For years, Uber and Ola, the kings of India’s ride-hailing jungle, did not face a rival worth losing sleep over. It was more evident for their auto-rickshaws than for their cabs. That was until September 2022—when Namma Yatri, an alternative to the two, came to pass. It promised to shake things up, at least in the metropolis of Bengaluru in southern India.
Eight months on, the big cats may not see any reason to panic in their kingdom yet.
Namma Yatri, built by Juspay Technologies Juspay Technologies The Ken Why SoftBank wants in on OTP killer Juspay Read more —the Japanese investment powerhouse Softbank-backed fintech—has all the bells and whistles expected from a modern app that lets users book auto-rickshaw rides.
A development in March saw the app enlisting enlisting Mint Back Govt plans to take on Ola, Uber with zero-commission ONDC Read more on the Open Network for Digital Commerce (ONDC). The latter is a government-endorsed e-commerce behemoth that aims to advance the use of open networks for the exchange of goods and services through digital and electronic platforms. What this means is this: riders can book Namma Yatri autos via any ONDC-listed app.
The partnership, as a result, unlocks the possibility of a wider reach for Namma Yatri.
However, after smooth sailing in the first few months, Namma Yatri has run into choppy waters. Thanks to a fundamental problem: driver acquisition.
As of 2 May, its website claims to have just about 55,000 registered drivers—with a trickle of daily additions. Worse still, only 15–20% of them are actually hitting the road at any given point. In comparison, Uber has 55,000-60,000 autos in its Bengaluru fleet and Ola has 65,000-70,000, according to Tanveer Pasha, president of Ola Uber Drivers’ and Owners’ Association and Karnataka State Auto and Taxi Federation.
It comes as a slight surprise that Namma Yatri’s numbers are not more substantial yet, given that its model is a sort of antithesis to Uber and Ola. In a city with ~300,000 registered registered Transport Department - Government of Karnataka Vehicle Statistics Report Read more autos, Namma Yatri is designed to please both drivers and riders: with zero commissions, zero cancellation charges, and zero surge pricing.
However, Juspay’s 42-year-old founder Vimal Kumar is not perturbed, saying some auto drivers signed up out of curiosity but did not complete the process, such as uploading their driver’s license.
