Cabbin Fever

Ola’s cab supply conundrum

Ola spent millions on its cab leasing scheme, which helped the company build massive blocks of supply. However, in the absence of Ola’s once-stellar incentives, this supply is slowly dwindling. Ola has to make its move fast or risk losing what it has built to its rivals

02/08/18

Salman SH

Five years after it started, Ola realised the need to build a larger supply base of cabs to take on Uber

So, it created a leasing arm in mid-2015—Ola Fleet Technologies Pvt. Ltd. It leases cabs to driver-partners

But as incentives plummeted, Ola’s cab leasing model ran into trouble. Drivers left or switched allegiances

Now, despite investing heavily to build supply, Ola is still unable to service 10-15% of the daily demand on its platform

pexels-photo-175764-1920x1280.jpeg

Want to read a free 250 word summary?

Create an account

In 2015, online cab aggregator Ola released a commercial that wasn’t targeted at customers. Instead, the ad, featuring a jovial cabby, sought to entice the lifeblood of Ola itself—drivers. Or driver-partners, as online cab aggregators prefer to call them. The company, hoping to attract a wave of drivers to its platform, ran an ad featuring…

To access this post, you must purchase Monthly Recurring, Quarterly or Weekly Product.

Read the full story. Subscribe to Premium.

Or subscribe. Why? Let us explain.

Subscribe now

Already Registered?

Related stories

More stories in /Reportage, /Startups & /Technology

See all in Reportage, Startups & Technology

This story is for subscribers only.
Subscribe or Log In

Read the full story. Subscribe now.

Or subscribe. Why? Let us explain.

The selected story is available only for paid subscribers. Might want to change your mind!

Subscribe now

Already Registered? Login

Questions?

What is The Ken?

The Ken is a subscription-driven media site. We write one story a day (weekdays only). These stories have sharp, original insights on technology, business, science and healthcare from India.

Why do I have to sign up to read your stories?

Our stories are not free. Well, some select stories are. But, a significant part of what we write at The Ken is for subscribers only. We put in a lot of effort and resources in writing our stories and believe that you must pay for good journalism.
Hence, our three plans. 1) The annual membership
2) The free sign up
3) The recurring quarterly subscription

On journalism and why you should pay for it, if you haven’t already seen it, here’s a great explainer from John Oliver.

So, one must pay for journalism?

Yes.

How many stories will I get if I take an annual membership?

200+ stories.

And, in the free sign up?

Four stories every month.

Do I get a refund?

We allow you to sample our journalism for free before signing up, and after you do, we stand by its quality. But we do not offer refunds.

I am not getting my daily emails. Do I have to whitelist emails from The Ken?

An added benefit of your subscription (free/paid) are the daily personalised emails. These emails, at times, might end up in your spam/junk folder due to emojis, attachments or images. In case you’re not receiving these emails, it might help to whitelist us. If the problem still persists, write to us at [email protected].

Why am I unable to access the archives?

Full and unrestricted access to our archives is a feature of our annual membership.

My payment is not going through, what can I do?

Please write to us at [email protected] detailing the payment error or queries.

See all FAQs

    See all results for Ken

    No results found for Ken.