Taxi, rickshaw services on the rise

Three service providers establish a sound footing in the city of lights

KARACHI: Karachi’s hard-pressed transport facilities have led to the emergence of several taxi services that are taking advantage of the large commuter base in the city.

In just a short span of seven months, three services have been launched; two for rickshaw and one for cab that provide safe and secure travel at affordable prices. Being the pioneer in the city to provide affordable, secure and air-conditioned cars, Careem has set a standard for the competitors in the market.



“We welcome competition and it is good that a lot of people invest in this business as it will educate customers to pick our services instead of insecure rickshaws and cabs available on the roads,” said Assistant General Manager for Careem Karachi, Muhammad Ali Taufiq.

Careem provides two types of cars; economy type which charges Rs18 per kilometre and business type available for Rs25 per km with Rs100 and Rs150 base charge respectively.

After receiving a few complaints against drivers, Careem has started ‘track my ride’ system which sends customers a link through which they can send their location to anyone in their family. “A captain will be fired immediately if he is found involved in harassing the customer or laundering money,” said Taufiq. The cab service call their drivers captains and makes the car available for customers within 15 minutes. It earns 20% on each ride while the rest is for the driver and car owner. The car can be ordered through a mobile application, website and call centre.

Careem has a fleet of more than 1,000 cars in the three metropolises - Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad, said Assistant General Manager Ahmed Usman Sheikh.

Captain’s perspective

Samuel Sohail started his journey with Careem as a captain six months ago but now he owns his own car which he drives in Careem too.



Sharing his experience, he said the service is very beneficial in terms of bonuses and allowances. “Careem even gives us bonus for timing, dressing and being active on work,” he added.

Vendor Ahsan Shahzad, whose 10 cars are registered with Careem in all four categories, was of the view that people actually like the service and the system is working great. “Drivers are earning good money, excluding the fuel and maintenance costs,” he said. Commenting on the future of Careem, he said such facilities will likely be replacing rickshaws and cabs to some extent.

GO Rickshaw

Meanwhile, rickshaw services are not far behind in establishing their niche as the recently launched GO Rickshaw service is working to provide secure travel at rates as low as of a normal rickshaw.

Launched on June 10, the service is specified for rickshaw users with nominal rates of Rs15 per km and Rs35 as service charge.

“We have around 200 rickshaws from which 30 are on standby and the rest are on route all the time,” said GO Rickshaw Marketing Manager Athar Gilani.

Revealing the fare distribution with the driver, whom GO rickshaw calls partners, Gilani said 80% is for the partner and 20% for the company. The company started in August 2015 and the rickshaws started running on specified routes in August 2016.

“After experiencing the flawless functioning, we decided to start it for the masses,” he said, adding they are increasing the number of rickshaws and improving their services.

“The system will be generating e-bills by the next month and the reason for launching is to check our support system,” he added.

The partners who were taken on board as the drivers are checked and verified by the company’s verification system.

“All the rickshaws are tracked and even the mobile phones of the drivers are also tracked to avoid any security concern,” Gilani explained.



It can be ordered through call centre and mobile application. “As soon as you order through the application, the call center team will call the customers and confirm the address and distance to assign a rickshaw,” he said.

Get Rixi

Get Rixi had started its operations in Lahore in 2013 and has recently tapped the Karachi market too.

With a total fleet of 3,000, Get Rixi is working through message and call service while their mobile application is under process.

“It works in two categories, prepaid and postpaid,” said founder of Get Rixi, Adnan Khawaja, adding that postpaid ranges between Rs18-22 per km with no extra charges while prepaid costs range from Rs19.5-13.5 per km for a ride. For the prepaid account, customers can pay through credit cards and even ask their call centre and their representative will collect the money from customer’s residence.

“Once you send a message, call or order through the website they will send you the best possible fares within 3-5 minutes and as soon as you confirm the rates the driver will be dispatched to you,” explained Khawaja.

They have a tracking system installed in the driver phone so he can be tracked everywhere he moves. “The distribution of fares is around 10% for the company while the rest is for the drivers,” the founder said.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 26^th, 2016.

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