Bengaluru to soon see three-way taxi hailing battle with Namma TYGR app

H D Kumaraswamy-backed ride hailing app aims to become number one service in the city

India’s leading taxi hailing companies Uber and Ola will soon have to face competition from a new competitor in Bengaluru as the Janata Dal (Secular) leader H D Kumaraswamy-backed Namma TYGR app prepares to kick off operations in the region.

Bengaluru is among the largest markets for ride-hailing in the country with an estimate of over 100,000 cabs plying on its roads. Namma TYGR, which was formed by the disgruntled Uber and Ola drivers, is looking to quickly become the largest player in the market.

“We released the driver app today (Thursday) and will begin enrolling drivers on our platform from Monday. In the next 15-20 days we will look to rope in around 7,000-10,000 cabs, after which we will launch our customer app,” said Tanveer Pasha, President of Ola, TaxiForSure and Uber drivers and owners’ association.

Namma TYGR expects to get the support of around 40,000 drivers in Bengaluru, who are unhappy driving for Uber and Ola after both companies reduced incentives paid to them. Kumaraswamy, who rallied the drivers to start a service of their own with his support, launched the driver app at an event in his residence on Thursday.

A majority of cab drivers in Bengaluru hail from neighbouring towns of Mandya, Channapatna and Ramnagara- places where JD(S) is considered to have a stronghold.

Pasha expects a large number of drivers to sign up on the service as it offers a far better business proposition to them. The company will charge a commission of 12.5 per cent per trip from drivers, far lesser than the 25-30 per cent Uber and Ola charge. Further, the money which is collected will be returned to drivers in the form of benefits.

“Vehicle maintenance, insurance and taxes will be taken care of by the company. Further, each driver will get up to Rs 12 lakh in coverage through accidental insurance, medical insurance and life insurance. For drivers who have children, the cost of textbooks and notebooks for school will be covered” added Pasha.

Kumaraswamy had on an earlier occasion said that he would make fund contributions geared towards the development of the app and provide initial capital to the company. 

The development and running of the app has been outsourced to a third-party provider. For drivers though, the company is providing an estimated earnings of Rs 3,000 per day, if they drive and manage to cover a certain an average set by the cab hailing firm.

For customers, Namma TYGR says it will be cheaper than Uber and Ola. The prices for the two categories of cabs- hatchbacks and sedans- has been set at Rs 12.5 per/km and Rs 14.5 per/km respectively. Customers will have to pay a ride time charge of Rs 1 per km, which Pasha claims is lower than both Uber and Ola.

The launch of the service comes at a time when Uber is reviewing its India unit, after the US Department of Justice began a probe into five of its overseas units over allegations of bribery.

Uber’s troubles in Bengaluru also seems to stem from the reports of ist former executive, Eric Alexander, having obtained the medical records of a woman who was raped by an Uber driver in Delhi in December 2015.

While Uber is floundering, Ola too is in the middle of some tension as its largest investor Softbank is looking to participate in a massive $20-billion investment round in Uber’s global operations. The investment could force a merger of Uber’s India operations and Ola, even though no such terms have been put forth by Softbank, according to global media reports.