On the same day as Uber made announcement, rival Ola said it too will offer bike taxis in Bangalore.
“Bike Taxis on the Ola app will help customers zip through traffic with ease, at lowest fares,” the company said.
The fare will be Rs 2 per km plus Rs 1 per minute of trip time. In other words, if you travel for 10 km and the journey takes 20 minutes, the total fare will be Rs 40.
Bike Taxis will be available to book through Ola’s app in the city of Bangalore to begin with. The minimum fare will be Rs. 30.
“This first of its kind two-wheeler transportation option in India comes with the same experience as booking a cab on the Ola app, that includes driver details displayed upfront, SOS, live tracking and seamless payment using Ola Money. Additionally, all pillion riders will be provided with helmets as mandated for their safety,” Ola said.
“This will help users get to where they want to be within minutes, especially in traffic prone cities like ours,” said Pranay Jivrajka, Chief Operating Officer at Ola
“With Bike Taxis, we are enabling safe pillion rides for our users with trained two wheeler drivers at competitive fares. We expect significant demand in the pilot phase and we will continue to scale this service up in the coming weeks to cover more areas in the city and serve more users. We believe this will be a major step towards enabling mobility for a billion Indians in the time to come.”
Bike taxis are popular in South East Asia, and have not proven themselves in India — where traffic can be dangerous for two-wheelers.
Uber’s bike taxi is called UberMoto. Bengaluru will be the second city to see the service.
