While the Ola / TaxiForSure has already begun, TaxiForSure’s founder replace, i.e. the CEO Arvind Singhal quit few months after taking the role. And now, TaxiForSure has announced that the company will migrate TaxiForSure accounts to Ola accounts in 22 cities. The TFS credits will be transferred back to the bank accounts.
Helpchat, formerly Akosha, transitioned from being an online customer feedback platform to a chat-based personal assistant app. Deena headed an 80-person multi-city finance team while at TaxiForSure, and held the post there until the Ola acquisition in April 2015.
The court said that taxi aggregators cannot be blamed for the misdeeds of drivers. Justice Manmohan added that all-India permits were issued to drivers by government authorities and that they should take the blame. However, the court did not budge when it came to Ola running diesel vehicles in the city saying that it had to adhere to the law that mandated use of only CNG vehicles.
He served as CEO for just 4 months and cited personal reasons for stepping down. Singhal was appointed as CEO of the company in March after Ola acquired it for $200 million. His resignation comes at a time when several top officials from TFS are leaving the company and brings up the question of Ola wanting to integrate TFS within itself.
TaxiForSure has blacklisted the driver – but is that really the only solution? Shouldn’t the company file a case against the driver and have his license cancelled? Unless they go bad on
‘TFS Hatchback’ will appear as a new category on the Ola app. Users will be able to pay for TFS rides booked via the Ola app only in cash. The booking process will be identical to booking any other cab on the Ola app. The move is the first sign of integration between the two companies after Ola acquired TFS back in March.
The court said that the reason for not issuing licences to Ola and TaxiForSure was not valid. It added that if the Delhi government felt that the two companies weren’t meeting the requirements under the modified Radio Taxi Scheme, fresh communications should be sent. Further, the court invalidated measures such as issuing of challans against Ola and TaxiForSure drivers.
The company claims it has reduced the time it takes to book a cab on its apps from 15 seconds to 10 seconds with the single tap feature. Further, customers will be able to pay for rides through Paytm’s digital wallet, in which case the bill amount will be deducted directly from their wallets at the end of a trip. The new in-app features will be rolled out across Android, Firefox OS, iOS and Windows Phone platforms.
The Delhi government’s move to block the websites of taxi hailing aggregators like Ola, Uber seems to be an unsettled argument as ISPs expressed inability to block Uber, Ola due to high encryption codes. The ISPs can only block http sites and not the https sites due to its higher encryption codes. The ISPs cannot block the https sites of Uber and Ola, whereas TaxiForSure website can be blocked as its an http site.
Following the order from the Delhi Government, the Department of Telecommunication issues an order to Internet Service Providers to block the websites and apps of taxi hailing aggregators like Uber, TaxiForSure and Ola Cabs. The order also mentions that the government will be liable to initiate actions under Sec 12 of the IT Act if the telecom companies and ISPs fails to block the apps.
Post Ola acquisition, taxi aggregator TaxiForSure is looking to grow its business independently from 2mn users to 20mn users in one year. We met up with Arvind Singhal, CEO of TaxiForSure, to get the low-down on what the company’s plans are and where is it headed.
Failed to abide by Delhi Govt’s order to cease the service; the Govt is planning for Country wide ban on the apps of all web-based taxi companies.