mid-day test drive: Black-and-yellow taxi app fails litmus test

midday couldnt find a single Aamchi Drive taxi during a test run near Ravindra Natya Mandir in Prabhadevi PicsBipin KokateFor a ride hailing service that boasts of 2000 taxi drivers on its rolls Aamchi Drive is an absolute letdown The app to book Cool Cabs and kaalipeelis was launched yesterday amid hope of levelling the playing field and ending the monopoly of giants Uber and Ola But it failed to live up to the hype on the very first dayWhile launching the app at performance art space Ravindra Natya Mandir in Prabhadevi around noon Mumbai Taximens Union leader AL Quadros had bragged Chhota ya bada hum sab bhaada lengehellip refuse nahi karenge Irrespective of the distance we will accept faresAlso read Book your kaalipeelis through Aamchi Drive app from tomorrowBut we couldnt even put that claim to test Every time we tried to book a taxi mdash we made several attempts from each of the three chosen locations mdash we drew a blank There simply was no appaffiliated taxi mdash Cool Cab or blackandyellow mdash nearbyShashank Rao with the Aamchi Drive appFrom plenty to zeroThe first test was conducted right outside the location of the launch Ravindra Natya Mandir at around 3 pm We fired up the app fed in the destination Worli Seaface selected the payment option ewallet and waited The app searched for taxis but got none We tried again still no luck The noshow was in sharp contrast with the turnout of taxis during the launch many cabs with stickers of Aamchi Drive pasted on them were seen thenChanged payment optionWe zeroed in on the state transport commissioners office in Bandra East as the next location Again we keyed in the destination Mahim railway station This time we changed the payment option to cash hoping that would do the trick But again there was no sight of any cabA number of blackandyellow taxis and Cool Cabs were seen at the apps launch at Ravindra Natya Mandir in Prabhadevi but they disappeared within an hourWhat appFor out next location we chose Gandhi Market in Sion We assumed wed luck out at least there We were proven wrong again A few of the drivers in the locality hadnt even heard of the appQuadros felt that these are only teething troubles At least two drivers told me that they got ride requests on the app It will take some time for people and our drivers to learn of this app We believe that there will be better awareness on Aamchi Drive in a month he said after being told that the app failed the test runTeething troubles aside the taximens union needs to look into the fares to create a demand for the app We found that the fares were steeper than for a nonapp ride Case in point when we tried to make a booking from Lower Parel station bridge to Phoenix Mills the fare estimate was R42 A regular kaalipeeli ride would cost Rs 22No taxi was available in the vicinity of Ravindra Natya Mandir when we tried to book a rideAn advantageThe app in theory is a godsend to commuters held to ransom by the pocketpinching Ola and Uber Quadros pointed out that Aamchi Drive has a legup over these platforms there is no surge pricing Our fares will remain constant irrespective of the demand or the time of the day We will levy a convenience charge of Rs 5 though Ola and Uber were ruining our business We had to upgradeCan be used without appOfficials from IT firm Sun Telematics maker of the app which is also responsible for its maintenance said once a substantial number of taxi drivers enrol with the app passengers can even hail a cab without opening the app It would only require giving ones mobile number to the driver At the end of the trip the passenger would be charged through ewallet and the details would be recorded in the central systemEvery trip will be monitored While the app is in use the meter will not be operational Fares will be determined using the Aamchi Drive app said Vilas B chief operating officer of the firmSanjay Sasane an RTO official from Kalyan said the all drivers using this app will have to be registered Ideally appbased bookings will be a winwin for both cabbies and customers