Ola has officially shut down operations of its TaxiForSure (TFS) business. Around 700 employees have reportedly been laid off in the process.

Ola had acquired TaxiForSure in March 2015 in a deal worth $200 million. This move was made to maintain market leadership against the fast growing rival - Uber. At the time of acquisition, Ola had made it clear that TFS would work as an independent entity. But eventually, the company started moving drivers from TFS to its own platform. This reduced traffic on TFS, thus resulting in the said shut down.

Ola claims that TFS has been integrated to the Ola platform with the launch of Ola Micro. This has thus made operating another platform redundant.

The company has not commented on the exact number of employees been affected by the transition. Though Ola has claimed that most of the employees have been absorbed within the Ola business, there are a few roles that ceased to exist after the transition. The company claims to be helping those employees offering enhanced severance benefits and outplacement services to pursue new career opportunities.

All this comes as an effort to reduce burn rate of operations of Ola in order to sustain the tough competition being given from Uber, which is the world's most valued start-up.

Source: Business Standard

The Government of Maharashtra is considering amending the Motor Vehicles Act to bring web-based taxi aggregators under its ambit. The step is expected to affect the businesses of operators such as Uber, Ola and TaxiForSure among others.

The draft rules state "Aggregator" means a taxi service provider or an operator who acts as a digital intermediary for a passenger to connect with a driver, by means of a mobile phone/web application or through a call centre or by any other. A car cannot be hired through any aggregator who is not registered with the Transport Department.

The rules require the holder of a permit to fit a GPS / GPRS system that complies with government-specified conditions in the car. The vehicle has to run on clean fuel - petrol and CNG / LPG / Electricity / Hybrid. The licensee has to maintain a fleet of a minimum of 1,000 and a maximum 4,000 taxis either owned or through an agreement with individual taxi permit holders. A maximum of 2,500 permits will be issued to a licensee in the first phase.

The licensee is required to have a registered office in Mumbai Metropolitan Region and details of its headquarter including telephone number, e-mail ID and details of office in-charge have to be provided to the transport department at the time of application. The licensee has to maintain a web portal containing all details of its ownership, registered address, services offered, fare structure, insurance liabilities, control room number, name and contact details of a duly appointed grievance redressal officer.

The colour of the taxi has to be approved by the authorities. All advertisements on the car have to be in accordance with the guidelines issued by the authorities. The taxi should be replaced by a new vehicle on completion of 20 years or as may be decided by the authorities. 

The application for license have to be accompanied by a processing fee of Rs.1,00,000 in the form of a Demand Draft payable at Mumbai. A fee of Rs. 25,000 will be levied for each permit granted. If found eligible, license will be granted for a period of five years upon furnishing a bank guarantee of Rs. 50 lakh. A licence can be renewed for 5 years. For renewal, a fresh bank guarantee of Rs. 50 lakh has to be furnished. Renewal fees are set at Rs. 1 lakh.

The working hours of drivers will be limited to eight hours a day and not more than 48 hours in a week. For long distance rides it shall be no more than 10 hours and 54 hours in a week. Drivers should have a commercial vehicle licence and have to be in uniform.

Click here to read the full draft

Recently, online taxi aggregator Ola, went the app only way. Now the company claims to have a market-share 80% of the online space by the number of registered vehicles (including autorickshaws). In November 2014, Ola commanded about 60% market-share.This figure includes the share of TaxiForSure as well. Ola acquired TaxiForSure earlier this year.

There is no breakdown of the Ola-TaxiForSure share provided by Ola. The market share data was based on “available or estimated data of registered vehicles on respective platforms”. Meru claims that it had 20,000 registered vehicles across 7 cities. Uber did not to disclose its numbers.

Ola also claims that it does 7,50,000 rides every day and has over 250,000 vehicles. It is adding 1,500 vehicles daily.

Earlier this year, Ola mentioned that TaxiForSure had 24,000 cars on its platform and the total number of vehicles was about 1,50,000. Ola claimed to be doing around 2,00,000 rides every day in January 2015 with a month on month growth rate of 35%. Calculations show that the resulting number for July 2015 would be 15,13,358 - approximately twice as much as Ola is claiming at the moment.

Other calculations reveals that if 2,00,000 cars make up 80%, Meru, which has a 12% market-share, has 30,000 vehicles in the 7 cities that it operates in. Uber, which has a 4% market-share and operates in 18 cities, has 10,000 vehicles.

Source: Medianama

The Delhi government has requested the Department of Telecom (DoT) to block websites of taxi operators such as Uber, TaxiForSure and Ola Cabs. The DoT has now issued a letter to Internet Service Providers (ISPs) ordering them to block access to the URLs and asked for a compliance report on the same.

In December 2014, the Delhi government had banned all app-based taxi services following the rape of a 27-year old executive by the driver of an Uber cab last week. However, the ban did not stop people from booking cabs through apps.

As a result, DoT has ordered the blocking of the websites under the powers conferred to it by Section 69A of Information Technology Act, 2000 and Information Technology (Procedures and Safeguards for Blocking of Access of Information by Public) Rules, 2009. This step was taken after a committee that was formed to handle the matter, recommended the action.

However, the Internet Service Providers Association of India (ISPAI) has said that these sites cannot be blocked because of technical issues.

Source: Times of India

Olacabs is reported to be gearing up to buy out rival company TaxiForSure for $200 million (Rs. 1,250 crore). The takeover will see Olacabs grow stronger against competitors such as Uber in the fight for dominance in the taxi aggregation market in India.

The takeover will see Olacabs pay cash and offer stock with backing from Japan's SoftBank. The term sheet for the deal is believed to have been signed and the finer details will be worked out over the next ten days.

TaxiForSure is believed to have held talks with Uber and Carzonrent before finalising the deal with Olacabs. The company, valued at $125 million, was looking for looking for funding to stay competitive in the market.

While Olacabs, like Uber, work only with drivers, TaxiForSure works with taxi operators. This means that the takeover will give Olacabs access to taxi operators, which will be an advantage over Uber. 

Source: Economic Times