Gozocabs, Putting Customer Benefit Before Self
How many us of have faced the Hobson’s choice when we intend to hire a cab for a one way journey and have to pay for the return journey as well? The entrepreneurial bug in Vivek Tiwari and Ranjot Singh helped them come with a venture called Gozocabs when they faced a similar situation. Vivek shares his model, “If one need to be dropped from Chandigarh to Delhi, any other cab operator (even local vendors) would charge for the distance from Chandigarh to Delhi and back. We charge for only one side journey and not the whole return journey. Our costs are about 40-50% compare to what other cab vendors can offer, without any compromise in service quality.”
Gozocabs was co-founded by Vivek Tiwari with Ranjot Singh, his batch mate at BITS – Pilani, in September 2012. Speaking about his startup and his model in detail, Vivek spoke to a lot of taxi vendors before starting out. Organising an unorganised industry with no background of it was a daunting task; but they soon bumped into people who were ready to work with us. “We charge only for one side as for the cab vendors we arrange a journey for their return on the same/next day and that they get more than what a returning customer would have paid to them. It is a win-win situation for both sides,” explains Vivek.
Gozocabs doesn’t allow their cabs to be shared, they inform the customers of the car number along with driver’s name and take continuous client feedback after the journey in an effort to improve their quality of service. Presently Gozocabs runs the cab service in Delhi, Chandigarh, Jaipur, Shimla and Manali. “We offer very competitive rates to our customers than other players in the space. For instance, we charge only Rs 3,100 for the Delhi-Jaipur route, inclusive of toll tax compared to Rs 5,000 charged by local vendors and other e-players in the space,” says Ranjot. They do not take any advance payments and ensure women passengers are safe in their cars by talking to the vendor and driver before and after the journey.
Gozocabs have done 700 bookings till date and they plan to include more cities to their list of services. They also have plans to shift office to Gurgaon from their present location at Chandigarh. They are currently a team of two but they plan to hire more people. Vivek was an employee with I2 Technologies and Ranjot an ex-employee of UBS Bank and they both have chipped in their savings to start the venture. Gozocabs earns through the commission paid to them by the taxi vendors and so far have generated revenues of Rs 2 lakhs and they will be breaking even soon. However within a short span of five month, Gozocabs have generated almost Rs 22 lakhs for the cab vendors. Being a bootstrapped venture, it has come out with cost-effective online ads, ads placed at restaurants and dhabbas in and around operational cities of Gozocabs. Along with that, Ranjot says that, “Today 50% of new bookings are from past customers, and we are gaining new customers based on good word of mouth. We have also tied up with travel agents in Delhi.” Ranjot envisions installing GPS devices in the cabs to track down the location ensuring a safe and reliable journey.
Website: http://www.gozocabs.com
