[simplyself]

I have come across a concept aiming to provide taxi vehicles returning empty after dropping off the people with some revenue as it provides the contacts of the customers who may travel one way towards the returning vehicle's destination.

They plan to charge annually from vehicle owners/tour operators for the service they provide.

I wonder whether the business model survives, and the logistics involved in it seems staggering.

But it is an interesting concept.

[Trust_In_Thrust]

It is only in cases where there is nexus between government agencies (such as airports etc) this is happening .For eg at Chennai airport .At Delhi they charge extra but not double .
My company has a collaboration with a particluar taxi company whose meter starts from taxi company office to point of pick up an ends back at taxi company office .

I think once Taxi business opens up further this rule of pay for both sides will change .

Look in Delhi ,
We have easy cabs , charging INR20/- km for cars running on CNG .Total cost of car /km is less than INR2/- for them .
Same company runs these cabs for INR15/- on diesel in bangalore .

Using cabs at airports like raipur , chennai etc i end up paying to and fro charges .

This will only end when market opens further .For eg in Delhi i can get a AC cab for INR10/- , no other charge , which to me is pretty much better VFM compared to hiring hertz , easy cabs etc personally for within city travels.

[simplyself]

What I was able to understand about this concept is, the returning vehicle is engaged so that would benefit the operator by providing him a certain revenue instead of coming back empty. Passenger too benefits from this as the returning vehicle charges less.

For example, say a vehicle is engaged from Hyderabad to Vijayawada (about 280 km) and the cab may get about Rs.3000.00 as fare. After dropping off the passengers at Vijayawada, the cab, more often than not, returns empty, or the driver takes in the passengers enroute. In either cases the owner gets nothing.

This website seeks to address this issue. Once the vehicles destination details and time are provided to the call centre of this particular website, it may, depending upon the availability, arrange return fare. It has to be organized both ways - individual users/companies should be made aware of the service, and the cab operators too should come onboard by providing details of their vehicles.

Coming back to the example cited above, the returning vehicle may charge far lesser than the Rs.3000.00 it charged from the source in its return journey. The user benefits from cheaper fare, the owner gets some more revenue. Both the parties are benefited.

[iSpoke]

I think the model you are talking about already exists buts in sort of unethical way. I have personally observed it in Pune, during a return empty-trip many private company Cab and even Bus drivers stop nearby a city bus stop where passengers are waiting for city buses. They drop you upto any stop on their way at reasonably rates.

The main attraction of this service is that these cabs/buses are in pretty good conditions and one does not have to fight with the pseudo-conductor for 50 paise/1 rupee change! Since the earning directly goes to their pocket without the information of their owner. But the service is limited up to the previous-stop from where the first company employee is to board! I know its unethical and one should not promote these activities by taking ride of such vehicles, from two point of view 1) to support government state transport services 2) more important, for personal safety.
The bottom line is, these business exists and works well but unfortunately currently not in a legal state.

[simplyself]

Originally Posted by iSpoke

I think the model you are talking about already exists buts in sort of unethical way.

Picking up passengers from bus stops is not the aim of this model. It is about long distance travel (inter-city) and involves cabs returning empty after dropping of the passengers. Passengers benefit as the rate would be chaeper and the cab owner benefits as there is some extra money for him in it.

To answer another concern, it sort of optimises the resources as the availability of this service may remove the necessity of engaging another vehicle to reach one's destination which would have to return empty, or as you have been saying, pinching passengers from public transport.

[vigneshA]

Unofficially its is in vogue in Chennai-Pondicherry ECR route. Generally the taxis and some times private cars ( where driver is going back) stop at the bus stop -Thiruvanmiyur and pick up passengers. So much so that during crowded times, people fight to get into those cars as well.

The idea is definitely worthwhile. Let s see how it picks up.

[iSpoke]

^
Exactly, what vigneshA says in above post.

Originally Posted by simplyself

Picking up passengers from bus stops is not the aim of this model. It is about long distance travel (inter-city) and involves cabs returning empty after dropping of the passengers.

I was talking about within city limits, hence the cabs stop-by any city bus stop to pickup the passengers. In case of inter-city transportation they will pickup the passengers from respective State Transport bus stop/station!

The thing is that its unofficially implemented and in most cases the owner is not aware about (let's say they are helpless in confirming how many passengers the driver took and upto which station?) the details of passengers travelling by such empty returning vehicle. Hence the owner himself is not benefiting to the extent he should be, so no profit shared with the final customers. We usually end-up paying the similar charges what regular pay, even when travelling by such returning vehicle. The main chunk of profit goes to the driver in that case.

Anyways, the optimization is still there!

[scopriobharath]

This model is in place for "Call-Taxi". The meter starts when the passenger boards the cab and stops when the passenger alights at the destination. Once the passenger is dropped, the cabbie radios the control room, where he is given another pickup in the vicinity.

This model will work technically even for long distance travel, but the investors must not charge inexhorbitantly for this.

Example take a cab which leaves for Pondy from chennai. from the time, the driver prepares to leave, and the time he reaches pondy, there will be at least 5-6 hrs gap. If this info can be radioed to some-operator in Pondy / Tindivanam / vicinity area, I am sure there will be someone who wants to hire the cab to commute.

Honesty will play an important role here. If the return charges are 3000/- and the driver gets another business (return to chennai) he must charge only 1500/- to the onward customer and charge the remaining 1500/- to the return customer. This will depend on the honesty of the driver (Which i could contest and win on 99 out of 100 scenarios).

[simplyself]

Originally Posted by scopriobharath

Honesty will play an important role here. If the return charges are 3000/- and the driver gets another business (return to chennai) he must charge only 1500/- to the onward customer and charge the remaining 1500/- to the return customer. This will depend on the honesty of the driver (Which i could contest and win on 99 out of 100 scenarios).

This is the basic rationale behind it, that a returning vehicle charges lower which makes more money. But I do not think charging half the rate even for onward journey works even if the cab operator knows there is return fare too. But this sure makes people think about it and may reduce fare for onward journey if not halving it.

Do not bet on honesty, you would lose. But sense of business might prevail.