Meru Cabs strikes while the iron is hot, even as Uber and Ola are in limbo

It's a smart move by Meru to win back the customers it had lost to Uber and Ola, says Tech in Asia

I have an early morning flight to catch tomorrow from Bangalore to Delhi. Normally, I would have booked an Uber, whose service I’ve come to appreciate since its entry to India a little over three years ago. But protesting drivers have disrupted services of both Uber and its main Indian rival Ola in recent weeks. So, to be safe, I booked a radio taxi cab from Meru, which takes advance bookings as well as on-demand.

I was surprised to see a charge of a little over Rs 600 ($9) for the ride, because just a week earlier I had paid around Rs 900 ($13.5) for a trip from the airport to my home. Meru runs by meter and doesn’t have variable pricing like Uber, so this was a straight rate cut. It’s a smart move by Meru to win back the customers it had lost to Uber and Ola over the past few years. 

‘Overworked and underpaid’

I spoke to an Uber driver in Bangalore, who said his incentive payment had dropped from Rs 2,000 ($21) to Rs 600 ($9). Even though Uber has raised fares for riders, it doesn’t cover the drop in earning for drivers. Besides, to get the incentive, the driver has to complete 15 or more trips in a day. Hence the protests over being “overworked and underpaid.”

I also spoke to a Meru driver, who resisted the temptation to switch to Uber or Ola as many others did. He’s content with doing five or six trips a day, mostly to and from the airport, where Meru and other radio cabs are designated as airport taxis.

Today, the Meru driver and the Uber driver earn roughly the same, but the former has a much lower workload.

This is an excerpt from Tech in Asia. You can read the full article here