The urban road passenger transportation in India has seen a major rehaul in the current years. The online taxi services market in India was valued at INR 30.72 billion in FY 2020 and is predicted to increase at a CAGR of 12.93 percent between FY 2021 and FY 2025, reaching INR 55.15 billion by FY 2025. The whole mindset of urban riders have changed from owning a car to why own a car when there’s a taxi available at your fingertip. Ease of availability, quick access and competitive rates have enabled end-users with the flexibility that was unknown even a decade ago. However, Ola and Uber, even though they are heavyweights in the taxi aggregator space, are recently plagued with a number of issues including driver cancellations, vehicle availability and surcharges among others.

On the other hand there are a number of other reliable taxi operators available in each city and Taxida is on a mission to empower each one of them. Headquartered in Chennai, Taxida is an online taxi marketplace which empowers small taxi operators by giving them a system to run their business as well as having them listed in Taxida’s marketplace platform. With a strong focus on Tier II and Tier III cities, Taxida is committed in helping the taxi operators to compete with the industry heavyweights. For customers on the other hand, Taxida will provide a one stop solution to compare taxis, make an informed decision and book them at one go.

Within a couple of months from the launch of the platform, Taxida was hit with the unforeseen event of the COVID 19 pandemic shaking the very basics of their industry.

However, undeterred, the team decided to go on and started by looking to cater to the need of the limited availability of safe and affordable transportation options during the pandemic, when people needed safe commute options for essential trips.. The availability of dedicated commuter space allayed the fears of safety against shared modes of transportation like buses, trains and even airlines. This helped Taxida gain a ground presence in Tamilnadu even during the Pandemic. They have managed to pool in more than 100 Taxi operators in Chennai during this time and serve more than 10000 customers who were in need of various essential travel.

With the reduction in the number of cases and removal of travel restrictions, Taxida now sees light at the end of the tunnel. However, in Tier II and Tier III cities, cab drivers often have the fear of such cab aggregator apps due to limited knowledge. According to Narchison Alex, Co-Founder and CEO, ‘The challenge is in educating these players, to let them know that we are not here to steal their business or take their jobs away from them. It is in fact about providing them with technology and analytics so that they can make more informed decisions and run their business with ease. The whole idea is that we support them with technology and they do what they do best. Which is to provide an exceptional and memorable travel experience to the customers.

Taxida offers reliable transfers, making trips hassle-free by letting commuters pre-book taxis from the platform and choose from the pool of Taxi operators registered in their platform. They also help commuters avoid all unforeseen costs by presenting them with an all-inclusive quote, which includes tolls and taxes. The price they see is the price they pay. Additionally, if there is a need for cancellation, there is free cancellation up to 24 hours before the trip.

Taxida is invested in creating an ecosystem for small taxi operators who can use the Taxida tools, and use them to run their business, use analytics, get data and make informed decisions on their business. Taxida is committed to help them by bringing technology to the mix. Initially when Taxida was first launched in 2020, a customer would have had to wait for at least five to six minutes before they started receiving quotes from operators registered on the platform. However, with extensive data analytics, automated algorithms and ground knowledge, Taxdia is now able to provide the travel quote instantaneously as and when the customer searches for a quote in their platform.

Taxida aims to spearhead the taxi marketplace platform not only in Tier II and Tier III cities, but in metros as well. But their main focus will remain with the former where they wish to empower operators with more jobs and opportunities. With a strong presence now in Tamilnadu, they have very ambitious plans to expand to most regions in South India within the end of year and be operational pan India within the next 12 to 18 months.