RUSH HOUR
Business Today India|August 20, 2023
AS UBER AND OLA GRAPPLE WITH A DRIVER SHORTAGE IN THE AFTERMATH OF COVID-19 AND SHIFT TO A PROFIT-FIRST APPROACH, NIMBLE NEWCOMERS HAVE ZOOMED IN TO CAPITALISE ON THEIR INEFFICIENCIES, RESHAPING URBAN TRANSPORT IN THE PROCESS
BINU PAUL
RUSH HOUR

“HELLO MADAM, WHAT is your drop location?” “Koramangala.” Ride cancelled. “Hello madam, cash or online payment?” “Online.” Ride cancelled.

“This is my struggle every day now; spending over an hour having these awkward conversations with at least half-a-dozen drivers before I finally get a cab for my commute,” shares Bengaluru-based IT professional Reshma. If you are a regular user of cab-hailing apps, you are perhaps all too familiar with this.

But things weren’t always like this, at least not before Covid-19. In that idyllic past, the value proposition that Ola and Uber offered driver-partners and customers was clear: seller would meet buyer in a mediated market that promised a fair deal for both. What ensued was a fierce competition between the two giants for every ride and driver, as they outbid each other with discounts and incentives, in a quest to capture the Indian market.

By the middle of 2020, though, months of lockdowns, enforced isolation and deserted streets had delivered the online mobility sector a body blow. In the depths of the pandemic, demand for Ola and Uber’s services plummeted to zero. 

TROUBLE BREWS 

1 The Covid-19-induced slowdown prompted an exodus of drivers, exacerbating supply shortages for Ola and Uber

2 As service quality declined and ride costs rose, more users turned to autorickshaws and bike taxis

3 Ola and Uber, meanwhile, have shifted focus to profitability in the cab-hailing business

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