E-Commerce India : Book a Cab or Car for rent online

In 90's the mode of travel for a common man is train or bus for long-distance; flights are only for rich few and government servants. After getting down at the destination, a bus or auto-rickshaw is a common last mile connectivity option. For those going on pilgrimage or for people touring other places for pleasure (rare though), the options for comfortable travel were less and a few were expensive. Travel in the new millennium has become so common that even going abroad is not a big deal anymore. In the entire travel experience, leaving aside the mass transport like flights, train or bus, rental car has become the most important aspect.

With airports becoming large and international, they are inevitably transferred to the outskirts. Transferring self from residence to the airport is itself a challenge.

With travel to nearby places out of interest and passion becoming commonplace, week-end getaways turned into routine. Most of the times, a rented car is preferred over the personal for convenience and comfort.

Going around in the city for shopping, sight-seeing or even to social meetings is not uncommon these days. Given the chaos and madness of traffic in Indian cities, a chauffer driven car is considered a better option, if possible.

Thousands of 'Tours & Travels', who operated rental cabs locally have done so to win the loyalty of the local customers and get repeat business. Talk to anyone who travelled by a rental cabs, the chances of hearing about their awful experiences is highly probable. International players like Hertz and Avis have entered India pretty early but were catering mainly to corporates. Local city taxi services were preferred by public but there was no cross-country brand with reputation that has won the hearts of people. EasyCabs and Meru partnered with Airports in offering better services, but there are enough unhappy customers. If one looks for local travel agencies and private car operators there are thousands of them all over the country.

There are umpteen business models existing within this car rental business and the cab driver is yet to see many incentives apart from a 'job' in this service. Just like in any other industry, they are the important cogs in the wheel and their significance can only be realized when the wheel stops. This industry is quite fragmented and in spite of presence of numerous e-commerce companies in this space, there is no brand which has an across-the-country image yet.

With this background, there are a few companies which are setting-up operations across the country. They seem to build a nation-wide brand with reputation. Two such companies are OlaCabs and Savaari. One can go to their sites, search for a required car rental package and make online payment for the service. While OlaCabs is operating primarily in Mumbai, Delhi and Bangalore, Savaari service seems to be available for 10s of cities in India.

Interestingly, 'cheap', 'low-cost', 'driver' are not the words present in these e-commerce sites, rather they seem to use the words 'chauffer' and 'quality'. Hopefully, the 'chauffeur' does not get a raw deal while the branded company makes its millions !

Can people expect a clean car, timely service and a no-nonsense chauffeur from these companies?