Hyderabad: While the food industry is growing online, the cab industry registered a 5 per cent dip in the first quarter of this financial compared with the last quarter of 2016-17.
The impact of the cab drivers’ strike from January 1 for 10 days has shown on the online bookings in Hyderabad city, and a few issues related to cashless transactions did not assist online cab bookings in four other cities in the country.
As per a survey taken up by Bengaluru-based RedSeer in five cities, the first quarter was marked by a clear tussle between growth and profitability.
The focus on profitability pushed players to cut down on driver incentives — a move which led to driver strikes across the country, with the associated supply crunch contributing to a fall in rides.
RedSeer spokesperson Swati Taneja Kapoor said the industry had registered $142 million in the last quarter of 2016 and it had fallen to $136 million in the first three months of 2017.
“The online cab booking sector lost 5 per cent of orders. This has shown an impact on drivers’ income. The strike, precipitated by a 45 per cent fall in income, was caused by sharp reduction in ride incentives, which in turn was pushed by a growing industry focus on profitability. The Q1 has completely stabilised the industry,” she said.
The Indian online cabs’ market geared up in the first quarter of 2016 with $70 million and registered growth, quarter-after-quarter till the last quarter of 2016. “Amazingly, the number of car-pooling customers has increased by 9 per cent in the Q1-2017 compared with the previous quarters. While cabbies in TS faced problems with the strikes, other city cab customers faced impediments in booking cabs online due to surge pricing and banning of shared services by the government in Karnataka, ban of diesel taxis in Delhi etc,” she said.
