OLA cabs mobile app now for black and yellow taxis as well

OLA cabs is now allowing customers to use its mobile app for booking kaali-peeli (black and yellow) taxis in Mumbai. At the moment, the service is available only in South Mumbai, but the company has plans to make it available to the entire city over the next 12 months. It intends to bring more than 20,000 kaali-peeli taxis on the mobile platform.

At present, more than 2,000 kaali-peeli taxis have been registered on the OLA platform. Their drivers carry mobile devices similar to regular OLA cab drivers. A customer can see all kaali-peeli and Ola cabs near his location and select one. The user then has to enter the drop location and confirm the request. Cab drivers in the area are alerted through their devices and the customer and the chosen cab driver have to settle the fare among themselves. After the driver accepts the booking request, the customer receives a message with all relevant ride details and the cab driver receives directions to reach the user. The customer can also track the cab till it reaches and share ride details with others.

The availability of kaali-peeli taxis on the OLA platform should make it simpler for customers to get cabs at their doorsteps in rush hours when finding one is usually not very easy. However, it remains to be seen if cab drivers are willing to accept and honour bookings during peak hours and drive past many customers waiting on the side of the road.

Source: Medianama