Meru becomes the first Indian radio taxi player to enter strategic international alliance

You are on a business trip or a vacation, traveling to India or going abroad, Meru will now be ready at your service in just one click. Meru Cabs, India’s most preferred radio cab service today announced a global alliance with eCab, a global mobile app by Europe’s leading taxi service provider Taxis G7. This will provide high-quality cab services to foreign travelers in India and to Indian travelers going abroad with eCab mobile app.

“We are delighted to partner with Meru Cabs, one of the most reputed and experienced Indian players in the category. With our shared commitment towards customer centricity, technology and innovation, we believe there are synergies between the companies. Through this partnership, international passengers can now avail a global, affordable and convenient taxi travel experience via our international network of partners,” said Laurent Kennel, CEO, eCab.

Though it has been launched in six cities, Mumbai, Delhi, Chennai, Hyderabad, Bangalore and Pune, Meru is planning to expand it to all the 23 cities by the end of this week.

“With this strategic alliance, Meru expects a growth of 25-30 percent by the end of this quarter,” said Prem Kalliath, COO, Meru.

Launched in 1905, Taxis G7 transports 20,000,000 passengers per year with 13,000 taxis available in Europe.

“We choose Meru as being the largest radio taxi services in India, it would be able to give the required scale and quality to the app”, said Laurent.

All the features of the app will be accessible with a special mention to the seamless cashless payment option of the app.

In fact eCab is planning to expand its features to suit Indian customers more. Soon they will launch services like lady drivers like Meru Eve and a low cost option.

“We might introduce high end services and VIP services as well,” Gilles Gomis, head of Business Development, eCab, who also heads the India operations, told Business Insider India.

Though there are no premium services available for the app users as such at present, but they might soon launch some exclusive offers, said Prem.

Talking about beating competition in the market with Ola and Uber with this alliance, Prem told BII,”We believe this is a standalone good quality opportunity in the market. We did not introduce this to beat any competition as such. We are focussed on how to make this a fair game.”


(Image credits: Genesis Burson-Marsteller)