Book A Cab In India With These Slick Apps On Your Smartphone

Gone are the days when you had to contact the local travel agency to get a cab or hail one off the road or the neighborhood taxi stand. The proliferation of radio cab services across several major cities in India has allowed seamless booking of cabs anytime and anywhere over a call, and now through smartphone apps.

Uber

The San Francisco-based transportation network company prefers to position itself as a technology company that offers mobile apps to connect passengers with drivers of vehicles for hire and ridesharing services.

The service was recently launched in India, and offers two tiers of cars for hire – UberBLACK and uberX – appealing to a broader cross-section of the market. The service, which has grown to 10 cities, is already making India the biggest market for Uber outside of the United States.

You need to sign up using the app with your credit card (some debit cards work too). The app shows the estimated time of arrival (ETA) of available cars around you. Once you book it, you can track the reserved car’s location on a map and contact the driver as well. After the ride, the amount is debited from the linked card and you don’t have to pay any cash to the driver. The app also allows ridesharing, so two friends sharing a ride can split the fare between two seamlessly.

Uber is a great way to ‘hail a cab’ via an app. But you cannot book one in advance, and that sometimes is a concern, for example: you don’t want to leave a booking till last minute for a 4 am flight.

Meru Cabs

Meru Cabs is one of the most popular and earliest radio cabs service in India. The fleet service provides services in seven cities - Mumbai, Delhi NCR, Hyderabad, Bengaluru, Jaipur, Ahmedabad, and Chennai – with two fleet levels, Meru and Meru Plus.

Unlike Uber, the Meru Cabs app is only needed for booking the cab. Once the cab has been booked and you’ve contacted the driver, you don’t need the app for the ride. Of course it’s good to have to check out route details and share feedback, but it’s not required. The meter is available in the car and you need to pay off the driver at the end of the trip.

Also, the app allows you book a cab for a trip right away (within 35 minutes) or in advance beyond 35 minutes for up to 3 days. You can also check out you booking history from within the app.

Mega Cabs

Similar to Meru Cabs in service and app experience, Mega Cabs is also one of the early radio cabs service in the country. The only difference is that Mega Cabs does not have fleet/car options, and has a unified fare.

With presence in six cities – Delhi NCR, Kolkata, Bangalore, Chandigarh, Amritsar, and Ludhiana – the company claims to be India’s largest taxi service network.

Olacabs

Ola is quite simply the Indian Uber and has quickly grown to serve 10 cities already. Modelled on the latter, Olacabs does not own its own fleet and partners with car rental services making their cars for hire available through the app. Like Uber, there are two fleet levels, sedan and mini, and even the referral credit is the same Rs 300!

Of course, the Indian company takes care of lack of penetration of credit cards in the country. You can recharge your account to keep ‘Ola Money’ in your account for frequent payments, or pay cash to the driver at the end of the trip. Also, my only gripe with Uber is taken care of as you can make a booking in advance as well.

TaxiForSure

The latest entrant in the market, TaxiForSure, intends to bring affordable cab service to the masses, with fares that are slightly less than the options above. Available in Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai, Delhi NCR, Ahmedabad, and Baroda, the service offers the option of a hatchback or sedan in most cities.

Like other services, you could book a cab for a trip right away or make a booking in advance. However, the ‘right away’ is not clearly defined and there’s no way to specify an exact time. If you are making an immediate booking, you could be offered a cab in the next ten minutes or an hour later.
(Image: Uber)