Due to some medical reasons I have been travelling with cabs for more than nine months now. I try to have a chat with the cab drivers whenever possible. It’s a good way to get insight of their experience with their service providers. In this post I will try to do comparative description between Uber and Ola cab services. I will try to cover several topics in this analysis based on MY observations (restricted to Pune region).

Uber

When it was apparent that I had to use a cab to move around, the first choice that came into my mind was Uber. Actually the reason was  that I had used Uber’s services in USA. So I already had Uber’s app installed on my phone. I have had around 250+ rides with Uber till now.

Pros:

• Face Value: Uber has a good face value among middle class and upper middle class people. Uber is a multinational company which is present allover the social media.
• Car Quality: Usually the car quality of Uber cabs is good. Good part is that Uber avoids TATA Indica’s which are really bad when it comes to comfortable ride.
• Mobile App: Uber’s mobile app is superior in looks as well as real time data. GPS location for pick-up point works accurately. Most of the times at strange places just using GPS location works fine. Best point of App is that if a driver cancels your ride, App finds a new driver automatically.
• Payment Options: I personally liked the options Uber provides for payment. Credit and Debit cards is common. But, having Paytm integrated by default is very convenient and fast. Cancellation is easy and provides many circumstances. Legitimate cancellation fee is refunded.
•  Driver Policies: Uber has high datum and low tolerance when it comes to Driver’s behavior. Most of them are soft spoken and do understand Hindi and English. After talking with several drivers I came to know that Uber runs some programs for drivers (English speaking etc) and their kids (school fees etc) which I found good and inline with any MNC policies.

Cons:

• Reputation: There is difference between face value and reputation. Past news of Uber drivers’ abuses in big cities like New Delhi and Noida etc has damaged Uber’s reputation a bit.
• Rates: Uber normally has higher rate when compared to it’s competitor Ola on same route. Also, it’s particularly annoying that sometimes it feels like the surge has no limit in Uber (4x to 6x). Surge prices are applied on almost every ride.
• Availability: In general number of Uber cabs in Pune region is less than Ola. This is one of the biggest reason for surge pricing.
• Waiting Time: This is a problem you will have to face if you want ride with Uber. This is byproduct of lesser number of cabs.
• Payment to Drivers: In last 250+ rides I have never met any rider who is happy with Uber’s drivers payment and incentives except two! Most of them hate the fact that incentives are lesser than Ola and are annoyed with the fact that payment policies change like stock market graph.
• Regular Riders: Uber provides NO facilities, incentives or plans for regular riders. (Discounts once in a while won’t be counted in this) This just makes it practically impossible to take a ride with it every time.
• Outstation Rides: Outstation ride’s pricing is very expensive.
• Minimum Paytm Balance: I am personally annoyed with the fact that Uber requires certain Paytm balance in order to book a ride. It used to be Rs 250 now it is Rs 350. Can’t Uber just allow a Rs 100 ride if I have balance of Rs 200?

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Ola

Ola was never a first choice for cab ride for me. But, somewhere around 5 months ago I started using Ola services as well. Today I have both Uber and Ola apps installed on my phone. I have taken around Ola 125+ rides and talked with almost all drivers to get their views.

Pros:

• Rates: Ola rates and fares are usually lesser than Uber which has made it very famous among common people. Also surge rates are lower which I personally find good.
• Availability: I just feel there are more Ola cabs in Pune region than its competitor Uber. This is the reason why Ola can afford lower prices and surge prices.
• Share Rides: Ola started share riding much before Uber in Pune region. Share riding basically means lower prices and lower pollution. Which is good.
• Driver’s Payment: According the information I got from drivers, Ola pays it’s drivers more than Uber and incentive plans are better. Payment policy is fairly consistent
• Rider’s Plans: Ola has several plans for regular riders. It used to provide corporate plans but I am not sure whether Ola provides it now or not. A good plan Ola provides is for share rides. If you choose this plan the share ride prices will be significantly lower than usual prices.
• Outstation Pricing: Outstation pricing of Ola is significantly lower than Uber.
• Minimum Balance: There is no minimum balance required to book a ride using Ola money. App simply doesn’t allow to book a ride costing Rs 100 if you balance of Rs 50 in Ola money, which makes sense.

Cons:

• Drivers: This is my personal view and opinion that the driver’s behavior and driving skills of Ola is it’s weakest point. I have seen more Ola driver’s speaking rudely with customers. Many of them didn’t understand English which causes problem in a metro city.
• Cars: Most of the Ola cabs are TATA Indica’s at least 10 years old. Many of them were used extensively as cabs for corporate companies. I have found the car quality and ride comfort on a lower side than Uber.
• Cancellation: I have experienced more cancellations of rides by Ola than Uber. It doesn’t mean that Uber drivers never cancelled any rides but the frequency is lower.
• Mobile App: I never liked Ola mobile App. GPS location is slow and it always begins positioning from some remote place in Karnataka which makes no sense. It is not attractive enough compared to it’s competitor. If driver cancels your ride, you have to go through the whole process again which is time consuming.
• Payment options: Ola money is an alternative Ola uses in place of Paytm. But, it just means you need to add money to Ola money which can’t be anywhere else.

Other Points

• Most of the cab drivers (both services) ask for the drop-off point, which actually is not allowed. Many times the cab drivers would cancel the ride depending on your drop-off location. Auto rickshaw’s in India lost their business because of this attitude (My Blog)
• No driver wants to go to the downtown or old city. They just hate it!
• None of the drivers like to take share rides (both services). I am yet to meet a driver who doesn’t get annoyed with share rides.

Verdict

Choose Uber if you want a bit luxurious ride and are ready to wait for more time; choose Ola if you want to save some money and are in hurry. Of course this is my personal view. Ideally I will recommend to have both Uber and Ola Apps installed and compare prices and waiting times before booking a ride. One mistake riders do is selecting share rides even if they have time limits to follow. Happy riding!!

 

Disclaimer:

The views, observations and opinions mentioned in this blog are personal. It may vary with reader’s. Please express your experience in comments. Btw I am neither promoting or demoting anyone just expressing my views and has nothing to do with my employer Autodesk.