Here at Intinno we are always excited about entrepreneurship. Every way of making a business excites us. Umang Jain, our very developer by the day and poet by the night had an interesting conversation with a Meru Cab driver which reveled their awesome business model. The Meru works is:
- All the cars are owned by meru.
- The cab drivers are not employees but “subscribers”
- Each driver is required to pay Rs 800 per day to Meru.
- The car is in drivers possession and he decides when to drive the car.
- Each car has a GPS device. When the driver is ready to take a passenger, he has to switch on a button to mark his availability.
- Meru has a call center which algorithmically assigns one of the free cabs to prospective customers.
- The algorithm takes into consideration the closeness of cab to passenger and ALSO the amount that a driver has earned in that day, to ensure a fair distribution.
- Meru also ensures drivers of atleast 4 to 5 trips a day.
- The maintenance of cars, cost of the petrol is borne by the driver.
- To become a driver in Meru, you have to apply. They will run you through medical test and and background checks. Once satisfied they will assign you the car.
- The driver has the freedom to drive the car 12 hours a day or even 18 hours a day.
- This is good from the drivers’ point of view because hey decides when to go to work. He can spend time with his family in the time of dire needs like medical emergency.
- Drivers mark their availability and they have to take the passenger assigned to them no matter how short the distance is.
- Meru has money collection centres all over the city, where drivers can deposit money at any time of the day.
- The only loop hole in this model is that the car belongs to the driver but that is easily covered by the insurance.
- Meru purchases cars in bulk and are known to have had striked great discounts.
- There are around 7K meru cabs in India, which amounts to a whooping collection of 56L per day.
- The cab drivers are their own employers and they have the freedom on the time of work. The cab driver has been transformed from an petty employee whose work is to drive a car to any part of India to a self employer who can earn by innovating and can lead a better life with his family.
Great business plan and good work Meru Cabs !!!
March 15th, 2010 at 8:46 am
Some other contrary opinions –
http://www.team-bhp.com/forum/indian-car-scene/68334-meru-easy-cab-business-model.html
Not sure whether the company is making any money yet or needs to grow bigger for that. But their service has been good almost always in my case.
March 15th, 2010 at 11:25 am
hey every taxi wala runs on this model. Be it meru or easy cabs! Point is whose original idea is it?
I came to know about this model from an easy cab taxi driver.
March 15th, 2010 at 10:53 pm
Easy cabs doesn’t exactly follow the same model . They act as agents between cab driver and passenger. They take a certain percentage of the fare as their fees.
March 23rd, 2010 at 2:37 am
Guys..
most of the black & yellow cabs in mumbai have been running on a very similar model….except that the day rentals for the fiats are in the range of Rs.300/-; the difference is in the volume, the rich “malik” (the car owner) has say may be 2-3 cars and car is rented out to 2 diff people (mostly) – (1) day time (2) night time ; so this idea was neither originated by Meru or easy or any other organized cabs.
March 23rd, 2010 at 2:56 am
@sridhar:
There are many differences:
The customer is allocated centrally.
The fares are regulated.
You don’t have to listen “malik’s” gali if you are not in the mood to drive for a few days.
The service is regulated and the taxis are generally cleaner.
So even if the idea isn’t original, it has been organized by “Merus” and “Quick Cabs”.
March 28th, 2010 at 12:09 pm
Guess who has pumped money in Meru – ADAG
April 2nd, 2010 at 12:01 am
Some of these cab drivers are giving their numbers to customers – saying call me directly for morning airport calls.
Frankly this fair distribution of Meru is something I do not agree with – there is no fairness or uniformity in corporate , the more merit or luck u have , the faster u make money.
April 20th, 2010 at 2:51 pm
[...] cab etc too. Taxi Services| Car, Cab Services Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, Bangalore – Meru Easy Cabs Intinno Blog Blog Archive Meru Cabs: Fostering Entrepreneurship ? They and similar companies operate cabs in Most metros.It is somewhat different from Madras [...]
June 22nd, 2010 at 4:20 am
Yaar I care a dam on who innovated this idea…at the end of the day EasyCabs has taken a step in organizing this unorganized Taxi Business.I even read Easycabs belongs to Carzonrent which is master licensee of Hertz in Indai…wow so their service is really good.I have tried it.To try EasyCabs call 43434343 or visit http://www.easycabs.com