On a drive to airport with Meru cabs I enquired the cab driver how Meru Cabs operated. To licensed drivers Meru Cabs provides cars @ Rs. 900/day (Bangalore) exclusive of diesel charges and maintenance. This fee is to be provided by the driver to Meru irrespective of number of transactions he makes in a day. The maintenance costs as and when they occur is shared equally between Meru and the drivers. When request is placed for a booking via phone the address is recorded and hence need not mention address for pick up point every time. They can trace the address from the phone number. 30 – 45 mins before the scheduled pickup a group of cab drivers are intimated of the opportunity via the display screens fitted in the cab and they can confirm it by pressing when they are available (15 mins, 30 mins ..) for pickup at the spot mentioned. Once the confirmation is received the first one or the earlier one will be confirmed for pickup and the exact detailed address will be provided.
The message is then sent to the passenger on details of cab and cab driver number. The cab drivers are lucky enough if they can make more than Rs. 2500 in a day. My next question to him was that he could easily make it if he can make two, three trips to airport alone. But it looks like they get only one airport opportunity in a day. I also enquired why Meru always slips away with unjustified reasons for bookings to Railway Station. It seems like due to earlier problems entering Railway Station at Majestic they made it a policy not to take booking to Railway Stations, even to cantonment railway station.
900 such taxi’s are operating in Bangalore under Meru. In Delhi the count is 700 and the rate per day is Rs. 700 planned to be increased to Rs. 800 next month.
Note: The details provided above are based on narrations from Cab drivers and is not my views or do not authenticate any information regarding Meru Cabs.
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