In the last decade, the industry has changed a lot, with new evolving technology and better customer services. One of those industries is the taxi industry. The global taxi market, which previously was of almost no significance is expected to record a CAGR of 9.22 percent during the year 2020 to 2024.
All this has been possible due to a major revolution in the industry bought by the tech innovators such as uber, ola, etc. These companies not only help the industry urbanize but also lead to reduced taxi fare, ease of booking through various online platforms like mobile applications, websites, etc. Just the online type taxi booking captured a major share of around 40 percent of the total taxi booking around the world. So, if you are also thinking of starting your own online taxi based business, we would recommend you to hire a professional that could provide you with an uber like script. However, this won’t be enough for you to smoothly run your online business. You need to understand, why did the taxi industry loath for such a change to be urbanized? What issues does the global taxi industry face before urbanization? So, here is a deep insight into the global taxi industry urbanization.
Why Urbanisation?
Let us face facts, vehicles and transport are the basis of any smooth-running economy. People need to move from one place to another comfortably inside a city, These transport services are essential for the big busy cities like New York City, Hong Kong, Banglore, Delhi, Tokyo, etc. In the middle of this panic to effectively and efficiently transport people, comes the taxi industry, offering safe transport in these cities. However, before urbanisation the accessibility of these services was not good enough, customers were not entirely satisfied with the taxi services, which in term triggered this change we call the global taxi urbanization.
The companies that took the first step towards urbanization were uber, ola followed by other small scale local businesses. Uber, as a taxi service company, changed the way we get around. In terms of the sheer impact that uber had on the industry, it cannot simply be called a startup, rather, a disruptor. So here are a few major uber effects on the taxi industry.
- Today, Uber alone evaluates to around 70 billion dollars, provides employment to around 10,000 employees, and more than a million drives operating in around 528 cities, around the world.
- Uber now is not just a simple taxi service company, it continuously pushes the taxi industry to urbanization with an aim at producing new technologies such as driverless cars and flying taxis. They are continuously pushing the boundary and looking for new ways to make the industry better.
- This urbanization process has given rise to a number of other ride-hailing apps such as Lyft, Juno, and Andrea.
Where Are We Today?
It’s been almost a decade, since this major change in transportation. So, the question arises where have we reached today. Has the online taxi industry-proven beneficial? Well, the best to get around this question is by looking at the latest taxi industry trends.
Increasing Demand Of Online Services
Well as far as the success of these online taxi ventures is concerned, we can safely say that the majority of customers prefer online booking over offline booking, owing to the increasing usage of smartphones, internet across the globe.
Not only this, the online services are much better than offline services, as they offer features like track your cab, estimated drive fair, prover contact details of the driver, options in vehicle choice, etc. All these features act as plus points in attracting the customers to the online booking platform rather than standing in the sun waiting for a taxi which may or may not arrive.
Efficient Methods of Transport
We can safely assume that, after the introduction of online cab booking services, a lot of other formats for taxi business have come into the light. Cab sharing is one of the few that is considered as one of the most effective and efficient forms of transportation. This form of transportation also provides the customer with an inbuilt fair splitting option, making the online taxi booking more economical than the traditional offline taxi booking system.
In order to sustain the increasing demand for low taxi fair, most of the online taxi booking systems have started to adopt this cab sharing option. For instance, Ola India’s own online taxi sharing cab service has adopted this method to overcome the mobility challenges faced in the country. Apart from this, they were the first to deploy the two-wheeler services and also include the large network on autorickshaw to increase mobility. Ola has effectively built upon the vast transport network the country already had.
Apart from this, the company Shuttl, which majorly deals with mass transportation is also a major company providing a ridesharing option. However, their format of booking is slightly different than what uber, ola follow. They don’t use an on-demand cab service formula rather utilize a 24/7 continuous transportation service from one terminal to another.
