She Taxi takes mobile route for booking now
As the online taxi service became popular, commuters switched to them citing more convenience and less cost.
KOCHI: Following the footsteps of online taxi services like Uber and Ola, the She Taxi service launched by the Kerala State Women Development Corporation is switching to a mobile application based system, instead of continuing with the current call centre based service. Steps are afoot to drop the call centre agency and the KSWDC will directly operate the service through a mobile app, which will be inaugurated by August, P. T. M. Sunish, managing director of KSWDC told DC.
“Considering the huge demand for online taxi services and to make the She Taxi service more cost effective, it has been decided to switch to the mobile app based system. The service is in a transition phase now and will be completely shifted to the new system by August,” he said. After the initial success, She Taxi service has been struggling to survive in the three cities of Thiruvananthapuram, Kochi and Kozhikode due to some reasons. As the online taxi service became popular, commuters switched to them citing more convenience and less cost.
The corporation MD added that discussions would be held with Kochi Metro Rail Limited authorities to integrate She Taxi service with the Metro system. “In view of the changing urban transport scenario, mobile app based She Taxi service can be made popular by integrating it with the Metro. It will attract more women to the team and will also help to increase number of commuters,” he added. In July last year, KSWDC had constituted a committee to study the drawbacks and other factors for the poor performance of She Taxi service in Kochi. She Taxi was initiated by Gender Park of department of social justice with the aim of empowering women through a unique business model. It was in May 2014 that the service was launched in Kochi after the successful operation in Thiruvananthapuram.