Inter-city booking with reverse bidding from ixigo cabs

Taxi aggregator ixigo cabs  announced it would build a marketplace for inter-city  aggregators and vendors with a reverse-bidding model.

The service will be available for Delhi and the surrounding region, Jaipur, Agra, Chandigarh, Rishikesh, Dehradun, Jammu, Shimla, Manali, Meerut and Alwar.

“Our primary objective has always been to simplify a traveller’s life, and in this case we are doing so by getting them the best outstation cab deal in just a few minutes. In addition, we are also giving travellers the option to book a one-way cab, helping them save up to 50 per cent on the total cost. Within just a few weeks of the launch, we’re responding to 2,000 queries a day with an average ticket size of Rs 6,000,” said Venus Dhuria, business head (cabs) at ixigo.com.

MOBILITY AT FINGER TIPS

• Service  will be available for NCR, Jaipur, Agra, Chandigarh, Rishikesh, Dehradun and nearby areas
   
• In a reverse auction, the buyer puts up a request for a required good or service
   
• Sellers then place bids for the amount they are willing to be paid for the good or service, and at the end of the auction, the seller with the lowest amount  wins
   
• In this case, ixigo offers a list of taxi services with their price range and the buyer can pick up the lowest priced one

It has also tied up with inter-city taxi aggregators such as AHA Taxis, GetMeCab and OneWay.Cab. The company has conducted background verifications on all its listed taxi vendors and aggregators over a period of three months prior to the launch.

“ixigo has a very large pool of intent data for inter-city travellers, which makes the company the right partner,” said Amit Grover, chief executive officer of AHA Taxis.

So far, the intra-city market was the focus of attention among entrepreneurs with bike taxis, ride sharing, buses and taxis. The market, experts say, is almost saturated. The disruptions will now happen in the inter-city space, says Harish H V, partner, Grant Thornton. “There are services that people can take already like buses, trains and flights. But in shorter distances customers may take to cab travel quicker.”

He explained that people would start using a combination of services. “Say, someone may take a train half the way and then get into an inter-city taxi booked through an app the rest.”

The market, estimated at $9 billion, is largely occupied by unorganised taxi companies. The likes of rental cars, too, tried to solve the problem but are considered premium services and don’t offer chauffeur services. Companies such as French unicorn BlaBlaCars, which entered India last year, have tried to get a foothold in the market with the company claiming it offered one million rides in the past year.

The emergence of ixigo’s service means that there should be an eventual price drop in these services, which have largely been unregulated, said Harish. “It has a big-ticket size currently, but it will drop as more players get into this segment.”

He believes Uber, which initially had an inter-city service, might get back into the segment. “The existing players, such as Uber and Ola, have a strong customer base and will use that to get into inter-city and start using that to their advantage.”