Meru Cabs is one of the supposedly better managed cab services in Bangalore. They started business here when the new airport (BIAL) was commissioned, and have since then expanded from providing only Airport Pickup/Drops to general, intracity services. In fact, their advertisements (primarily on FM radio) focus on their availability after a late night party, or when you want to go somewhere in the city etc. They have their byline as “Rely on us”, and they did a great job living upto this – until recently.
Unfortunately, over the past few months they have been disturbingly unreliable. Couple of incidents where the cab was booked, and right before the reporting time, they canceled the booking and were not able to send a cab. This despite booking it 12 hours back !
Interestingly, each time the blame was put on “technical errors” or “system issues”, so much so that they claimed to be unable to talk to the drivers when the system was down. Haven’t heard of such advanced technology being used in India, where no offline record of driver details etc are kept 
Not sure how their competitor Easycabs is in this regard – haven’t used them as much as Meru. Other friends have had the opposite experience though – good for them
I think that with the price premium they charge diminishing (Local guys also charge 13/- per km, they charge 15/- as compared to a 5/- difference earlier), their services have taken a hit. Or maybe with the recession being over, their demand has increased more than their supply. In any case, its their brand which is going to eventually take a hit, as they are completely contradicting their stated USP.
Bottomline is, they can’t be relied upon 100% to send a cab when you need it, so better be careful and have other options in mind .
5 Comments
Wow! So it looks like neither is to be relied upon, what are our other choices?
No other choice
As with most things in India, use one of these two and leave it upto god 
Volvo bus service is more reliable, but not always practical..
In my case fortunately they haven’t cancelled the booking but they are never on time. They either come late when you need to get to some place urgently or they came early when it is really not required.
for me Meru has been (so far) the preferred option. because they were always on time and largely before time. and they also gave the best service.
@Easycabs, i had similar experience with Easycabs. I booked a cab for airport (because meru was full). It was time and the cab did not come, when i called they inform that the reservation was cancelled. and hanged up the phone on me.
I heard that meru plus has launched a new concept where the people can lease their vehicles to them. Person will have to give a vehicle(dzire,etios or tata manza:white in color diesel) along with chauffer. Meru charge 20% on the total earning and rest belongs to that person. This service has already launced in mumbai. It has come in Delhi. If anyone of you know of any such person from Mumbai who went for this business tie-up then kindly let me know as even I am thinking to opt for this option.
Post a Comment