Ola Cabs

ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd.
OLA
Private
Industry Technology
Founded Mumbai, Maharashtra, India (3 December 2010 (2010-12-03))
Founder Bhavish Aggarwal
Headquarters Bangalore, Karnataka, India[1]
Key people
Services Taxicab, Vehicle for hire
Revenue ₹418.25 crore (US$62 million)[2] (2014-15)
Profit ₹-754.87 crore (US$−110 million) (2014-15)
Number of employees
 5000 (2015)
Website www.olacabs.com

ANI Technologies Pvt. Ltd., operating under the trade name Ola, is an Indian online transportation network company. Ola was founded as an online cab aggregator in mumbai, but is now based out of Bangalore.

It was founded on 3 December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal (currently CEO) and Ankit Bhati. As of 2014, the company had expanded to a network of more than 200,000 cars across 100 cities. In November 2014, Ola expanded to incorporate autos on-trial basis in Bangalore.[3] Post the trial phase, Ola Auto expanded to other cities like Delhi, Pune, Chennai and Hyderabad and Kolkata starting December 2014. In December 2015, Ola expanded its auto services in Chandigarh, Indore, Jaipur and Guwahati, Visakhapatnam. Ola is valued at $5 billion as of September 2015.[4]

Service

Ola provides different types of cab service ranging from economic to luxury travel.[5] The cabs are reserved through a mobile app. This cab service supports both cash and cashless payment options with Ola money. It claims to clock an average of more than 150,000 bookings per day and commands 60 percent of the market share in India.[6] November 2014 Ola also started on-demand auto rickshaw service on its mobile app in Bangalore, Pune and few other cities.

In October 2014, Company claimed to have 80 percent of the taxi market share in India,

Ola has started more services such as Ola Cafe, Ola Store, Ola Shuttle, Ola Money and Ola Corporate.[7]

In April 2016, Ola launched an e-rickshaw category on its platform that will enable the users to book rides on the electric vehicle in the Delhi-NCR region. A total of 5100 rickshaws will be deployed according to COO Pranay Jivrajka.[8]

On 21 June 2016, Ola announced that it is starting two new services, namely, outstation and rental. With outstation, a customer can now book a cab for intercity travel, two hours in advance on the Ola app. Rental enables customers to rent a car on an hourly package basis instead of point-topoint pick up and drop, which is Ola's core business.[9]

On 8 September 2016, Anand Mahindra, Chairman and Managing Director of Mahindra Group, along with Bhavish Aggarwal, Founder and CEO, Ola cabs, announced that they would be tying up for cars, vehicle sales, financing and sales. This was done to increase the fleet strength on Ola's platform by 40,000 vehicles over the next two years. The addition will primarily be the Verito, earlier called the Logan. Also, Ola drivers will be eligible for Mahindra financing, where they would get up to 100 per cent financing on new and pre-owned vehicles.[10]

Ola launched its "OlaAuto" service exclusively for Thane, Navi Mumbai with 250 auto rickshaws as part of the Ola fleet, a number which comprises one auto rickshaw union.[11]

Acquisitions

Employee relations

In cooperation with Avanti Learning Centres, drivers who are associated with Ola can get their children studying in the ninth and tenth standard to the learning centre and avail free education.

Ola Gurukul will start off with a batch of 500 students in Mumbai. The initiative will be extended to provide free stationary, books and other apparatus for the top performing students. The student’s program will be held after school so that the students get the much needed attention while also saving on tuition classes costs.[15]

Criticism

Technology

OlaCabs' technology came under criticism regarding the security of its mobile app. The API calls could be replayed to top up its wallet.[16]

In August 2015, a privacy breach had occurred when intended customers' details such as names, phone numbers and addresses, in Bangalore, were received as SMS messages by an individual in Chennai. Although these unanticipated messages were reported to Ola, the company had chosen to ignore them, even under the threat of being reported to the TRAI.[17] The issue was reportedly fixed three weeks later after receiving considerable media coverage and social media attention.[18]

Over billing and transparency in billing

The refund policy of OlaCabs has been criticised because of billing errors caused by technical glitches in their system.[19]
Hackers have claimed that they have been able to hack OlaCabs system and access customer data including credit card/debit card information.
The Bill for OLA Cabs consist of following elements
1: Base Fare [Charged Flat]
2: Distance Fare [Charged Kilometer Wise]
3: Ride Time Fare [Charged time taken to travel]
4: Peak Pricing [Direct Ratio depending on demand for cabs[20]
5: Service Tax [5.6 %]
6: Swach Bharat Tax [0.2%]
7: Toll Charges [Toll Collection in case you cross Toll Junction on road]

Driver Credibility

The Delhi Transport authority in early 2015 questioned the credibility and required verification of drivers plying Ola cabs, along with other competitors like Uber. The inquiry has revealed that approximately 80% of drivers amongst all services did not possess permits to ply commercial transport services in Delhi.[21]

See also

References

  1. ↑ https://www.olacabs.com/info/about_us
  2. ↑ Chakraborty, Sayan (23 June 2016). "Ola revenue rises eight-fold to Rs418 crore". Mint. Retrieved 27 June 2016.
  3. ↑ "Now Book Auto Rickshaws in Bangalore via Ola Cabs". NDTV Gadgets. 20 November 2014.
  4. ↑ "This Indian "unicorn" startup just raised $226 million". Fortune. 2015-09-16. Retrieved 2016-04-28.
  5. ↑ "Ola aims to counter Uber with its Biz-class service". The Economic Times. September 2, 2014.
  6. ↑ Abudheen, Sainul K (November 19, 2014). "Ola now has $250-300M annual gross transaction run rate; peek at its numbers - VCCircle". VCCircle.com.
  7. ↑ "Ola launches 'Ola Corporate' for corporate travellers". The Indian Express. 2016-01-13. Retrieved 2016-01-16.
  8. ↑ "e-rickshaw bookings on Ola's platform, launched by PM Narendra Modi". Vasopedia India. 6 April 2016.
  9. ↑ "Ola expands into two new categories - outstation and rental - The Economic Times on Mobile". The Economic Times Mobile. Retrieved 2016-06-21.
  10. ↑ "Ola to raise fleet by 40,000 after Mahindra tie-up". Business Standard. 9 September 2016. Retrieved 10 September 2016.
  11. ↑ "Ola kicks off auto service in Thane". Hindustan Times. 6 October 2016. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  12. ↑ Shrivastava, Aditi (January 29, 2015). "Olacabs to buy TaxiForSure to take on competitors like Uber; deal likely at Rs 1,250 crore". The Economic Times.
  13. ↑ Mandal, Suchayan (June 25, 2015). "Ola cabs app and Taxi For Sure get into a relationship. Twitter trolls prove how complex it is". Business Insider India.
  14. ↑ Russell, Jon (August 17, 2016). "Ola confirms it has shut down TaxiForSure, the rival it acquired for $200M". TechCrunch.
  15. ↑ Chakravorty, Rishabh (September 7, 2015). "Ola Cabs will educate driver's children". India.com. Retrieved 2015-09-10.
  16. ↑ Aggarwal, Varun; Murali, Malavika (March 20, 2015). "Taxi aggregator Ola hit by tech glitches that allow free rides". The Economic Times.
  17. ↑ Anand, Kunal (August 30, 2015). "Ola Cabs Accidentally Reveals Customer Data To Chennai Girl, And Doesn't Care". Indiatimes.com.
  18. ↑ "Ola leaked its customers data, claims user; company blames manual error". The Indian Express. 1 September 2015.
  19. ↑ "Decoding OLA Cabs Billing Issues – Ola ka Gola!". Trak.in. May 13, 2015.
  20. ↑ "4: Peak Pricing [Direct Ratio depending on demand for cabs]".
  21. ↑ "80% of Uber, Ola cabs don't have permits to ply in Delhi, says minister". The Indian Express. June 19, 2015.
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