There are lot of startups who start their journey with lot of enthusiasm, however over the period

of time they lose the momentum due to competition or lesser consumer acceptance, wafer thin margins etc. However MERU cabs is a one great story from which one can learn a lot of things. As mentioned in management books one should offer a product/ service which fulfils consumer need or at least makes him feel that his need is fulfilled. So what is the problem that MERU has addressed?

Problem Statement
Whenever one has to travel by private transport, one is at mercy of taxi/auto drivers. One has to make several attempts to get the taxi/auto to the desired destination. If you are travelling for a longer distance, god help you. What MERU has done is,they gave the consumer the sense of reliability that they will get a cab to any destination within the city. I feel its a BIG positive factor, i.e. of trust.

Technology
Whenever we talk about MERU cabs, we talk about their technology, GPS, call center for order booking etc. Yes technology has played a vital role in MERUs success; however there are many important factors that have helped MERU to be successful. I feel technology can enable businesses however mere good technology wont lead to a successful business. Lets look at what are the other factors

The Economical Factor

I was traveling by MERU cab and was chatting to driver named Mishraji. Mishraji told me that MERU cab is 60% costlier than normal taxis. However the people still prefer MERU, due to its punctuality, readiness to go to any corner of the city and overall customer service. Though I feel 60% is too high. According to me MERU is 5 to 10% costlier than normal taxis So the consumer will pay you premium, provided you make him feel that he is getting value for money

Compensation
Every company feels that they are paying the best to their employees and every employee feels that he is underpaid. However in case of MERU, the employee pays the company and both are happy. I will explain briefly the MERU model MERU hires the driver with certain driving experience and train him on soft skills.

A contract is signed between MERU and the driver. MERU buys the car and gives it to the driver The fuel cost has to be borne by the driver The maintenance of the car is taken care by MERU MERU helps the drivers by providing the booking to drivers through their call centers The driver is free to take fares if he doesnt get the fare from the call center In return the driver provides Rs. 800 per day to MERU Whatever the driver earns above these 800 rupees is his own income.

Now MERU has enabled the employees to earn what they want to earn and they have not only given them employment but a business Provide employees the opportunity to earn to their potential. (May be through Performance Linked Incentives or any other innovative way that fits your business)

The Employee Trust

While talking to Mishraji, he told me that the company CEO MR. Gupta is a great person and he is happy to work for a person like him. When I asked him about the competition, he said, in Mumbai nobody comes close to MERU. As per him Easy Cabs tried to replicate the MERUs business model, however they are not very successful. He told that Easy Cabs have 400 cabs, whereas MERU has close to 1700 cabs. Easy Cabs drivers have to pay 900 rupees to Easy Cabs and also bear the cost of fuel as well as maintenance of the vehicles. Whereas in MERU the driver have to pay 800 rupees and the company bears the cost of maintenance. This shows how much Mishraji believed in his company. The point which I am trying to drive here is that the employee should believe in the management & the company for it to succeed, i.e. walk the talk. So if one gets these things right for a business, it can lead to a successful business. Well its easy to say but its difficult to implement and thats why all the startups are not successful the way MERU is. Whats your opinion?

REF: http://www.pluggd.in/story-of-meru-cabs-case-study-for-entrepreneurs-297/

Meru Cabs
Services offered by Meru Cabs: Meru cabs offers a reliable metered taxi service in Mumbai, Hyderabad, Delhi and Bangalore through a fleet of modern, air conditioned cars equipped with state-of-the-art GPS based communication technology. The service is backed by a 24x7 Customer Contact Center. Pricing Strategy: The Meru Taxi service is a licensed, metered taxi operation and is governed by the fares prescribed by the Department of Transport. The fare structure of Meru cabs is similar to that of any other radio taxi. It has three components viz. fare for the distance travelled, waiting charge, if applicable and a night surcharge for travel between 12 - midnight and 5AM. The toll charges have to be borne by the passenger while crossing a toll post. However, the charges need not be paid if the cab crossed the toll post while pick up. There is no extra charge for booking on the phone/web. Payments can be made through cash or card. The fare structure of Meru Cabs for different cities are as shown below. Communication Mix: For building the brand, the company had started various ad campaigns and promotional activities. The tag line of Meru 'Rely on us,' sends out a message of safety and hassle-free ride on board. It released a radio ad campaign of a small boy going all alone in Meru to receive his grandmother from the airport. In Delhi, it has rolled out the 'Don't drink and drive' promotion to encourage people to call for a Meru instead of drinking and driving. For this promotion, Meru Cabs identified four TGIF (TGI Friday's) pubs and 160 restaurants, where it has placed tent cards and utilised their LCD screens to spread the message. The tent cards carried the message 'If you find this hard to read, it's time to book a Meru cab.' In another interesting innovation, colour coding was used on coasters. A customer was given the first drink on a black coaster. The subsequent drinks followed on green, amber and red coasters. The red coaster signified that it's...

Meru About Us The Leadership Team

Meru Cabs is now the largest radio cab service in India and aims to provide world class taxi services in every city that it enters. We will always try to be the hallmark for reliable, high quality service in every city that it operates in. Here are the bright minds behind our uninhibited growth story:

Mr. Neeraj Gupta

Managing Director
A first generation entrepreneur, Mr. Neeraj Gupta has teamed up with India Value Fund to create the finest radio taxi service in India under the Meru brand name. Under his guidance, now, Meru has become a synonym to radio taxi. His entrepreneur skills have made Meru, a single largest radio cab service in India with fleet size more than 3500 cabs. During his journey with Meru Cabs, Mr. Neeraj Gupta was felicitated with,

Entrepreneur of the Year Award by the Bombay Management Association (BMA) for his significant contribution in the Public Transportation and to provide high quality innovative transportation service. Udyog Rattan Award by the Institute of Economic Studies (IES). Excellence Award to his company given by Institute of Economic Studies (IES) Award from All India Passengers Association - Largest & Best Taxi Company in the Country. Best Entrepreneur of the Year Award from All India Passengers Association Best IT User Award to Meru Cab Company Pvt. Ltd. - Nasscom Mr. Gupta, prior to this venture, set up Mumbai's largest fleet service business, catering to the needs of some of the finest names in the media and outsourced services business.

Mr. Rajesh Puri

Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Rajesh Puri is the CEO of Meru Cab Company. Prior to Meru Cabs, Rajesh was the President - Operations at Tata Teleservices Maharashtra Ltd. After completion of his mechanical engineering, he post graduated in management from S P Jain Institute of Management, Mumbai. He has a wealth of experience across sales, marketing, operations and distribution. Over the last 22 years, he has worked with some of India's finest blue chip companies across industries. Post his initial years at ONGC in oil exploration; he has led growth efforts at Godrej GE, Whirpool, Electrolux & Airtel. In each of his endeavors he has led his brands from start-up to unassailable leadership.

Mr. Nilesh Sangoi

Chief Technology Officer
Mr. Nilesh Sangoi brings with him 16 years of experience in setting up and managing various aspects of Information Technology for large Corporates. In his last assignment, he worked as Asst. Vice President - IT at Star TV's India operations. In over a decade long stint, he helped build the technology platform from scratch and provide technology support in the rapid growth phase of the organization. He is a Certified Information Systems Auditor (CISA) and

Certified Information Security Manager (CISM) from ISACA, USA.

Mr. Gavin D'abreo

Executive Vice President - Operations, Sales & Marketing
Mr. Gavin D'abreo started in advertising with FCB Ulka and then moved to marketing, product management & sales. He has had stints with Tata Teleservices, Sterling Resorts, Nerolac Paints, & was last with Saregama India. He enjoys start up environments, setting processes / systems and of course brand marketing & sales in the service industry. He post graduated in management in 1991.

Mr. Ronald Rosario

Executive Vice President - New Business Initiatives
Mr. Ronald Rosario is an Automobile Engineer and MBA in Marketing, with a varied function experience. His last assignment was heading Sales & Operations with Shell, the global Oil major, where he has also spearheaded startup of Project functions. His earlier assignments include stints with RIL Industries as Western Region Head during business setup phase. In BPCL he had contributed to various functions such as Operations, Engineering Projects, Supply, Distribution and Sales for over 12 years. A small stint in Rallis India a TATA company is where he started his career. He has more than 18 years of work experience with setting up Project teams and Operational teams to deliver results.

Mr. Ashutosh Vaidya

Associate Vice President - Facilitation
Graduate in Commerce and Marketing Management from Xaviers College, Mr. Ashutosh Vaidya has 27 Years of experience in the Car Rental business. He has worked for Konduskar and Suss Travels. Besides this, he has also handled 'Apna Utsav', Festival of France on behalf of Govt. of Maharashtra as well as the Jet Airway's Cabin and Cockpit Crew Transport.

Meru cabs

Technology on wheels
Technology increases profits, improves safety and delivers better service for customers. The average Indian traveller is fed up quarreling with taxi drivers on fares, rash driving, refusal to travel to certain parts and above all rickety vehicles that have outlived their age. Technology and customer services have come of age. People are ready to pay for good quality service and it is available round the clock by a location tracking GPS-based dispatch technology and a 24X7 customer service centre in the form of Meru cabs. What makes Meru stand apart is the quicker pick up and faster response time to a call for a cab. Each cab is fitted with GPSbased tracking device that helps to identify the nearest cab from a customer's pick up location. The customer's address and other details are communicated back to the driver on the display screen avoiding use of age old walky-talky or mobile phones. The printed receipt for the fare is a boon to the customer as each cab is fitted with a tamper-proof digital fare meter. What's more the location information and fare details are continuously sent by each cab back to the control room for tracking purposes. Mr. Nilesh Sangoi, CTO, Meru Cab, says technology is making it easy to reach out to people and help provide better service; Meru cab has pioneered the concept of GPS/GPRS enabled Taxis in India. Technology is coming to the aid of customers who have long been at the mercy of the driver of the ubiquitous fiat. No longer does one have to argue about fare or even be sceptical about safety as the feature 'panic button' that is installed in every car enables the driver to connect to the control centre in case of an emergency. There is a first aid kit also in all vehicles just in case! People who inadvertently leave behind items can get them back through the 'Lost and Found' tracking system in place. It is easy as the customer has to call and inform the car number, date and time of travel which would be available on the printed fare receipt. Mobile Communication Terminal There is a Mobile Communication Terminal (MCT) in each car which has a built-in GPS receiver, LCD display screen and GPRS connectivity, helps the driver to communicate with the control room. Meru's datacenter hosts a set of communication servers, application servers and database servers which are in constant touch with each car through GPRS. The latitude and longitude information is plotted on GIS map for real time tracking. Better business sense and quality service The GPS will monitor where the cab was, at what time, how many fares were picked up, when the cab went off duty, and how much money the driver made. Customers have a hassle-free safe drop. The management is happy so are the customers. Great technological combination with many practical applications is a boon to one and all. Technology increases profits, improves safety and delivers better service for customers. Meru cab, which was launched in April 2007, has won the NASSCOM-CNBC IT User Award in the Travel segment in recognition of the proactive and holistic approach to IT adoption. Meru cab has opened the way and provided a new leash of life to customers with GPS-enabled taxis. Meru has

over 1,600 cabs across Mumbai, Bangalore, Hyderabad and Delhi. Benefits to the customer

Modern airconditioned luxury cars Quicker pick up and faster response 24X7 customer service centre Usage of clean and green fuel Tamper-proof meters, integrated with the GPS-system to ensure every fare is tracked, there by ruling out any possibility of over charging by the driver Ability to track the location of the car in 'real time' through the GPS technology provides security in case of an emergency Emergency security features installed in the taxi for complete safety, including display of Customer Service numbers inside each car.

Dispatching
This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed.(December
2010)

The activity of taxi fleets is usually monitored and controlled by a central office, which providesdispatching, accounting, and human resources services to one or more taxi companies. Taxi owners and drivers usually communicate with the dispatch office through either a 2-way radio or a computer terminal (called a mobile data terminal). Before the innovation of radio dispatch in the 1950s, taxi drivers would use a callboxa special telephone at a taxi standto contact the dispatch office. When a customer calls for a taxi, a trip is dispatched by either radio or computer, via an in-vehicle mobile data terminal, to the most suitable cab. The most suitable cab may either be the one closest to the pick-up address

(often determined by GPS coordinates nowadays) or the one that was the first to book in to the "zone" surrounding the pickup address. Cabs are sometimes dispatched from their taxi stands; a call to "Top of the 2" means that the first cab in line at stand #2 is supposed to pick someone up. In offices using radio dispatch, taxi locations are often tracked using magnetic pegs on a "board"a metal sheet with an engraved map of taxi zones. In computerized dispatch, the status of taxis is tracked by the computer system. Taxi frequencies are generally licensed in duplex pairs. One frequency is used for the dispatcher to talk to the cabs, and a second frequency is used to the cabs to talk back. This means that the drivers generally cannot talk to each other. Some cabs have a CB radio in addition to the company radio so they can speak to each other. In the United States, there is a Taxicab Radio Service with pairs assigned for this purpose. A taxi company can also be licensed in the Business Radio Service. Business frequencies in the UHF range are also licensed in pairs to allow for repeaters, though taxi companies usually use the pair for duplexcommunications. Some companies don't operate their own radio system and instead subscribe to an Specialized Mobile Radio system. The conventional radios are most suited to companies that operate within the local area and have a high volume of radio traffic. The SMR is more commonly used by black car services that cover a wider area, and smaller companies who use less airtime and don't want to run their own radio systems. With the advent of public data networks in the 1990s, operators are beginning to use PDAs and advanced mobile phones for dispatching and tracking functions in lieu of the traditional radio. Some small car services don't use a dispatcher at all. Instead the customers' calls are forwarded to the cell phones of whichever drivers are on duty at the time. [edit]Fares This section does not cite any references or sources. Please help improve this section by adding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. (July 2011)

For the distance travelled, the fare for a taxi is usually higher than for other forms of public transport (bus, tram, metro, minicab, train, bike). The fare is not based on the number of people travelling together in a taxi unless it is a 'maxi-taxi' (which can carry up to 8 people). Another system is one where more than one customer shares the same taxi and fares are per person. Fares are usually calculated according to a combination of 4 elements: Tariff rate, Initial flagfall or meter drop, distance and waiting time. A taximeter calculates this automatically ("meter" for short and the origin of the word "taxi"). Instead of a metered fare, passengers sometimes pay a flat fare. In some areas, when demand is highfor instance, late at nighta taxi driver may pick up the customer offering the highest bid (this practice may be against the law).

The inside of a Japanese taxicab in Kyotowith GPS navigation on board

[edit]Navigation Most experienced taxi drivers who have been working in the same city or region for a while would be expected to know the most important streets and places where their customers request to go. However, to aid the process of manual navigation and the taxi driver's memory (and the customer's as well at times) a cab driver is usually equipped with a detailed roadmap of the area in which they work. There is also an increasing use of GPS driven navigational systems in the more wealthy countries around the world. In London, despite the complex and haphazard road layout, such aids have only recently been employed by a small number of 'black cab' taxi (as opposed to minicab) drivers. Instead, they are required to undergo a demanding process of learning and testing called The Knowledge. This typically takes around three years and equips them with a detailed command of 25,000 streets within central London, major routes outside this area, and all buildings and other destinations to which passengers may ask to be taken.
[10]

A hybrid taxi from EnviroCAB, which is part of the environmentally friendly all-hybrid taxi fleet promoted through the Fresh AIRE program in Arlington, Virginia.

[edit]Environmental

concerns

Taxicabs have been both criticized for creating pollution and also hailed as an environmentally responsible alternative to private car use.
[11]

The results, published in the journal Atmospheric Environment in January 2006, showed that the level of pollution that people are exposed to differs according to the mode of transport that they use. The most risky method of

transport was the back seat of a taxicab, followed by travelling by bus, cycling, walking, with a private car exposing people to the lowest amount of pollution.
[12]

A Brazilian Fiat Siena Tetrafuel taxi in So Paulo. It runs as a flexible-fuel or as a bi-fuelwith CNG.

New York City hybrid taxicab - Toyota Prius

[edit]Alternative

fuels and propulsion

1.

2.

Management Summary Organization The company's management philosophy is based on responsibility and mutual respect. City Taxi has an environment and structure that encourages productivity and respect for customers and fellow employees. The City Taxi team is organized into two groups: Taxi Cabs. The taxi cabs division will consist of the fleet of taxis, driver owned and company owned, the call center, and administration. Overall, City Taxi will have approximately 20 employees in this division. The management of all daily operations within City Taxi will be handled in this division. Mr. Taylor, the CEO, will be responsible for the purchase of vehicles and dealing with vendors and suppliers. There will be 10 to 20 employees in the call center, three supervisors, three dispatchers, an office manager, a data entry clerk, and an employee responsible for accounts receivables/payables. Maintenance and Repair Services. This division will deal with the maintenance of vehicles. Drivers will be charged at discounted rates for tune-ups, wheel alignments, and other repairs. This division will be staffed with seven employees to begin with. Officers and Key Employees City Taxi's management is highly experienced and qualified. Key members of City Taxi's management teams, their backgrounds, and responsibilities are as follows. Mr. Johnson Taylor, President and CEO. Mr. Peter Jackson, Senior Vice President - Operations. Ms. Glenda Jones, Call Center Supervisor.

Read more: http://www.bplans.com/taxi_business_plan/management_summary_fc.php#ixzz1U5yrYfoc