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-   -   Bangalore: Shoffr airport cab service; an alternative to Ola/Uber (https://www.team-bhp.com/forum/street-experiences/263797-bangalore-shoffr-airport-cab-service-alternative-ola-uber-9.html)

After noticing Shoffr BYD e6s on the roads occasionally, I've decided to take a little detour from my usual thoughts of the first app that chimes into everyone's mind when it comes to booking a ride: from our good old Ola/Uber, to reimbursing it with Shoffr. Initially, after seeing these cars, it always reminded me of my perception of 'Big things, big price' as the size of the e6 roughly sits between the XUV700 and the Alcazar, so I had procrastinated exploring it further. But I had to give the Shoffr website a go, which I did later on.

Pre-ride experience:

The booking isn't an instantaneous process like Ola/Uber, but a pre-booking one. You ought to select the date and time for the proceeding ride, which depends on the availability of the cars, as they are numbered to under eighty(!) in Bangalore as of this posting. I had booked this ride a week prior to my flight, and hence could easily secure my slot. Considering the limited fleet, this procedure could be a gamble. They offer no short commute service, but only hourly rentals, airport transfers, and outstation trips as of now, as per the website. I have only experienced the airport transfer service, which this review is all about. It is priced approximately 200 rupees higher than the 'prime SUV' category on Ola. Is it worth it? I have answered it as you will read below. I'm writing this almost a month post my flight, and the airport fare of Shoffr remains almost the same from my pick-up location, with a five-rupee hike from the initial 1315 rupees.

The ride:

My ride was at 5:15 am, and the driver had been there half an hour early at the destination and waited for us.
Coming to the car, it is a 5-seater MPV and greeted my parents and me with a well-appointed and sublime dark interior. The ingress and egress height was more or less the same as the mid-size SUVs. The under-thigh support and leg room were solid and comfortable for people under 5'9".
Here's where I could differentiate Shoffr from its competitors throughout the journey:

• The driver was well-mannered, focused on driving, and never talked on the phone, unlike any other normal cab driver.
  
• There were no sappy 'mods' like the infamous ferrari, apple, and nike stickers, or any other riced up interior/exterior mods to my notice at panorama, which gave it a professional look.
  
• Never forgot his indicators at any turn, and on highway lane switches.
  
• He offered us 500 mL Clear water bottles and Pulse candies. Which is also one of the USPs of this startup. The former was in a retrofitted organizer pouch behind the front passenger seat and on the passenger dashboard. The latter were stored in another compartment within the same. We could take as many as we want. There were tissue papers on offer too.
  
• Since it is an electric car, I had to appreciate the NVH levels. Not just because of the absence of an engine, but the absence of any rattling or creaking of the trim pieces in comparison with many other EVs of the same segment. Which is also expected of a car worth 35 lakh OTR Bangalore.
  
• He drove pretty sedately throughout, but I craved a little more of an enthusiastic ride, maybe because I could hear nothing but the road noise, as I am quite accustomed to my noisy yet punchy Honda Mobilio (review coming soon!). He accelerated linearly and overtook on the highway from HCVs with adequate torque supporting him. Nonetheless, the car puts out a lackluster 93.87 bhp and max torque at 180Nm on paper, but doesn't feel as bad as it sounds.
  
• The motor was well paired with the suspension; consequently, the body roll was impressively contained considering that it lounges on a body-on-frame chassis while absorbing the horrendous Bangalore roads with the best it could offer. Albeit he had to haul the car obliquely on massive speed bumps due to the underwhelming 170mm ground clearance of a car this size, just like the Toyota Velfire with a similar meek setup. Even lower than the Indian sedan standards these days.
  
• I also surprisingly noticed dual dashcams, both at the front and at the rear, which soothed down my safety-biased mind because neither of the competitors has them. Couldn't identify the front ones, but the rear one was probably a Qubo (cylindrical) one, but not sure if they are sold as a pair. Dashcams are constant throughout the fleet, and pets are allowed too.
  
• The maximum positive kilowatts he drew was between a ballpark figure of 60-70, as per the power meter. I didn't feel any heavy foot on the brakes for the regen either.
  
• Upon arriving at KIA, he got down immediately and opened the door for my mum (I felt jealous, haha!). Quite the 'chauffeur' Shoffr, eh?
  
• Our travel bags were picked up, loaded/unloaded by the driver himself, and the loading lip was completely flat till the boot striker plate, which is really practical and a must-have on all road cars!

The silver lining of this package has to be the comfort, ride quality, and excellent NVH levels. The comfort is unmatched, almost Mercedes-level. All I could wish to be better is the availability of cars in case you want one within a day or two. Fairly value for money, but you could also opt for the 'prime SUV' category from Ola, as said initially, with a few trade-offs such as the driver's etiquette, dashcam, premium feel, trustworthiness, and compliments. I feel the extra premium of 200 rupees is almost worth it.
A dealbreaker for some people I foresee, is that this is a 5 seater, and Ola/Uber offer 7 seater configurations in this price bracket, too. But overall, the negatives weigh perfectly as the positives for both parties in different use cases. Hence, this lands on the matter of choice. But Ola/Uber is definitely still a go-to service for short commutes, as Shoffr doesn't offer it. But if your use case is rentals, Shoffr offers them, but the latter doesn't. Shoffr has seemed to have carved out a niche in its category.
All the observations were from a passenger's point of view. However, in contrast, this car has many shortcomings from the driver's POV as well. Both in terms of features and certain aspects of the powertrain assist in driving dynamics, as commonly said in the reviews I read, although I have not driven it.
I hope I’ve been able to explain everything clearly, as this is my very first review on Team-BHP. As being just a 17 y/o, I apologize for any mistakes or shortcomings made.
Kudos!

I completely agree with your positive experience. I also rely on Shoffr for my airport trips, and their professionalism and quality of cars are commendable. I recall an instance when the driver’s family member was calling him repeatedly. Despite my permission to answer, the driver waited until he had dropped me off before responding. Additionally, I once prepaid the Devanahalli toll, but due to a different route suggested by Google Maps that day, Shoffr promptly refunded the toll as soon as i reached the airport. I wholeheartedly recommending their service to my colleagues and family.

Nice review of service.
Is it available in Mumbai?
Secondly do they pick you up at Banglore airport if booked in advance?

It is operational only in Bangalore (a Bangalore startup) and Delhi as of now, hoping that this expands to Mumbai next. And yes, you can book the ride in advance, and they will wait at your pickup location. I've said it in my review in detail, too.

Not yet I believe. They started in Delhi few months back with limited vehicles.

Yes, They have pick-up from airport and drop to airport facility. Need to specify the terminals in any case and can be changed via support on Whatsapp easily incase needed.

It's better to book in advance as prices go up till Rs 1750 for next day booking :eek:

:thumbs up This is indeed one of the biggest positives of an EV. With EV, the playing field has been leveled on the NVH front. It is hard to not appreciate the democratization of refinement brought forth by the Electric Vehicles.

They do, you need to provide your arrival time. Recommend adding 30 min to this to exit airport. They normally call before driving in. If Terminal 1, peak traffic, it might be easier to fire up the Pulse app and taking an EV cab. Reason being that the arrival pickup area is a mess and traffic backs up. I find it easier to park and walk to collect someone.

Brilliant service for Airport drop, however for airport pickup, I have had to wait far too long for the driver to reach the pick up point (on an average 30-35mins.).

Shoffr is just outstanding.. Best cab service I have ever used. Period. I have been using it for several years, with absolutely no change in service levels

Premium cabs are a short lived experience, they are like premium economy tickets for short travel, not VFM unless you are a group of friends who are pooling or if you are wealthy:p

Prices for normal Ola/Uber rides to/from the airport itself isn't justified. Wonder how this pricing will turn out after the Airport line metro operations start in Bangalore. Ola and Uber should start providing dash cams to the cabs, although they don't own them. Most drivers will at least drive carefully knowing they may be watched upon.

Anyways, I will try it out Shoffr soon just to experience it like you did. (Only once lol:)

I have booked Shoffr at least 8 times so far and I find below advantages with them.

1. Shoffr has been consistent with their on-time pickup. Whenever I had to catch an early morning flight, Uber/Ola have been consistently unreliable as most of the times there are no cabs available or drivers generally call ahead ask me to cancel app booking and pay them directly.
2. All Shoffr drivers I have met so far were very courteous. They talk politely, offer water as soon as you get in the car, open the door for you, help with your bags etc.. all resulting in pleasant experience.
3. They are very sedate drivers, and you absolutely feel safe during the ride. They don't take calls while driving. This is key factor for me as I don't see this with most of the Ola/Uber drivers.
4. They coordinate well and provide correct updates. Airport drops are always seamless for me, as Shoffr arrives at least 15-20 mins ahead of pickup time. For pickup at airport, I generally call the driver as soon as I collect my luggage and they arrive in 10 mins. I have noticed that they park their car just outside airport (around this area https://maps.app.goo.gl/Lm5wzZjatCFFVmhk6) and come to pickup point once we have landed and collect our bags. If the assigned car is too far from airport by the time we land, they will also help to reassign nearby car if feasible, which helped me when I landed quite early in once instance.

Well, these are the few points which made me never book Ola/Uber for any planned Airport trips and hope this helps.

Small query for Delhi bhpians.

I am planning a quick day trip to Delhi and was looking to book Shoffr as i have had bad experiences with Ola there.

Taking their hourly package with two stops.

Bit confused about their unlimited kms within city limits and extra for outstation trips.

I will be going to Gurugram and from there to Okhla phase 1.

Would i have any issues with the booking? I have added these two stops in Shoffr and it shows me the total fare. I presume it would be fine?!

Please suggest.

Haven't tried their service yet but have been reading all the posts in this thread for a while now. Anyway, here's the Shoffr story so far:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OUyKTl0p4oM

My experience with Shoffr was very good too. I booked an airport drop and scheduled it at 6AM and the driver was early. He waited until the scheduled time and then called me that he is ready. We were running a bit late and he waited promptly and patiently for 10 more minutes. The drive was smooth, my family was pleasantly surprised by the minimal NVH levels as they weren't aware it was an ev. Car was clean and comfortable. We were skeptic to book it in advance and pay as we had a bad experience few years ago when we had scheduled an Ola cab for railway station drop and it was cancelled by them in the last minute and it was a crazy experience to get to the station on time. Definitely recommend Schoffr especially when we want to pre book.

Have been using shoffr since their launch for both airport pickup and drop. Also used shoffr multiple times in the last few weeks. Experience has always been good. On time, polite drivers. Although noticed that the cars have started to age.


Not from Delhi, but have used the rentals in Bangalore and if it is showing the final fare and accepting the booking it should be fine.

I find their pricing reasonable for what they offer. Last trip was 1570 from Sarjapur road. For a large comfortable EV with loads of luggage space,.felt it was ok. Bluesmart for the small sedan I remember was 1300 odd.