Hi Rodinhoods.
My first post here, been a bot for sometime but taking the write mode now.
I am planning and building a 2 wheeler taxi network that will work completely P2P, existing bike owners can give rides to commuters and charge an x fare (pre defined based on city).
The idea occurred to me on various occasions, chiefly from travelling to Andheri East from Jogeshwari West (Mumbai), on some days it would take me 1.5 to 2 hours by car one way, despite the short distance. I would wait at signals and think of the time wasted and my 1 year old missing me in the evenings due to the traffic. Looking around the traffic, I would mostly see people driving cars to work, along, like me. Had they been on a bike, they would reach faster and the bikers can utilize their 2nd seats.
The website is close to being done – bikeseeker.com and now working on the Mobile apps and other tidbits. I am building this alone for now, but the plan is to get a team running and/or even a co-founder. So shoot me …. an email.
Want to get feedback from the community. I am aware of legal issues propping up, hence no fleet maintenance for now. Bike taxis work in Goa. A couple of questions to ye all Rodinhoods :
1) Pricing model : I am thinking of a subscription model and say 10 rupees per kilometer for the bike owner (he keep 70-90% or even 100%). Is this the right model, thoughts, suggestions ? What would you pay if you were a bike owner.
2) Fleet : Should I get into buying my own bikes and hiring a few people to drive around town ?
3) Does anyone know a good bike modifier, wanna get a roof on the bikes for the monsoon.
4) Lastly, the bigger goal is to go electric and have a large charging network(think franchisee model). Any Einstein out here who would love to work with me ?
The idea is simple, get atleast 1 lakh bike owners to sign up (as monthly subscription) and offer their services to end users ( via mobile apps).Plan to go international but India is the main market.
Thoughts, feedback, brickbats welcome.
Regards,
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Arpit Desai
First thought-Brilliant Idea !
I have spent hours in Mumbai traffic and always see 2 wheelers going past and I can’t do much but wait and watch and hope traffic clears out soon which as usual does not happen.
1. I am bit sceptical on the pricing of Rs. 10 / km as that seems a bit on the higher end. Now I could be wrong. I guess you would have done your research on it to arrive at that figure. Proper market research needs to be done to validate the costing. May be people might be happy to pay that price against saving much precious time especially in the evening. My suggestion would be to keep the monthly subscription as low as possible. This is many people including not not willing to use the service regularly would be encouraged to use the service and might be happy to pay a slightly higher price for the ride.
2. Buying own bikes: Probably not a good idea to start off with. Launch the service may be do a dip stick check before full launch and get a feel of the response. You can always buy your own bikes and get started in no time if need arises and the idea is well received. May be not have your own bikes but tie up with regular bikers to travel along a fixed route daily as well as those sitting idle and hope to make a trip as and when required.
3. Give me a day’s time. I can ask around and get back to you. Getting roof for bikes is a great idea not just for monsoon but also a good protection against the bright sun.
4. In my opinion, electric bikes does have couple of problems such as the weight that be carried in comparison to the speed of travel, the battery maintenance / replacement issues.
I think a mobile setup on which the user can get an immediate response would be great. As in if I want to travel from Point A to point B. I don’t normally make this trip. So as soon as I post a request of my travel plans, the message should be sent to all the bikers who usually drive along the route or towards the destination. The quicker the response time the higher the chance for the person to reuse the service.
Anyways, Hope this helps. If you have any queries, feel free to ask here. More than happy to help.
Varun Doshi
Idea sounds amazing!!!
Below are the few thoughts that come to my mind:
1) Pricing strategy: Need to do some research on the same. Pricing strategy would be the key to this project. Suggest you to do some research before coming to any number.
2) Legal hurdles: Would there be any permit/license required to start such a service?
3) Which cities are you planning to target initially?
Best wishes.
Cheers! 🙂
Pushkar Bhandari
This sounds more of Airbnb for people who have bikes and are free, right ?
You do have competition :
https://rentop.in/
https://www.kerberonautomations.com/bikeShare.php
The idea seems good, but you have a lot of challenges like regulations from the government and whether it permits this, security and road safety, insurance in case of accident, women and older people being hesitant to sit on a bike, and of course the basic problem of the marketplace – once the buyer and seller meet, they can do the transaction offline and eliminate the marketplace denying the commission.
1) Pricing model : I am thinking of a subscription model and say 10 rupees per kilometer for the bike owner (he keep 70-90% or even 100%). Is this the right model, thoughts, suggestions ? What would you pay if you were a bike owner.-
-You would be competing with Taxis and Autos and 10 rupees per kilometer sounds too high. Also, you should take into consideration the time and not just the distance.
2) Fleet : Should I get into buying my own bikes and hiring a few people to drive around town ?
-This would require huge investment and maintenance and several other costs. So start small unless you are funded or can burn a lot of cash.
3) Does anyone know a good bike modifier, wanna get a roof on the bikes for the monsoon.
-Why do you want to do this even before you have started and validated the idea ? You don’t even know if there is a product market fit.
4) Lastly, the bigger goal is to go electric and have a large charging network(think franchisee model). Any Einstein out here who would love to work with me ?
-Even if you find an Einstein, make sure to read the ‘Betterplace’ story- A startup that had this same ambition of large charging networks, got $1billion funding and went bankrupt.
https://singularityhub.com/2013/06/09/electric-car-company-better-pl…
Also there are a lot of Uber scripts available here : https://mowares.com/
Good luck!
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Thanks Pushkar.
Points noted. The competitions you mentioned are renting options, which is not what bikeseeker.com intends to do. Agree on the regulations.
Pricing at 10 per km seems fair, an average bike gives a mileage of 50 km per litre, coming to a running cost of 1.5 to 2 rupees per kilometer, add to it maintenance, time spent by the bike owner, I think 10 rupees (when ricks/autos start at 17 rupees) is definitely a good start. Although the lower the better, at 5 rupees per kilometer it would be a killer business !!
Thanks for taking the time to review and suggest.
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Thanks for the detailed feedback !
Pricing, as I wrote to Pushkar’s reply, trying to keep it minimum , 5 rupees per kilometer is still profitable. But lets see, too early to say that.
Mobile is the only way to drive this, that will be the main product.
Zeeshan Chawdhary
I am sure legal issues will be there. Mostly on running it like a commercial fleet license. But still questionable since the drivers will be regular citizens.
Target cities – Mumbai to start with, Pune and Bangalore and the others thereon. In fact this might work in Nashiks, Nagpurs of India, 2 wheelers have highest penetration in the rural / Tier 2 cities.
Arpit Desai
A flexible pricing should be worked out.
The longer the ride, lower should be the cost per km. Some sort of pricing that encourages maximum people to use your service. What I mean is regular users as well as one-off users.
I am not sure what revenue model you are working on and where the incoming revenue will be coming from but I think that once a customer will use your service, they would have personally met the rider and taken his contact details thereby I doubt they will use the service again going via your mobile app !You might end up creating mini competition for yourself. Figure out a solution to avoid this.
I seriously suggest do a proper market analysis and research before rolling out the service as there are various bottle necks that could strangle your expansion plans in future.
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Yes, for longer rides, cost per km can be brought down or some discounts/ cashback.
A 1 to 1 relation between the customer and the bike owner will not be an issue, to make optimum use of the service, the bike owner needs to do several trips, at 10 rs per km there is a good chance that an averge bike owner can make 500 rupees in a day. There is no way one individual can pay the amount to the bike owner.
Rupin
As a consumer, I have few questions
1) What will be an approximate time I will have to wait for my journey to start?
2) Is there a reasonable guarantee of a bike available during peak hours?
3) Bikes are inherently unstable machines, and its all a skill of the driver that comes into play + some gyroscopic science around the wheels. Who pays insurance?
You are basically trading the inconvenience of reaching Place B via a bus ( single person pays and travels) vs your solution (single person pays and travels). Can you match (or better) the frequency of a bus at a competitive price (non subsidised price of a bus ticket) compared to the bus journey for the same two end points?
Roofs on bikes- Why don’t you check a bike that has a roof and everything? https://www.ecofriend.com/oneticket-car-concept-is-a-bicycle-in-disguise.html
Why do you need a driver? Can you have places like a bike stand where people can simply pick up a bike, ride it to where they want, and drop it at the next bike stand of your company? More people travel to home and nearest station in Mumbai than you can ever imagine? Have you seen the bike parking lots at stations? these are huge and have as many as 300-500 bikes after 11:30 in the afternoon.
Electric bikes are cool, you can perhaps charge them via solar as well.
Be ready to face a lot of stiff political and unfounded aggression from Taxi and Rickshaw unions. anyone whose pocket is going to get lighter is going to protest.
Alok Rodinhood Kejriwal
A large number of accidents happen via bikes.
How do you prevent something bad that may happen due to a reckless driver?
How do the helmets get acquired – I mean, if i decide to hitch a bike ride someplace, sometime, I may not have a helmet on with me since i did not come prepared?
Balachandar Muruganantham
Nice thought.
you can still do this without complicating. no mobile apps. no website.
just give a ride who ask for lift. if they are willing to pay, get paid by cash. as simple as that. 🙂
how simple is that?
Rituraj Chaturmohta
Hi Zeeshan,
I run a delivery business, so can advice you only one thing… dont, and i repeat, DONT even think about owning the bikes. I own quite a few and that requires tremendous amount of energy/time. Think about purchase costs, maintenance, rough usage by users (its not their bike), insurance, parking, fuel management from the bikes’ perspective. And if you buy them, you would also need to recruit drivers, which would bring their insurance, salary and HR management issues. So even before you have started earning revenue, you have burnt a lot of cash and energy.
Even if you can somehow manage to get the thing on ground with own bikes and drivers, it will be extremely difficult to SUSTAIN the operations for a duration which is long enough for you to build traction. And my experiences suggests (I am not an expert) that any operations intensive business is about sustaining it long enough, even if you are profitable.
I would recommend strongly that you think of the model where bikes are not owned by you. (something like mix n match of meru, ola, uber). In that model, spend your energy on how would you price and run your business and make it scalable. Don’t waste your time in managing assets (bikes and manpower). The only problem in that is that bikes will be on regular license, so using it for commercial purposes would have some legal tangle attached to it.
my two cents,
Regards
Rituraj Chaturmohta
Dipesh
Hi..
Good idea.. its quite prevalent in a few countries…
But I guess there are a lot of complications as mentioned above by everyone… accidents, females and seniors reluctant, legal tangles, risk of cons, maintenance, etc etc.
Whereas what comes to my mind is…
1. Why not instead try to pool autorickshaws and/or taxis and private vehicles?
2. I mean how many people do we see travelling alone in autos n taxis, rite?
3. Even if you can target just the people who use the same routes day in and day out, a major pain point gets sorted. (Financial burden is reduced as well as traffic is reduced).
4. Something like a market place where- people select their routes and their timings and their preferred mode of transport. In this city there is a very high probability of these matching with someone or the other.
Crucial will be the execution.
These are just suggestions.
Nevertheless Good luck.
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Thanks Rituraj Good perspective, I agree on your e
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Yes, the stats say that a lot of accidents happen via bikes. But there are various reasons for it, bad roads, bad road sense, bad traffic, bad traffic sense and of course adrenaline 🙂
Drivers will have reviews, rating, Will need to moderate the drivers based on feedback.
Helmets : The bike owners can keep a spare one. It is a good investment anyways, even if they are not part of the bikeseeker network, their loved ones will be safer behind them .
Zeeshan Chawdhary
That would be un organized, when you do the same simple task via a platform there is less chance for cheating, more opportunities for both the bike owner and ride seeker.
The idea is to build a platform with a sense of trust, you just cant pick a ride and trust the other guy.
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Dipesh
Thanks for the feedback.
1) Someone already doing that – https://jugnoo.in/ , but yes the plan is to do the same for Car owners. But focus is on Bikes, atleast for a year .
2) A lot of people travelling alone, the target is also Car owners who drive to work and back home – alone.
3) Yes – That is a good point.
As for the safety aspect, females can accept rides only from females.
A lot of things will be remodelled, customized, adjusted as the consumers react, thanks for the feedback again, appreciate it.
Sanjay Banerjee
excellent idea
But i thinks Rs 10 per kms is high
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Autos start at 17 rupees, Cabs at 15-21 depending upon city, so I think 10 rupees is still a decent number.
Working on the waiting time model as well, so 10 rupees for the initial 1 km or so and then reducing ..
Sheth Raxit
Hey Zeeshan
This is Raxit from https://SmartMumbaikar.com
You got tons of feedback from other rodinhooders, I would tell below ( PS: we are also having car,bike,auto pooling/sharing)
1. Go and execute it well in One Area.
2. Go for short distance, where sharing auto is pathetic. Sharing auto will zip 4-5 people (uncomfortable) instead of 3. They will wait till all seats get filled, (waste of time) where on bike finding 1 people is easier.
3. Just to start with, use whatsapp or simple call. Go for point to point to start with.
4. For female, hire female two wheeler driver.
People will tell you shit about Rules, regulations etc, If this will work well, Be ready to threatening call from Auto/Taxi Unions 🙂
If you want we can discuss, you can mail me on raxit@m4mum.com or call on 98922 38248
All the best 🙂
PS : We are also trying something similar 🙂 So take my advice with pinch of salt, lemon and mirchi 🙂
Raxit
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Raxit
Thanks for your suggestions. Will connect with you via email / phone.
BTW – How do you guys do the user verification, People have started signup up their bikes, the 1st customer was from Jaipur !!! , so want to verify them before letting them drive around ..
Sheth Raxit
Zeeshan
we are verifying users by their office E-mail. Like FB was only restricted to College, then enterprise, then anyone having e-mail, then anyone having mobile. Something similar 🙂
Raxit
Rajkumar Letsride Mundel
Go for “Fleet : Should I get into buying my own bikes and hiring a few people to drive around town ?“
Find your customer and I can see – College Students are your customer. They need bike for girl friends and I face this problem at my time 😛
I am from Army Institute of Technology, Pune. Strength is 1200+. Only 4th years guys can have bike in college campus.
Bike with Yellow plates like Goa ( No idea that this is allowed in other states or not )
Reason –
1. Start with College and make a Bike Stand in front of every college. Hire One security personal (Get this done by 2rd party)
2. Your bikes should be new. Tie up with all Bikes companies. Get the bike on demo basis. Every new model should come to your Bike stand 😛 OR Make an open forum where people will give bikes(old- Bike Owner will convert to yellow plates) to you and you give commissions.
3. Once all colleges done. Target IT Park / Railway Stations / Bus Stands…
Best of Luck 🙂
Cheers!
Mundel
Mission – Every car will have 2 people by 2020.
http://www.letsride.in (Share car, bike, cabs and autos )
Zeeshan Chawdhary
I am not sure if fleets are the right option for now. All other suggestions seem possible only a few years down the line. The government would allow bike stand ! anywhere in the country, unless it is a state transport or economical & ecological (e-bikes).
asha chaudhry
hey zeeshan,
any updates on this?
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Hi Asha
Well, a lot of learning ever since started the post on therodinhoods. Have not really piloted it yet (for various reasons). Lot of valuable inputs from fellow rodinhooders, enterprenuers and even copy cats who took my model from this post and tried to start the same idea but failed miserably.
Personally, I think the bike taxi model is a complete no-no. I am working on a different model (which I cannot post here for IPR reasons) which seems more feasible, legal and exciting.
asha chaudhry
zeeshan,
ideas are rarely unique. only the execution is 🙂
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Yep, that is true !
vikas chandra shah
Zeeshan can i have ur contact number
Zeeshan Chawdhary
Hi Vikas , you can reach me at 9022047380