Derailing efforts in Indian Tourism Industry — When Radio Taxis entered
Taxi Image in yesteryear
The word Taxi brings a series of images for anyone born before the 90s. While the eastern Indian guys remember yellow cars from Kolkata, the black and yellow are for Delhi and Bombay. South used to have white Ambassador. A 3 lettered text and 3-digit number in a plate used to hang on either side of the car, something like MCX 300 or CAX 300. The Cab guy too, had a different dress code, while the north guy had bottle green or khaki on him, the south guy had white.
The taxi was the royal thing to get in then. Two sofas were fitted in an Ambassador, which used to be enough for even 7 people. Irrespective of what we have in a restaurant, he used to have a full meal on a diagonal table of ours.
He used to be part of the wedding, cremation, or any other event that used to happen concerning the family. He used to come half an hour early most of the time from the departure time.
Scene 2: Outside Railway station or bus stand. Same dress code, same color car, and similar numbers. The driver used to lean on the car reading newspaper, which would have been used by the customer once he gets into the car.
Taxi wise there was no much difference between any two taxis. The driver had the efficiency of fitting in any number of luggage into that car. If you are challenging him with more luggage, he will tie them to the top of the car.
While the Taxi drivers used to speak very limited, contradicting them were the friends who used to drive auto-rickshaws with non-stop talks. Most of the taxi drivers were very soft-spoken and towards work.
How is the Taxi industry today?
The taxi industry has changed drastically after the entry of Aggregators like Ola, and Uber. Owning a car is not a luxury today. Comfortable night buses and trains slightly changed the fate of today’s taxi owners.
In cities like Delhi, Mumbai people prefer metros or local trains rather than taxis, considering the traffic the cities have.
Long distance travels are majorly managed by MakeMyTrip or Goibibo as they have plus on technology and brand.
Every city has taxi associations. But the primary purpose seems to be fighting back with technology or new travel startups or increasing price band. Rarely we have seen any upgrades these associations collectively doing for the development of individual taxi owners or this business model.
Even in the year 2021, we have witnessed strong repercussions from Goa taxi owners against Goa Miles and cab owners in Bangalore Airport bringing airport taxis to halt their business for few days. An increase in chaos questions the purpose of taxi unions. While they are meant to improve the lifestyle of taxi owners and improve tourism, they are getting successful in creating a sense of uncomfortableness in tourists when they step out of the airport. (Source)
COVID impact on Indian Taxi Industry
The taxi industry is hit hard by COVID leading to irreparable damages. Taxis were majorly deployed for tourism, airport, and railway transfers and the daily needs of the corporate industry. With all 3 coming to halt, and the corporate industry looking into more of a hybrid model in the future many taxi-related businesses have come to a halt. In May 2019 as per The Hindu report, there were 175,000 taxis in Bengaluru. Bengaluru may not see such a demand in the coming few years. COVID, Hybrid model, better metro reach may make it tough for demand to increase.
Taxi men’s life too is messed up with recurring EMIs and no trip for weeks long. While the government has tried paying one-time money in some states, that is nowhere close to their needs. Bangalore may need half of the taxis that it had pre-corona by 2025. Many factors are bringing the count to 50%.
- Metro reach to increase
- The hybrid model in software and biotech firms
- Train and Volvo for airport transfer. Even the metro is in the picture.
- Players like Bounce in 2-wheeler rental to accommodate many.
- More privately-owned vehicles.
- Apps like Quick Ride helps in carpooling.
Killing their own business
The traditional taxi industry seems to be getting trapped in its own plans. We are seeing a movement where the government is being asked to ban or shut the radio taxis. In Bangalore, Government was requested to increase the radio taxi fare exorbitantly to match with traditional taxi fare. This is not the experience tourism industry wants to give to tourist, when he gets down at the airport. It is not an experience to ask passengers to get down from just onboarded radio taxis. We need a change here.
The effort needs to be placed to reskill the taxi drivers on providing a better experience to travelers. The effort needs to be placed in encouraging taxi drivers to get into the gig. Taxi union/tourism departments can always create a website/app for taxi system in the district and attach it to Google Maps. This is in place in many states. It should be brought in soon. Unions should think of digitizing taxi infrastructure, so that taxi drivers need not shell out huge sums as commission. At the same time, it is necessary to educate them about smartphones and the latest technology i.e. digital literacy.
What can be done?
The taxi industry as a community needs to bounce back. The fight should be in giving better experiences to customers.
Government: It is not a big effort for either state or central government to create an app or web system which lets the traveler book these individual taxis. Consider Government builds a system and let each district tourism department handle it. Where district tourism can tender the taxi management to a local company and decide on the price scale. This way taxi drivers have to pay out less commission compared to private players like UBER or OLA. Organized micro-level institutions are the need of today.
Taxi Unions: Taxi unions should increase digital literacy and increase professionalism in today’s taxi drivers. They should bring in the cultural needs of today’s society. The training should be most on soft skills and digital literacy. There is a need of GIG introduction to them.
Radio Taxi Majors: Radio taxi majors are backed by VCs which makes them shell out a good number of margins as a discount in the initial days to occupy the market. This is creating some irreparable changes in the traditional system. The discounts should be competitive at the same time should not uproot the traditional industry.
Riders: Riders or travelers being digitally literate, have some part to play. Never let one single company run the industry. If there is any option let them grow too. At the end of the day, when the competition reduces, you start bearing high prices. Also, we should be vocal for local. Give them a shout-out, or help them in creating their online presence to create a better competitive society of tomorrow. Even a review on Google or Trip advisor can bring in a change!
Taxi Drivers: Taxi drivers have to work on providing the best experience to travelers. The service should make the traveler live every moment of his travel. NO GDPR law or privacy rule impacts individual taxi owners. Try to make use of the same. Soft skills and digital literacy are the need of the day. Embrace it.
This is not new
The need of digitizing taxi system is all time high. And it is possible. Take an example of food delivery industry. Swiggy and Zomato are the prime runners. The commission they charge to restaurants are some time called exorbitant by few restaurant owners. That is when many local startups came into picture with less commissions. My Road Runner is a food app based out of Karnataka which has placed itself comfortable in 2–3 district with far competitive price than the majors above. Behind Goa Miles too, there is a huge effort from Goa Tourism.
Harshitha is starter of Travebrate, travel startup based in India. Travebrate helps in providing latest updates on tourist attractions along with information on availability, accessibility and facility. You can ask if Phi Phi island is open? or if Ooty is open for tourists?
