Call Taxis are quite popular service in cities now, but have you ever wished for a similar service to book autos. Come May 16 that will become a reality in Chennai, as Gates India, a T-Nagar based private company will be launching their Call Auto service.
At times when I need an auto to go to office, I have to walk from my apartment to the main road, wait patiently for empty autos and then haggle over the fare a bit before jumping in. With Call Auto, I could avoid all this inconvenience with a single call. Of course not at free of cost. One needs to pay additional Rs. 6 as service charge, in addition to the Rs.14 for the first 2 km and Rs. 6 for every subsequent km that the Govt. has fixed. But still it would be much cheaper when compared to call-taxis.
Well, the call auto service providers should not think that their service ends with connecting the auto drivers to the passenger. They should also listen to complaints from the passengers and remove the membership of the erring auto walahs if they try to get additional money from the passengers, with their favorite line – “Meterku mela konjam pottu kodunga ,sir” (Give us something in addition to the fare). Otherwise it won’t be any different from the current scene and people might not be willing to use this service.
Call taxis have been around here for a long time. So I really wonder why no one thought about the call autos so far? In a way Govt. is partially responsible for this, as it had not revised the auto fares for a long time. Now that the fares are revised, it would be interesting to see whether the established players like Fast Track, Bharat or Chennai call taxi too join the race to launch their own call auto service.
Isn’t it a perfect example of how a little bit of business sense makes every one (Customers, Entrepreneurs & the Govt.) happy!! I wish Gates India all the success in its Call-Auto business.
Update: Gates India started their call auto service in Chennai now. Check here for details.
call auto.I don’t think it won’t successful that much like call taxi :-).Cost is a matter which cannot be suffice for the autowalas to come long distance.
do you have their contact nos…?
Normal Auto drivers ask Rs. 80-100 for a 12 km travel whereas Call Auto will cost 72 (12*6) +40 (service charge) amounting to Rs. 112 which normal chennai people need not give. If the service charge is reduced to Rs.10..then we can avail these services. They can charge another Rs.10 if the user wants travel receipt.