[dZired]

Uber has launched a new time-bound cab-hailing service in India, called UberHIRE. This new service allows customers to book an Uber cab for up to 12 hours. The company claims that this service has been aimed at customers who wish to use a cab for in-city trips with multiple stop overs. UberHIRE can also be seen as the company's answer to its chief rival - Ola's Rentals service.

Currently, UberHIRE is only available in 9 cities: New Delhi, Bangalore, Chennai, Mumbai, Pune, Ahmedabad, Vishakhapatnam, Kochi and Nagpur. The service will be expanded to more cities in the coming weeks. For the time being, customers using the UberHIRE service will only be able to pay the final fare through cash transactions.

Unlike other cab-hailing services from the company, UberHIRE will not be available 24/7. Parameters like availability time, minimum fare, extra charges (per km and per minute) and cancellation charges will vary from city to city. The minimum fare ranges from Rs. 449 to Rs. 649. The minimum fare is applicable for a certain period of time and distance, after which, the customer will be charged on per minute + per kilometre basis. All cabs under the UberHIRE platform will be operating within city limits only.

Link to Team-BHP News

[V.Narayan]

With their appetite for capital dumping these chaps could put many a local taxi rental business out of business. Small & mid-sized Indian businesses be they taxi rentals or grocery stores will be hard pressed to compete with these behmoths like Uber and Walmart. The FIPB rules has kept the likes of Walmart (retail goods) out but let Uber (retail services) in. I wonder what their net job creation is i.e. new drivers employed less old taxi wallahs who packed up shop.

[binand]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

The FIPB rules has kept the likes of Walmart (retail goods) out but let Uber (retail services) in. I wonder what their net job creation is i.e. new drivers employed less old taxi wallahs who packed up shop.

Btw, FIPB itself is gone in the recent budget - a move that was welcomed across the board.

http://www.dailyo.in/politics/fdi-un...y/1/15504.html

And that is not how you calculate net job creation; it has to take into account indirect job creation as well.

[GTO]

This is incredible! We have already used it twice this week! Advantages:

1. One car stays with you. Excellent for multi-stop trips, especially with the elderly.

2. Car arrives in <10 minutes. No long pre-booking period & planning as is usually the case with traditional rental car companies.

3. Their car, their driver, their maintenance, their risk. A DriveU driver recently crashed my Sunny (link to post). Now, it's bye bye DriveU, hello UberHire.

4. Well-priced for what it offers.

Only thing I don't like is that, both the times, we were forced to pay in cash. I hate cash & love digital payments. Wasn't permitted. Don't understand why, and I sincerely hope the rule changes.

[nishantbhatia84]

It's a great step by Uber as there is good demand for cars on an hourly basis.
At this stage it seems to be launched on trial as there are very few vehicles available plus normal Ubers aren't a part of UberHire yet. As an UberDriver I am yet to receive any information about the payment scheme for UberHire so that means they're still testing it with limited vehicles they've chosen.

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by GTO

Only thing I don't like is that, both the times, we were forced to pay in cash. I hate cash & love digital payments. Wasn't permitted. Don't understand why, and I sincerely hope the rule changes.

I'm guessing there's some legal/accounting aspect to this? Can't think of any other reason...

One thing that is totally unclear is the charges. Even the app says a fare estimate isn't possible for UberHIRE.

Can you or anyone else share some info on this based on your usage?

[binand]

I picked this screenshot off the Uber app. It looks far cheaper than savaari.com which I have used in the past.

[sanjaykk]

More on the UberHIRE rates here:
https://newsroom.uber.com/india/bang...ions-answered/

How are they arriving at min fare of Rs. 549/-?

[Rehaan]

Originally Posted by binand

I picked this screenshot off the Uber app. It looks far cheaper than savaari.com which I have used in the past.

Thanks.

What was weird in your screenshot is that it says the minimum Kms is 40, but per/km rate will be charged after 30 km.

This graphic & the info in sanjaykk's link seems to correct that strangeness. There is no such thing as "minimum km", but rather, 40 kms are included for free:

Originally Posted by sanjaykk

How are they arriving at min fare of Rs. 549/-?

There's no calculation. It's the just minimum you will be charged for booking an UberHIRE in case your calculated amount is less.

[binand]

Originally Posted by Rehaan

This graphic & the info in sanjaykk's link seems to correct that strangeness. There is no such thing as "minimum km", but rather, 40 kms are included for free

Right. I got it now, and have made this spreadsheet formula (yes, I'm lukkha today. :-)

=MAX(549, 199+(A1-40)*13+A2*3)

A1 is the distance travelled in km and A2 is the time used in minutes. So if you book a car for 8 hours and use it to travel 150 km you will pay Rs. 3069. If I remember correctly other services charge around Rs. 2400 for half a day.

Tolls, parking etc. are extra.

[V.Narayan]

Originally Posted by binand

Btw, FIPB itself is gone in the recent budget - a move that was welcomed across the board.

And that is not how you calculate net job creation; it has to take into account indirect job creation as well.

BiAnand, Yes I know FIPB has just gone. It was under the FIPB rules that this capital dumping was permitted in one sector while denied in another. I agree net job creation must look at the indirect piece too - but on both sides of the equation.

Dear Uber users,

The points I am making are the following:-

1. These mammoth PE backed firms are destroying numerous small Indian enterprises with capital dumping and selling their services for a loss. They will sell for a loss only till local competition has been largely subdued and then their pricing muscle will start to show. This may be a happy scene for some as customers in the short term but is not the way Indian industry will be built. My view. Others may disagree. I will concede that FDI is coming in for the long term. That I will grant to the likes of Uber, Amazon and the shareholders of Flipkart.

2. I would welcome these infusions of capital if they brought in capabilities that we have not developed ourselves, at that point in time, whether in services or manufacturing. Noteworthy examples that come to my mind are - the foreign automobile manufacturers, likes of IBM/Cognizant/Genpact, the telcom giants, and so many others. But Uber is bring in taxi services and car rentals and we call it innovative - agree they are making better use of telecom & computing technology but they are simply replacing capacity being put out of business. What will we celebrate next - an Uber like road side tea service that wipes out the million tea stalls in India. We are a country with the largest youth population for whom jobs need to be created and local entrepreneurship avenues need to be encouraged. I cannot but feel apprehensive of capital dumping giants.

Sorry if my views pinch Uber users. I am just trying to put a diverse point of view.

Disclaimer: I have used Uber only twice. My kids use it very often and think it is the best thing since sliced bread was invented.

[drmohitg]

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

Sorry if my views pinch Uber users. I am just trying to put a diverse point of view.

But how is Uber hurting anyone? The number of new drivers would be the same as older ones put out of business, if not more. Of-course this is by assuming that they will totally wipe out the older drivers that have existed until now. I see no harm in that. An Indian is replacing another Indian.

[binand]

Originally Posted by drmohitg

But how is Uber hurting anyone? The number of new drivers would be the same as older ones put out of business, if not more.

To understand that, we need to look at the unit economics of the taxi business, which starts at (unit time here is one day, week or month):

No. of drivers (A) x Trips per driver in unit time (B) = Total trips in unit time (C).

The hypothesis is that a platform like Uber increases B due to the improvements in efficiency it brings about, reducing idle time. This has been Uber's value proposition to the drivers so I guess it isn't all that off the mark.

If there are no job losses due to Uber, then A will remain constant. But Uber is increasing B, by maybe as much as 30%. So then for this equation to hold good, C also has to increase by that much (30%), which is quite unlikely. What is happening on the ground is that C goes up by a much smaller amount (some trips which earlier were taken in own vehicles, or simply cancelled, would now be done in Uber) - say 5%, which means A will drop by 20%. Or in other words, Uber will result in 20% less jobs as taxi drivers.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

1. These mammoth PE backed firms are destroying numerous small Indian enterprises with capital dumping and selling their services for a loss. They will sell for a loss only till local competition has been largely subdued and then their pricing muscle will start to show. This may be a happy scene for some as customers in the short term but is not the way Indian industry will be built.

This is actually a view I have heard used only by the Karats and Yechuris of the world (probably because it is so superficial and easy to refute). First of all, the bogeyman of "sell at a loss till local competition is gone, then raise prices" flies in your face when we consider the service in question - taxi service, which has government regulated prices. Second, Uber's business model does not exclude taxi drivers; in fact it includes them. What does it even mean "this is not the way Indian industry is built" - are you saying that Indian industry is built not for efficiency? If yes I guess you are right, and then it becomes all the more important that efficient business practices make their way to India.

The key thing to look at is not whether Uber as a whole is making a loss or not. Obviously in the early days when they are building capability, asset base and competitive advantage they will make losses (this is how pretty much every business out there operates). The most important thing to look at is whether they are in positive contribution margin or not. At Rs. 8/km (Bangalore rate for Uber X) I believe they are.

Lastly - this "capital dumping" is a term that first came up after Ola (Uber's competitor) brought it up in November.

Originally Posted by V.Narayan

2. But Uber is bring in taxi services and car rentals and we call it innovative - agree they are making better use of telecom & computing technology but they are simply replacing capacity being put out of business.

Now we are getting into defining what is innovative and what isn't. For me, a novel and "better use of telecom & computing technology" to reduce costs, increase value or improve efficiency is innovation.

Just to take this discussion forward, why don't you outline the (imaginary) scenario in the cab industry in India that you think is ideal for India?

[shankar.balan]

I love Uber Scheduler. It works beautifully across the World and so far no bad experience personally.
And the best thing, they have the Uber Corporate which is just an add on to your profile (provided your Company signs up for it).
And one can switch / toggle between profiles and use either Personal or Corporate and book and use Uber as required for personal/ official purposes. And all the official bills go straight to the company, which is perfect!

Im sure UberHire will be just as good.
I welcome it.

This is probably why UBER is the UBER of India and not silly OLA/ TaxiForSure - they really differentiate themselves through user friendly Tech! In China on the other hand - DidiQuaidi is the Uber of China and I guess they are competitive enough to be as good.

I wish OLA/ TFS etc would have done this level of first class Tech Led differentiation along with all the consumer sops they were doling out.
Had they done so, I personally would have liked that my money spent, remains within India, at least for my India usage, rather than expatriate it by way of the percentage earnings that Uber gets! For International usage I would surely continue using Uber - seamless quality and experience.

[binand]

Originally Posted by shankar.balan

And the best thing, they have the Uber Corporate which is just an add on to your profile (provided your Company signs up for it).

It is called Uber Business. The competing product from Ola is called Ola Corporate. As a matter of fact, Ola's product was available in Bangalore a long time before Uber's (I know because my company is a client).