Kochi: A bunch of professionals in BusinessAdministration, Logistics and Information Technology have come together to launch Kerala's first Radio Taxi service here.
The start up, which began operations in January this yearat an initial investment of Rs three crore and has a user base of 5,000, was formerly launched last night by state Transport minister Thiruvanchoor Radhakrishnan.
The seven member team which developed the concept areVijay Nair,the Managing Director, Anjana Balachandran, Sandeep Bhaskar, Adarsh Unnithan, Peethambaran, Suresh and Naufal.
The control centre at Panampilly Nagar here tracks ,monitors and locates vehicles round the clock using satellite linked GPS system.
This helps in automatically locating and dispatching the nearest available cab to the customer, thus minimising the waiting duration and fuel consumption, Managing Director VijayNair told reporters.
The project, called Taxio, aims at providing cars to customers in 10-15 minutes of actual booking, irrespective of time of requirement, according to company officials.
There are also plans to develop a mobile based App to bookthe cabs. Taxio presently has a fleet of 75 cars and another 25 would be added soon, Nair said.
All drivers recruited have to comply with police verification formality to ensure a clean record.
Sandeep Bhaskar, Chief Technology Officer, said the amount of technology and innovations put into this project would play a vital role in ensuring customer satisfaction on account of prompt vehicles availability, their safety and affordability.
Technology helps reduce dead run to 50 per cent thereby conserving fuel, reducing pollution and traffic congestion and making the trip affordable, he said.
At any given point, customers can access the trackingsystem online and know the actual real time location of the vehicle. This helps bring in accountability and peace of mind when any of the family members are travelling.
Customers need pay only for the distance and time theyutilise the vehicle.
Taxio presently have five women drivers and plan to take in some more.
There are plans to provide the service at Kozhikode and Thiruvananthapuram, whereby passengers travelling between these cities need only pay half the existing fares as the vehicle would operate under local hub until return trip is available.
