While e-commerce companies are busy doling out discounts to acquire more customers, why should the cab companies stay behind? Uber, the ride-sharing service, has been slashing its rates since the last few months to take on players in the fast growing and highly competitive taxi rental market. Uber competes directly with Olacabs and Taxiforsure and indirectly with radio-taxi operators such as Meru, Megacabs and Tabcab.
The taxi-hailing app has further reduced tariffs by 40 per cent across its categories - uberGO, uberX and UberBLACK at ₹7/Km, ₹9/Km and ₹12/Km respectively in major metros, including Delhi.
The company announced the new tariffs in a mail communication to all its registered users.
Last year, Ola Cabs had also slashed its tariffs.
Ever since Uber is back into action last month after it was banned by the Centre following a rape incident in Delhi, the San Francisco based company has become more aggressive on the tariff front. It has also launched several safety features, especially for the women. The company is also considering an option to get into the radio-taxi segment in India, which is not a strategy Uber has undertaken in any of the markets where it has operations.
Uber that calls itself a technology company and not a transport provider, has also been lobbying hard so that it is regulated under the Information Technology Act. Uber has its operations in 10 Indian cities including Ahmedabad, Chandigarh, Jaipur and Kolkata.