online platforms like Google form for cab registration application and WhatsApp for communication. Coming to the profit sharing strategy, we pay our partners according to the market rates deduced through thorough research. We apply our margin on the rates and charge the customer accordingly for providing a high-quality, safe, and unique cab riding experience. We form an agreement with validity from the cab owners and fleet owners about their understanding on the prices, service and payment terms, cancellation terms, penalties, etc. Moreover, we make sure that we pay inline with the agreed rates and time frame (which is paid within 30 days of trip completion) without a single miss, directly into their bank accounts.
To maintain transparency, we provide computer-generated statements every fortnight to all associated partners which specify the executed trip details, payable balance, and the payment made. On request, we also provide them a crisp summary of how much business they have done with us, how many rides we have assigned to them, how many they have accepted, and how many they have completed. Customers can book our cabs by calling on 8238883335. We have a centralized customer booking center, and from here we delegate the bookings to local cab partners or fleet owners associated with us.
Currently, the entire process happens over phone calls. Post finding a suitable vehicle, we communicate the cab details to the customers (at least 10 hours in advance). Likewise, we communicate the trip details to our cab partners. Both of these communications happen through WhatsApp.
What Other Options Do Your Customers Have? And How Are You Different From Them?
Features of The SMART Taxi
We compete with all the cab companies who operate in the corporate domain but mainly with Car Club, Avis, Orix, etc. We differentiate our service in terms of the features offered as well as the prices. Some of the features and customization options we deliver to our customers are not offered by the other players. In terms of price, we have positioned our self a bit lower compared to them, and this gives us the added advantage in capturing market share quickly.
Many people have a misconception about us that we are another platform like Ola or Uber which is not the case. I don’t blame them because both these companies are dominating the Indian market at the moment. However, there are fundamental differences between us. A few of them are:
Their core business is for traveling from point A to point B within the city, whereas we majorly operate outstation journeys.
They have hatchbacks, sedan and MUV as vehicle category to offer but we operate only with sedans and MUVs.
They provide app-based service whereas we are call based.
Their major business comes from individual customers whereas our clientele is the corporate segment.
They target the masses whereas we operate for a niche population.
How Did You Acquire Your Initial Customers?
We started with one cab which I was driving for the initial few months. Being the creator of the concept, it was easy for me to explain the audience and give them real information. We got our first customer through Just Dial. During the initial days, I was attending customer inquiry calls, responding to them, and driving them to their destinations.
Our core focus on customer experience means our customer isn’t hesitant to pay slightly higher than the market rate. From there on, referrals started floating in through word of mouth publicity. In parallel, I started hunting for the right cab partners who were willing to join me in this venture. From one we became three, then seven, then twelve, and our cab quantity also increased. This gave us the confidence to enter into the corporate segment (B2B).
What Is The Revenue Model and Who Are the Sources?
Coming to revenue generation, we pay our partners according to the market rates derived from deep research. We apply our margin over it and then charge the customers (who are mainly B2B) for providing the best in class, safe, and unique cab riding experiences. For the corporate segment, we mainly pitch to corporate companies (from small scale to large scale organization), hotels, tour operators, etc. to cater to their cab requirements.
We do it via direct walk-ins, referrals, social media platforms, or by sending promotional emails and messages. We are a bootstrapped startup. On the mentorship aspect, I would like to mention three names: the late Mr. Himanshu Chudasama, Mr. Gagan Gupta, and Dr. Anu Gupta for their kind support in guiding me through some of the toughest turns.
How Did You Meet Your Team (Co-founders), And What Is Their Background?
Our company is a proprietorship firm. As a team, there are two individuals (management graduates) who support me as business consultants in the core areas of our business— strategic planning, marketing, accounting, cab onboarding and business expansion, customer help desk, and booking center. Our core strength is our ground team i.e. the fleet owners and cab owners associated with us. They are the people we have taken utmost care in selecting and they are delivering an experience as per our set standards, 24X7.
What Were The Challenges You Faced In Your Journey And How Did You Overcome Them?
Leaving a well-paid job after serving well-known organizations for eight years to start a venture was the first challenge. It was followed by social pressure from my family, society, friends, and relatives to take up a job again. The second challenge was to make cab partners agree to deliver a rich experience rather than a simple service. I have walked on streets and selected the few who were able to understand the concept. And then I trained them.
A Smarter Way to Travel
From a financial aspect, after launching the startup in 2016, it wasn’t easy being a married guy having a nine month old kid, two siblings with disabilities, and family to take care of. I was surrounded by several responsibilities and liabilities.
I remember the time when it was Diwali the next day and I had only Rs 400 in my wallet with nothing in the bank account. I literally had to drive 23 hours on that day to eke out the expenses; we managed to get sweets and crackers for my son and the family. After entering the corporate segment, a large payment we were to receive was delayed by 2 months. On the other side, to continue hassle-free ground operations, we had to pay our partners on time. It created a situation where we were left with zero balance in the account.
“Self-belief, patience, and persistence kept us going despite the obstacles”
Where Do You Want To See Your Startup (SMART Taxi) In The Coming Years?
Our vision is to become ‘India’s no. 1 cab company in customer satisfaction’ by 2025. Our further plans are tied to team building, marketing, product innovations, investment, expansion, and we’re diligently following it.
What Technology Stack/ Entrepreneurial Hacks/Online Tools/Services/Apps Do You Use In Your Startup?
We use Google Form for cab partner registration, conducting market surveys, and customer satisfaction surveys. We use LinkedIn, Facebook, and Instagram for brand awareness and hiring. Moreover, we have a confirmed business account on WhatsApp which we use to communicate with customers and cab partners across the cities where we have a presence.
We use MailChimp for email campaigns. And for professional emails, we use office 365. We also let our customers share their residential locations via Whatsapp and forward the same to our cab partner along with other customer details and trip information to allow them to reach the customer’s place without making a single call . To track our cab partners’ location, we have experimented with a free app called Life36, which allows us to view real-time location of individuals. For accounting, keeping track of the trips, invoice generation, etc., we use a subscription-based mobile app call “Vyapar“.
What Do You Look For In A Candidate Who Aspires To Join Your Company?
Passion to do something new.
Ability to present the correct picture, rather than presenting a manipulative one.
Accepting mistakes and the ability to learn from it, and to develop a future course of preventive actions.
Appreciating others for their contribution.
Openness.
Time management.
Value for commitment.
Brand loyalty.
What Are Your Strategies To Build An Awesome Work Culture In Your Company?
The SMART Taxi – Work Culture
I personally believe in creating a workplace which is safe and where everyone has the freedom to speak. Secondly, appreciation for doing something good is required so that people feel motivated. The appreciation may be small or big depending on impact, but it should be there. We are planning to introduce “thank you” cards which will be of a small piece of paper with “thank you” written on it. The motive behind this is to thank people for their work—both direct and indirect. The person who is giving the card and the individual receiving it are assigned some points. The person with the maximum points will be rewarded.
What Did You Wish To Become When You Were 15?
When I was 15, I wished to become a renowned engineer who creates an innovation that changes history!
Any Quote/ Advice That You Would Like To Share With Budding Entrepreneurs?
There is no substitute for hard work.
Success comes after failures, and failures come after success. The only thing which keeps you going ahead is your passion for not giving up and your faith in yourself.
Conclusion
Everyone who knows Dhruvam Thaker knows what a hard working person he is and how inspirational his story is. A soft spoken individual with a desire to become India’s No.1 cab service. He is definitely someone to look out for in the startup world. If you are ever in need of a Cab be sure to keep The Smart Taxi in mind next time!
Shubham Kumar
