OneRyder launches bike taxi service in Delhi

To cash in on the growing trend of bike taxis, startup OneRyder today launched its ride-sharing service here and said it plans to expand to the NCR in the next six months.

The company, which has 70 driver partners on board, is looking to aggressively scale up to 500 drivers in the next six months as it starts offering services in Gurgaon, Noida, Ghaziabad and Faridabad.

"Bike Taxis are very popular in places like Thailand... At OneRyder, we aim to constantly find smart transportation solutions for commuters in traffic congested cities," OneRyder Founder and CEO Rahul Gupta told PTI.

He further said the company aims to have 200 riders joining by the end of April in Delhi alone.

"We have built an interesting features in the app. There is a speeding regulator that notifies the operations team when a bike exceeds the 50 kmph speed limit. Consequently, strict action is taken against every rider who defies road safety rules adopted by OneRyder," he added.

All rides of OneRyder will originate from Delhi and commuters can be dropped up to 15 kms from the borders of the city.

Customer are charged Rs 15 for the first km, followed by Rs 4 for every subsequent km and Rs 1 per minute of ride time.

Motorbike taxis is an established model in markets like Vietnam, Thailand and some other emerging nations.

The transportation space in India is witnessing intense competition as the private equity-backed firms are investing heavily in getting more drivers on board.

Even cab aggregators like Ola and Uber have entered the segment, which has players like Baxi, Rapido, N.O.W and Rideji.

Uber and Ola had launched their service on pilot basis in Bengaluru but had to restrict service following the Regional Transport Authority terming the service illegal.

These companies could face similar hurdles in other cities
as most transport authorities do not have clear regulations around operating two-wheelers as commercial vehicles.

Haryana government has recently allowed companies to offer ride-sharing using both white number plate and commercial motorbike taxis (yellow number plates).

Following the announcement, Baxi today said it will add over 1,000 ride-sharing bikes on its platform.

"Baxi will add 1,000 more Baxis within a week. These will run on the ride-sharing model on a part-time basis using white number plate bikes," Baxi Founder Ashutosh Johri said.

The move by the government lowers the entry barrier and will allow bike taxi service providers to add more fleet to the ground, making last-mile connectivity simpler and quicker for people, he added.