09 June,2009 08:11 AM IST | | Namita Gupta
Meet Rajiv K Vij, the man who has taken the tedium out of travel
Rajiv K Vij, CEO, Carzonrent India Pvt Ltd (CIPL), cannot stop smiling. His venture, EasyCabs, the radio taxi division of CIPL, has just completed one year of operations.
How easy are the EasyCabs in the city? How convenient are these cabs?
The entire concept of EasyCabs is based on delivering easy accessibility, safety, availability, economical, transparency in charges and convenience to travellers, whenever they want to travel from one place to another in the city. We believe that our service has been much appreciated for each of these expectations by the users.
Reason to smile: Rajiv K Vij, CEO, Carzonrent India Pvt Ltd (CIPL), believes EasyCabs, the radio taxi division of his firm, is the answer to many a commuter's prayers
What was your aim when you started this service in Bangalore?
People find it hard to call for a cab. Most of them don't trust the drivers. Many drivers also overcharge, and the cars are badly maintained and are not comfortable. I wanted to address the concerns that a traveller would face.
Have you lived up to the traveller's expectations?
We believe that we have taken the first few steps in meeting the expectations of our customers. We are now building the fleet further to keep delivering these services to more and more travellers.
How did you narrow down on Mahindra Logan as your preferred choice of car? What are the other cars on your fleet?
Mahindra Logan offered a good taxi car platform with good leg room in terms of comfort, luggage space and good mileage. We bought these cars for our services in Bangalore and Hyderabad. However, in Delhi, we have a large number of Maruti cars in our fleet. We intend to induct other good cars, keeping the customer's comfort and the cost as the main criteria.
Tell us about your pricing strategy.
Our customers have found the pricing almost half of what they were paying on otheru00a0 taxi options earlier. We believe that the radio taxi model, whose pricing is state-controlled is economical.
What is your take on global warming and pollution?
These are serious challenges confronting mankind and all of us have to take action to help control global warming and save the environment. Our entire radio cab fleet in Delhi is run on CNG, and we are inducting cars with similar clean fuels in other cities where such fuels are available.
