[raj_5004]

Originally Posted by Vince

Reg. Mumbai : Are there any alternatives to Meru?

You have Easy Cabs in Mumbai as well (Accent) - 43434343

I dont know why someone said to avoid pre paid taxis - our very own mumbai black & yellow taxis. Atleast from airport, I find the pre paid taxis (especially AC ones which are blue & silver) to be good, efficient & cheap. They dont have a boot though, because of CNG tanks. so if you have luggage, look elsehwere.

[bejoy]

Bangalore

Spot City Taxi
41100000/25510000
SPOT City Taxi, Bangalore's best city taxi service >>> Call: 551 0000
I have been using their taxis since 2005. Very reliable, decent drivers and cost effective. The were one of the first radio taxis in Bangalore and have a fleet of Omnis, now they have Indica's too. The drivers own the vehicle and the company runs the call center and control of the fleet. I have mainly used it for railway station drops. They even pick up from railway stations in the early mornings.

[sparsh]

I found the Fast Track service 24732020 in chennai the best and much more economical than auto's. They land up at your door step within 30 mins on weekdays and you need to plan your travel in advance on weekends given the weekend rush. The best part is they come for short distances of less than 5kms as well. Its a boon for residents/visitors in Chennai

[Marlon]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

You have Easy Cabs in Mumbai as well (Accent) - 43434343

I dont know why someone said to avoid pre paid taxis - our very own mumbai black & yellow taxis. Atleast from airport, I find the pre paid taxis (especially AC ones which are blue & silver) to be good, efficient & cheap. They dont have a boot though, because of CNG tanks. so if you have luggage, look elsehwere.

Cool Cabs / Pre Paid Black & Yellow in Mumbai airport - They are twice as expensive as Meru. Why do you want them when you have excellent Meru Service.

Cool Cabs at any other place , near stations - They are like Chennai Auto Wala's . They want fixed higher fare and not meter fare.

[normally_crazy]

Originally Posted by raj_5004

You have Easy Cabs in Mumbai as well (Accent) - 43434343

42 000 000 - is the number for the Cool Cabs - the white and blue ones.

Meru Cabs has always been a disaster.

1) Call them and you never get a booking.

2) Log on immediately after the call to their website and you get a cab instantly.

3) Cabs are beginning to age and get creaky. No one maintains them it looks like.

4) Drivers will crib about ferrying you in town - all they want is airport trips.

5) Drivers are shabbily dressed, some look outright un-hygenic.

For me Meru is a strict no-no.

I would prefer a normal taxi or an auto in place of Meru.

I had complained to Meru on their web-site and got a call back from them after about 4-5 days - they asked me what the problem was, I asked them to read the mail I have sent them. They said action will be taken against the driver. I told them I would be more happy if they would reply to me via email of the actions / steps taken against my complaint. I have received no email till date.

[TKMCE]

Originally Posted by bejoy

Bangalore

Spot City Taxi
41100000/25510000
SPOT City Taxi, Bangalore's best city taxi service >>> Call: 551 0000
I have been using their taxis since 2005. Very reliable, decent drivers and cost effective. The were one of the first radio taxis in Bangalore and have a fleet of Omnis, now they have Indica's too. The drivers own the vehicle and the company runs the call center and control of the fleet. I have mainly used it for railway station drops. They even pick up from railway stations in the early mornings.

SPOT was reliable and I used them as well to the airport also when the airport was at HAL. But for airport drops there was a catch regarding their cost effectiveness atleast in the early days of BIAL (new airport). When the new airport started, for my first trip I used them to the airport (at 4 AM ,night charges applied) and on the return I ended up taking Meru from the airport (again after 11 PM) only to find no night charges for Meru!!! In short late night/early mornings you had the situation of paying more for SPOT for NON AC comfort. After that I had stopped using them for airport pickup.drops.Those days they had only non AC Omnis

But you are right , otherwise their reliability was good and drivers were mostly professional.

[GTO]

Further to my earlier post, here's an experience I had with Meru yesterday.

Early morning flight @ 0620 hours, hence booked a Meru a day before. Got the confirmation immediately. At 0430 hours, horror or horrors, the Meru cab hadn't arrived, and neither was the cab driver answering his cell phone (Meru SMSes you the allocated driver's number before pick up). It would be impossible to find a black & yellow taxi at that time. I called the Meru helpline and lodged a strong complaint. Within 60 seconds, they allocated a second cab to me. And in another 12 minutes, that cab was down my house.

Mistakes happen with any organisation, and this was the first time in 2 - 3 years of using Meru that I faced such a problem. Full marks to them for effectively solving the problem and getting me to the airport on time.

@ Normally Crazy : Completely agreed. A good part of their fleet is getting old & creaky. That, and the resistance to credit card payments aside, I am a happy Meru customer.

[raju2512]

I have extensively used Fast track in Chennai and never faced a problem. A word of caution for those hiring FT at Chennai Central. They have both prepaid and meter taxis. The counter guy will inform you about prepaid only, which is costlier by 70-80%. Ask for meter taxi and they may tell you that it may take time. But you will get one with in 10 mins.

[girishglg]

Originally Posted by bejoy

Bangalore

Spot City Taxi
41100000/25510000
SPOT City Taxi, Bangalore's best city taxi service >>> Call: 551 0000
I have been using their taxis since 2005. Very reliable, decent drivers and cost effective. The were one of the first radio taxis in Bangalore and have a fleet of Omnis, now they have Indica's too. The drivers own the vehicle and the company runs the call center and control of the fleet. I have mainly used it for railway station drops. They even pick up from railway stations in the early mornings.

Agree they have been one of the oldest operators in Bangalore and emerged into the scene around the time when call taxis were give permission to ply in the city.

Also some more information:

• SPOT is Self employment Programme for Organized Transport.
• India’s first radio taxi private operator, started in 1999 with 18 taxis.
• Has a fleet strength of 260 taxis which are owner driven.

Some of the salient features of the Enrolment are:-

• The total earnings from the trips made belong to the owner cum driver.
• Owner cum driver pays one time enrolment charge, as a refundable deposit.
• After the enrolment, a nominal monthly air time fee and operating cost is paid by the owner cum driver.
• The owners cum driver do make direct trips on their own, subject to, logging in the customer details with the control room.

The present fares are:

Minimum Fare: Rs.50/- (Upto 4 kms)FARE (per km): Rs.12/- Waiting Charge : Rs.10/-(every 15 Minutes)Night (10 pm to 6 am): 1 ½ Meter Charge

[libranof1987]

Bangalore :

A friend took a Garden City cab from Marathahalli to Airport last week. It turned out pretty economical.

Garden City cabs have both non-a/c and a/c options; so if you're travelling somewhere at night (when you don't necessarily need the a/c), these are quite a good and economical option.

The booking, cab arrival is prompt. The non a/c cabs are Indicabs.

Tariffs and more info can be found here :

Garden City Cabs | Bangalore

Given the hike in rate by Meru/Easy cabs and a different rate for the night, Garden City is a worthy option.

[girishglg]

Originally Posted by Vid6639

Comfort cabs - Bangalore:
Comfort cabs-City Taxi

Tel: 080-4900-5900

Relatively new entrant in the market and as of now they have only about 50-60 cabs. Cabs are nice and new bright red Fiesta Classics. Brand new cabs so feel good. Getting cabs is based on your luck but have found them to be the saviour for me when Meru cancelled and could not give me cabs. Last minute booking I always got through Comfort. Hope they increase the cab numbers. To me it looks like their drivers are all poached from Meru and Easycabs.

Recently used Comfort cabs to pick up a colleague from the airport. The cab was confirmed well before time and the vehicle arrived an hour in advance even though the response with regards to their call center needs further improvement as it did not seem to have well trained folks to answer the calls and there was no SMS confirmation of the vehicle / driver details either. They called back to inform about the vehicle availability and details.

Overall it was a good experience with good driver and a brand new red Fiesta car in service and their rates are on par with Meru with no waiting charges either. As per their website they would be launching in Pune, Ahmedabad and Delhi as well.

[aroonanand]

Originally Posted by raju2512

I have extensively used Fast track in Chennai and never faced a problem. A word of caution for those hiring FT at Chennai Central. They have both prepaid and meter taxis. The counter guy will inform you about prepaid only, which is costlier by 70-80%. Ask for meter taxi and they may tell you that it may take time. But you will get one with in 10 mins.

Thanks for the information; I did not know this and was stunned when they charged me ~275 from Central to T Nagar whereas the distance is only ~10-12 kms which should not have exceeded 175 by the meter taxis.

But otherwise, they are generally good for city commute. But in evenings, you need to book the cab well in advance, else you dont get a cab!

Originally Posted by girishglg

Agree they have been one of the oldest operators in Bangalore and emerged into the scene around the time when call taxis were give permission to ply in the city.

I used to commute by Spot Taxi in 2006-07 when I stayed at BTM and they were reasonably efficient. After I shifted to Sarjapur Road in 2007 I have found them to be very unreliable in this area and cabs dont turn up at all.

Have tried Fast Track and Cel Cabs in recent past and both have turned up on time for city / railway station drops.

Originally Posted by libranof1987

Bangalore :

A friend took a Garden City cab from Marathahalli to Airport last week. It turned out pretty economical.

Garden City cabs have both non-a/c and a/c options; so if you're travelling somewhere at night (when you don't necessarily need the a/c), these are quite a good and economical option.

The booking, cab arrival is prompt. The non a/c cabs are Indicabs.

Thanks for the information, will try their service some time and see how they are.

[ajmat]

Tried booking a Meru 15 hours in advance for an airport drop- no cabs available
Swirched to Easy Cabs!

[Dushie]

I have had a bad experience with easy cabs where 30 minutes before the scheduled pickup they sent an SMS that they are unable to provide a cab. I called and blasted them and the standard reply i got it was a technical issue due to which the problem occurred. I would rate my Meru experience better than Easy Cabs. 9 out of 10 times i have got the Meru whenever i have booked in advance.

[Ashley2]

Pune:

I am using Travel Time call taxi for the past few days, up and down.
Only Eeco CNG are used. The cabs are well maintained and drivers are always good.
But the biggest issue is you will not have any taxi's instantly and the min you will have to wait is upto 30 min from the time of booking.
This happened every time and yesterday by 7PM they told the dont have cabs free till 9.30PM(for about 2.30 hrs) .

The service required for me was Chinchwad to FC road. So I returned by train to Shivaji Nagar.

And I am not aware of the reason behind this colour combination in License plate!