Taxi booking and ride-sharing apps have completely revolutionized the way we use a cab to move from point A to point B. Now we can quickly hail a ride from an app from any place and track it in real-time. Cab rides can still be expensive and may not be the right medium for travel for certain times and places in a city due to challenges like traffic congestion and costs. Recently a new type of taxi segment, popularly called bike taxis have been gaining traction through either standalone bike taxi apps or as an additional option in already popular cab-hailing apps in Asian countries like Indonesia, Thailand, India, Vietnam, Cambodia.
What Are On-Demand Bike Taxi Apps?
Think of them as an Uber for motorbikes. You can book a bike instead of a car with bike taxi apps in the same way you hail a cab with Uber or Ola or Lyft. A bike rider will pick you up from your location, provide a helmet to wear for safety and payments can be made online.
Bike taxi startups and service providers either have their own fleet of bikes or allow bikers to share their trip route with others (Bike Pool) and receive pickup requests from an Uber driver type app.
Benefits Of On-demand Bike Taxi Services
There are two major factors that make bike taxis a more attractive option for commute than a typical cab ride.
Most of the bike taxi apps and services operate in countries with high population and congested roads. Bikes are better at navigating traffic jams and reach the destination quicker than a four-wheeler. If it takes 40 minutes to travel a distance by car, you will be able to cover it within 10 minutes on a bike.
The cost of traveling on a bike is much lesser than booking a cab due to some obvious reasons. Even though app powered carpooling and shuttle services have made travel more affordable, bike-based taxi rides can still be a cheaper commute option.
Many app based bike taxi startups and services are trying to capitalize on this. Below is a list of some of the most prominent bike taxi apps and services in Asia that have made on-demand bike rides a reality and popular among the public.
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- Go-Jek
- Grab
- Baxi
- Rapido
- uberMoto
- Ola Bike
- SafeBoda
- Bikxie
Top Bike Taxi Apps
Hailing from Indonesia, Go-Jek is one of the most successful on-demand bike taxi booking apps. The company started with just 20 bikes seven years back and worked its way to a $2.5 billion market value.
Operating in 25 cities of Indonesia it employs over 400,000 drivers of cars, trucks, and motorcycles. Go-Jek is also eyeing to enter four more countries in Southeast Asia.
The company also provides a plethora of services like food delivery, on-demand cleaning, beauty services and more. Their payment system GoPay is also very popular and can be used to pay for any service offered by the company. All the payment is carried out through their app.
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Grab
Grab is one of the big startup success stories of Southeast Asia. It launched as a taxi app in Malaysia in 2012 by Anthony Tan and now offers a host of services for transportation and logistics services from a single app platform. It launched its bike ride service in November 2014. The project proved successful and soon the company expanded to Indonesia and Thailand. Drivers receive smartphones from Grab and the whole service is conducted through the Grab app.
It recently secured up to US$700 Mn in debt financing from unnamed global and regional banks.
Challenges For Bike Taxi Startups
The lack of clear regulations has created operational challenges for some startups. Even Ola and Uber had to suspend their operations in Bengaluru due to regulatory concerns. Road conditions and accident rates also provide considerable challenges. Dego Ride had to wrap up its business in Kuala Lumpur because the transport department deemed it unsafe.
However, startups are optimistic about operating and convincing regulators of the benefits of bike taxis. More governments are appreciating the unique value created by online bike services and making sincere efforts to legalize them just like the normal cab taxis. Besides, bike taxis can generate new employment and revenue opportunities for the youth.
Read More About Uber Bike Taxi Apps Here.
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