PickMe cabs to expand to major towns soon
From left: PickMe - Project Manager - Irfan Mohideen,Head of Operations - Thivanka Perera and CEO of PickMe - Jiffry Zulfer
Well … now there’s a cost-effective, safe and smart way to hail a taxi. PickMe, a technology developed by Digital Mobility Solutions Lanka (Pvt) Ltd headed by Jiffry Zulfer, equips local taxis with the power of technology enabling them to use and benefit from features like GPS tracking, navigation, automatic-billing, live-connection with the passenger and 24/7 driver dedicated support etc.“Our aim is to upgrade the levels of service of a taxi driver and uplift their profession and most importantly provide them an additional sense of safety which was never a luxury they could enjoy with the challenges of the industry,” Mr. Zulfer told the Business Times on the sidelines of a media conference to launch the ‘Pickme Passenger App’ which allows passengers to book a taxi (three wheeler, mini or car) through its Android, iOS or Windows smart phones. He said their expansion plans are on target to launch in major towns. This service will be expanding to Kandy soon, according to Mr. Zulfer and they are seeing a huge demand to set up in Jaffna.
PickMe is affiliated with many taxi services in Colombo and freelance taxi drivers, contributing to the largest live feed of available taxis in the city. “Everyday some 15 to 20 drivers join us, but it isn’t enough,” an official told the Business Times on the sidelines of this media conference.
According to him, customers are growing at over 25 per cent a month since they started six months ago. Their fleet has some 3,000 taxis and a majority is three wheels. There’s a list of conditions to join the fleet and a passenger rating system is also in place to ensure quality, he said.
He said that a driver who used to make Rs. 1,500 a day, now earns Rs. 4,000 to Rs. 5,000 a day.One PickMe driver who has been in service for just four months said, “I worked at a cab service before and my vehicle was a Nano Cab. There were times when I could not even afford the lease payment for my vehicle while I was at my previous job. Therefore, I quit and started running solo with the firm belief that I will make it work somehow by myself. But pressures on me were immense; it is very hard to do something like this on your own. I had only one vehicle and yet it was very difficult to manage. While searching for other opportunities to save my declining business I found PickMe. It worked so well in these few short months that now I have bought a new vehicle and even hired a driver for my old vehicle, which also runs for PickMe. So I believe I can make a profit with PickMe.”
The first kilometre in a three wheeler is at Rs. 50 and thereafter for each kilometre it’s at Rs. 35. In a mini-cab it’s at Rs. 260 for the first three kilometres and then it’s Rs. 45 per each kilometre. Mr. Zulfer said that soon, cashless rides, (payment in credit cards) will be introduced. “We want to introduce a system where customers can always hail taxis 2 km away. Then there’s a reduction in the loss mileage.” The new extensions to the technology are the Sinhala and Tamil interfaces, which is a huge impetus for the company’s plans to broad-base their services to the rest of the island next year. The company operates from the lower, middle and high end of the markets, providing their customers with three-wheelers, mini cabs as well as sedans. The investors in the company include Ajit and Ruchi Gunewardene, LOLC IT, MAS Holdings and Hirdaramani Group and together they raised Rs. 150 million to start this firm.