Sunday, 31 July 2016
Many
years back , King Canute realized that a tide cannot be stopped from coming in
But
it seems that some of us still think that it is possible to arrest / reverse
the " March of Technology " !
How
else can you explain the recent decision of the Road Ministry that Uber / Ola taxies
must install taxi-meters currently found in Kali-Pili taxies / Auto Rickshaws ?
Because
, after all , a taxi by any other name is still a taxi , and must comply with the
provisions of The Motor Vehicle Act ?
What
will the North Block / South Block mandarins do when the following happens ?
#
Google / Alibaba ( internet giants ) and Tesla / Mercedes ( car
manufacturing giants ) , put on the roads ,
autonomous ( driverless ) cars which will pick up a passenger from
anywhere and take him anywhere else
# And
summoning this taxi and paying the taxi-fare will be through a mobile app ?
#
When this trend picks up , people will stop buying " personally owned " cars and existing
car-manufacturers
will themselves , morph into " Taxi
Manufacturers / Aggregators / Service Providers " , in direct
competition
with today's Uber / Ola ?
Instead
of trying to turn back the clock , I hope the powers-that-be , read my
following blogs and reconsider their
decision
TAKE AWAY :
* For Kali-Pili Taxi Owners
Stop
depending upon " Sarkar Maa-Baap " ! By harnessing technology , turn
the tables on Uber / Ola !
To
beat Uber at its own game, pool your fleets all over India and make available a
Kali-Pili within 3 minutes anywhere in India , with your own Mobile App , " Kuber " ( Kali-Pili Uber )
If
you unite , your " Aggregation " can be 10 times bigger than Uber !
With
your clout with the governments ( Central+States ) and with local RTOs ,
force Uber / Ola , to install in their
taxies , Digi-Met tablet
meters and Fare-Calc applications for
calculating fares ( no surge pricing , since Fare-Calc will be running off the Servers of
local RTOs ! )
* For the Policy Makers in Road Ministry
Instead of playing a Regulator (
for over-pricing violations by Uber / Ola ) , become a Facilitator for the App-based Taxi Aggregation
Industry
Control
surge-pricing by increasing competition ( supply exceeding demand , at all
times )
Encourage
( through easy / simple rules ) , 10 more Ubers / Olas to come up in the country in
next 3 months !
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Monday, 16 May 2016
DNA
( 16 May 2016 ) carries
following news-report :
"
LMO for apps to replace fare meters "
In
this report , Shri Amitabh Gupta , Controller
of Legal Metrology Organization ( LMO ) , is quoted as follows
:
" There
are couple of mobile phone-based applications available on the internet which
can calculate the fare based on distance and waiting time.
If
genuine applications are verified by the LMO, then any auto rickshaw or taxi
driver can download it on their phones and then use them.
Since they would be verified by the LMO, there would no
question over the issue of malpractice.
This
way, gradually the electric metres would give way to such applications that
appears to be useful and are in line with the latest technology "
Congratulations
, Shri Gupta , for this initiative !
This
is , indeed , good development and reinforces my following suggestion / blog
:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Sunday, 14 February 2016
As I
observed in my earlier blog ( 05 Feb 2016 ), Theodore Levitt wrote in his
seminal essay," Marketing Myopia " :
If
you don't obsolete yourself , someone else will . So keep asking yourself :
What business are we in ?
Levitt
gives example of American Railroads , which failed to ask themselves this
question and got obsolete by American Car manufacturers and American Airlines .
No more people wanted to travel by trains !
Whereas
it may take 10/20 years before Car Manufacturers themselves get obsolete ( by
manufacturers of Virtual Reality / Augmented Reality / Holographic / Hepatic
devices and web-services - making travelling unnecessary ) , according to me ,
taxi-rickshaw Meter Manufacturers are in
the danger of getting obsolete , within the next TWO YEARS !
Expect
some Indian Start-Up to come up with a digital
taxi meter ( to be called , DigiMet
? ), resembling a 8" tablet , with a screen on both the sides , visible to
both , the driver and the passenger
DigiMet will be integrated with :
* GPS
based Google Map
* Mobile
App ( called , FareCalc ? )
downloaded from the web site of the Authority fixing " Tariff " ( RTO ? )
Passengers
will also need to download / install , FareCalc app
on their smart phones
As
requested by the passenger , taxi driver will enter the destination location ,
in DigiMet
Immediately
, DigiMet will display the
following routes to the desired destination :
* Shortest
route ( distance-wise )
*
Fastest route ( time wise ) , taking into account the traffic
conditions on different routes
DigiMet will also display , the
amount of " fares " payable for each route ( also displaying tariff :
Rs per Km )
Now
it is the passenger's turn to select / choose the route that he wants the
driver to take
The
taxi / rickshaw will start only thereafter !
At
the end of the journey , passenger will have the options to pay the fare ,
* In cash
* By
entering his Credit Card details into the DigiMet ,
or
* Through
his Mobile Wallet ( using NFC ? )
The
Mobile App will also need to have a provision for any " Waiting Time
" charges to be added
When
the destination is reached , DigiMet will
display :
*
Distance travelled
*
Time taken
*
Waiting Time ( if any )
*
RTO approved tariff ( Rs per Km )
*
Fare amount payable
Any
revision in the tariff will get updated automatically in DigiMet as also on the smart phone of
passenger
For taxis
/ rickshaws running on Hybrid fuel ( producing less Co2 ) or Electric Vehicles
( zero emission ) , both , the driver and the passenger will get " Carbon Credits " , which will also
get displayed on the DigiMet as
also on theFareCalc Mobile App on
the smart phone of the passenger ( @ 20 % of the fare payable ? )
These
amounts will get transferred to their respective Jan Dhan Bank Accounts ( thru DTB ) , every quarter
I
suppose some variation of DigiMet / FareCalc can be introduced in all State Transport
buses and intra-city Municipal buses
I
hope , the current manufacturers of taxi - rickshaw meters are asking
themselves :
What
business are we in ?
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
01
Aug 2016
www.hemenparekh.in / blogs
hemen
parekh
Marol
, Mumbai , India
(
M ) +91 - 98,67,55,08,08
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