Ola Launches Bike Taxi Service in Bangalore; To Face Legal Issue by Government

Following the footsteps of its biggest rival, now India’s largest  taxi service organisation, Ola has started the bike taxi services. Few days, back Uber launched the similar service in Bangalore, which could be the reason why Ola surprised us by sudden launch. Both the companies together offers almost every type of commuting service in the country.

For using Bike Taxi service from Ola, the user will be required to pay Rs. 2 for every km and Rs. 1 per minute as a ride time charge with the minimum fare of Rs. 30. UberMoto on the other hand, the bike taxi service from Uber charges Rs. 15 as a base fare and costs Rs. 3 per km other than Rs. 1 for every minute of the ride time. 

About the launch of bike taxi service, the COO of Ola, Pranay Jivrajka said, “With lower operating costs, increased efficiency and potential to do more trips, bikes are clearly a scalable mode of mobility.” He also stated that the pilots (the guy who will ride the motorcycles) will be extended to more areas in the city in the coming weeks.

As per the report of Tracxn, the startups tracker, presently, around 20 bike startups exists in India and the Bengaluru, where Uber and Ola have begun their operations is home to at least seven such startups including Mu Ride, Pilot, Streetryderr, Rapido, HeadLYT, Hey Bob and Pillionaire. 

As per the news published in Financial Express, the regional transport authority of the Bangaluru said that these kind of taxi services are illegal and it would pursue legal action these companies as they didn’t ask for the permission. According to the Karnataka transport commissioner Ramegowda, “Any taxi has to be yellow board and two-wheelers cannot be registered under yellow board. For now, a two-wheeler cannot be legally used for commercial operations. The stakeholders have to make an application to the RTO and get permission first. Passenger safety, insurance cover, existing government regulations should all be looked into before starting such service.”

Presently in India, no other state except GOA and Haryana allows commercial use of two-wheelers. Earlier in December 2015, an innovative bike taxi service called, Baxi was launched in Gurgaon to improve last-mile connectivity in the city.