manoj

The Blue Arrow airconditioned taxi service, launched in Kolkata a few years ago, is on the verge of winding up.

Though a few of the blue air-conditioned Indicas can still be spotted near the airport, railway stations and hotels, you can no longer call 13658 or 30905357 to get one of these vehicles to pick you up from home or office.

However, all is not lost. The Kolcab service was launched in the city on November 22. This service does not use speed taxis but the normal yellow cabs of Kolkata. One simply needs to call 9433565222 and a taxi will arrive at your doorstep. The service operates round-the-clock and there is no additional charge for availing cabs at night.

Kolcab is based on a study that revealed that most taxis spend 50 per cent of their time looking for passengers. Under this system, a call centre is in touch with 100 taxis. The drivers of these taxis have s.

Everytime the call centre receives a call, the customer care executive gets in touch with drivers. An empty cab closest to the address of the passenger is sent over. The drivers have to pay only Rs 325 for use of the s.

All additional expenditure is taken care of from revenue generated from advertisements on roofs of the taxis.

Source: http://epaper.timesofindia.com (Kolkata Edition)
Date Of Publish: 29-Dec-06

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