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Chat with a Smart taxi driver

By Rochak Sharma on 23 Comments / 1385 views

 

Chat with a Smart taxi driver – Listen not only to customers but employees too

I landed at Delhi Airport at 10 am in the morning, and as usual rushed to my favorite taxi service counter– MERU cabs.

I am using them since last 5 years and have never changed them….The ease of booking online and 15 seconds transaction at Airport counter to get a cab is great motivator and pain of coordinating with my driver is not required. The only time I used Mega cabs is few days back when MERU drivers went to strike.

But since now last couple of years I am thinking of changing service, only reason being quality of vehicle, but both MEGA and MERU cabs are at worse condition and the day a new service comes – I know many people share my feeling. 

I was curious and asked the Driver “How you will cope – if customer moves to another service”?

Interesting Response I got – “if new service comes we will be the first one to Shift” (so if you are investor in Meru cabs you know what you need to do!!)

I asked – What is the reason for bad conditions of Cars?

Response was – Poor maintenance by company

I asked – Why company will be doing Poor maintenance – It will harm them only?

Response was – One corruption at maintenance Team and second on Maintenance day also taxi drivers are charged their daily charge (for uninitiated The model for these cabs services is drivers are charged Rs 1200 per day and all earnings above this amount they can keep, fuel is their responsibility and Maintenance is by company).

I was shocked to hear this – Maintenance Process penalizes drivers to keep cabs in good conditions – have you heard this before? This is the key reasons for these cabs deteriorating so fast.

He also suggested company should adopt a process that all the parts changed should be handed over to cab drivers for depositing at separate center so fraud can be reduced, also it will highlight the fraud happening in maintenance process by use of fake and low quality Chinese parts being used.

After this conversation I was wondering – what is stopping MERU to implement these simple steps – aren’t they common sense item?

As entrepreneur – what are your views on above incident –Do you agree with suggestions – will you implement them if you are owner of MERU or let the customer slip?

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23 Comments

  1. Post earning our bread & butter from jobs, as Indian, we have low standards of how should we earn our Champagnes. Scalable companies depend upon people and some of those people may turn out to be unreliable.

    Here, some of the leadership team could be part of the problem. Steps to curb such corruption are not very obvious. It is learning on the go and tasks of clean ups.

  2. Vijay agree…only issue is in taxi business the cars are biggest asset and if for business leaders the process of maintenence is not important then definitely there is flaw in business model…or I have same doubt as with so many companies that the promoters are only interested in improving valuation and cash….these are the type of companies i will not invest or buy equity.

  3. Investors of MERU Cabs listening ?

  4. Yes these cabs are convenient but more often than not I find that these drivers have a lot of air about themselves. In Mumbai major drivers of Mega/Meru are super arrogant, Bangalore is a whole lot better.

    But I didn’t knew that Maintenance was done by the Company. I thought it was the driver’s prerogative as is with the fuel.Just that the accidents if any will be repaired by the Company. And 1200 is quite high for a daily charge. I thought it was around 15-20k per month. 

    I didn’t get the 2nd reason for poor maintenance…”Maintenance day also taxi drivers are charged their daily charge”…does it mean that each Maintenance cost 1200 bucks?

    Not one factor contributes to how good a company is and also how bad. 

    There is more than meets the eye! 

  5. I will not talk about this incident/ issue but a bigger one. Employees can be our best ears and eyes. We as generals of the armies very often ignore the signals that our frontline soldiers are sendinng to us. Often these signals are weak and fuzzy. We are poor executives if we are unable to read them or choose to ignore them. Result will be competition coming and eating us or our customers deserting us.

    To understand this point more clearly, I suggest a viewing of the movie Tora, Tora, Tora keeping an eye on how American armed forces reacted to Japanese attack.

    Maintenance issue is a trivial thing if owners are agile. They must be wanting to run a P&L model of business without pumping back what needs to be. Results will be fatal if they dont wake up

  6. For sustaining a good quality service over a period of time, timely resets and reboots should be the task of the founders. It cant be kept at the mercy of management team alone. It cant be a relay race where you hand over the baton to then next guy and relax.

    If this is done for 20 – 30 years, these will be the companies that will outlast the founders, and corporate governance is the way beyond that, but this also will not always work in terms of fitment with founders values.

  7. The first thing which comes into my mind is that Meru has some of the family members at higher positions which (esp the ones who have the responsibilities for maintenance and repairs), and these family members are the ones who are used to old and traditional way of doing business by keeping a severely tight control over the manpower (esp the ground force).

    I have heard this story at least 10-20 times from both Meru and Easy Cabs drivers. They are a bunch of unhappy people who would jump ships at the very moment they have an option.

    However, I will appreciate Easy and Meru Cabs for at least one thing – they started the process of organizing this unorganized sector. These issues are much smaller when compared to the bigger problem they are solving, and I am sure someone will soon tackle it (eg., OLA Cabs and Taxi For Sure is already solving this issue). So the story has a long  tail, keep watching this business 🙂  

  8. Few months ago, VSS and I discussed the same company losing revenues because of their driver – customer relationship being developed. Cheating will be there, but can we instill some values ourselves……trainers will not be able to train drivers. But founders can. 

    I run a Supply Chain Business, my delivery guys, whom we call as fulfillment officers will not listen to trainers on cheating issue but only me if I address them and involve them. Alok says sometimes, that you cant delegate few things and instilling values should be founders duty, no matter how many employees work for the company. 

    No Dabbawala takes out any food from the tiffin. He can, but the values for which is hired is different so he doesn’t.  

    I have worked with Airtel, and till Sunil Mittal addressed us, we as Airtel were a more value driven company I think, which made most of the profits then.

  9. It means even if the cab isn’t plying on the roads on the day maintenance takes place, the drive still has to pay that 1200 bucks to Meru.

  10. Alok, time you check Ola Cabs or Taxi for Sure. They have spanking new cars. Issue is 3-5 years down the line, they MIGHT end up at the same place as Meru. I hope they have a solution ready for this now.

  11. What Meru has done is replicated the local format of people buying auto rickshaws and giving it on rent. The Auto guy pays Rs.200 per day as rent and takes care of everything right from fuel to maintenance etc. (I know this happens in Mumbai.Have no clue how it functions elsewhere) The problem here is :

    1. The Auto is used by 2 drivers in a day. One morning shift and the other night shift. So, there are 2 users riding the same auto. If one is a sober driver, other might be a rash driver thereby making the maintenance costs go up.

    2.In case of the auto rickshaw being unavailable due to accidents or repairs, the driver uses another rickshaw by paying the same rent. So, again multiple drivers using the same vehicle differently.

    3.Also, the day shift driver may notice a glitch in the functioning of the auto but not repair it to avoid spending and pass on the cost to the driver using it in the night.

    The same may be the case with Meru. No one likes to spend their hard earned money on mistakes committed by others.To me, it is certain that one driver in Meru drives multiple cars as they do not own the cars.

    The solution can be as follows :

    1.A system where one driver gets to drive his own car in a day thereby knowing what exactly is the problem in the car and repairing it effectively.

    2.A Maintenance Structure from Meru that does a monthly check – up of cars, their parts etc. This will ensure no driver is cheating and also make the vehicle long lasting.

    3.A driver who does not utilize the car should not be charged. This will give them flexibility to take offs and get charged.Also, this ways, MERU can hire some more drivers and plan things well. This will strengthen their team and allow them to pick the best drivers.

    Meru is famous for cab services and small changes here and there will enable them to win back the trust and loyalty of their customers and most importantly, their employees.

    Rajesh Shukla

    Creative Injection

  12. Maybe Meru and other fleet cabs should consider implementing a structured maintenance management program.  We can help them with a software solution to optimise the maintenance process.  Please see : https://www.voyager2012.com/wms.html 

  13. Fact is…how much credence one should give to a casual conversation with ONE employee. How can conclusions be drawn with a sample size of ONE. Maybe this cabby guy ran into a rough with the organization and is contributing his own two cents to spread the bad word about the company as much as he can…

    However if Alok hears other Meru drivers echoing the same…then it validates what the Mumbai cabby said…

  14. Hi All – I wrote this incident after listening this ordeal many a times and situation is same across Meru and others.

    I give  owners complete credit for starting this new model and providing Jobs to so many drivers…but thats it, now that is 5 year old story and I need value for money I am paying….which I thiink I am not getting due to poor maintenence of vehicles.

  15. Himanshu – I wrote this piece after listning to this story numerous times and same sentiments being echoed and slowly deteriorating conditions of both Vehicles and drivers…earlier I used to feel safe from both and now from none…Rochak

  16. Please do – approach their CEO and show him this post also…cheers

  17. very well drafted note on my post here…hope Meru CEO is listening.

    Rochak

  18. Varun –  Is OLA available at Delhi Airport?

    Rochak

  19. Manav – You are doing the smart thing…and I can tell you I can write a piece on Airtel too as they are also in the same direction. Recent example I have is Shifting of Landline for WI-FI was painful process and the Airtel team told me to take new connection and this will be faster and not to tell the verfiication team that I used to have a Airtel landline…..Airtel is going down toooo….at least in India

    Rochak

  20. Hi Rochak

    Nice topic for an article. Meru revolutionised the taxi industry. For the first time we experienced professionalism in the cab industry. Meru has a wonderful and ‘Reliable’ booking/reservation system. The booking options are well thought out and well executed. Lots of firsts to this company.

    Its a shame Meru is deteriorating at various fronts. Hope better Management sense prevails and they bounce back to past glory.

  21. Nobody can avoid noticing the bad maintenance of the Meru cabs nowadays.

    The fact is that the drivers are charged for all days a vehicle is allotted to them. The rule was reasonable when competition was low and fuel cost was low. They need to think up something else it will just be another ordinary brand.

  22. Mohan agree with your points…I have always loved them and feeling so bad about detoriation and hence this post.

  23. We have been into car rental business since 1971 and i can vouch for the fact that how the car is maintained and your driver’s satisfaction towards the company can make or break your client. The car and the driver are the face of the company. Your brand value or the money you make or how much you advertise goes for a toss.

    Harmeet

    http://www.delapt.com

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