Mana Yatri, a community-driven app for autorickshaws and cabs, was launched in Hyderabad on Thursday and thus far onboarded 25,000 drivers, and plans to add another another lakh in the next three months.
The app seeks to cut out commissions charged by app platforms and give flexibility to both drivers and riders.
“Our philosophy is: the customers pay less, and the driver earns more by completely eliminating the middleman and the commission structure. For example, during peak time, and non-peak hours, the base fare is more or less the same as fixed by the government,” said Shan M.S. from Juspay, a company that built Mana Yatri, adding that during peak time there is flexibility for the driver to ask for a slightly higher fare and the customer to add more tips. “The customers and drivers decide what they are comfortable with.”
“We started onboarding autorickshaw drivers a little early as compared to cabs. There has been an interest from cabs as well. We are looking at expediting onboarding of both,” Mr Shan said. So far, as many as 65,000 customers have registered in Hyderabad owing to a soft launch of the app. The app has completed about 20,000 rides so far.
Magizhan Selvan from Mana Yatri said that the app does not charge for ride cancellation. The Namma Yatri family of apps which includes Mana Yatri has over 2.1 lakh drivers, 50 lakh customers and has clocked 2.7 crore trips. Drivers have earned ₹420 crore which is commission free.
Speaking at the Mana Yatri launch, Shireesh Joshi, Chief Business Officer, Open Network for Digital Commerce said that the digital method or ordering goods and services was beset with inconveniences. “But the new method — that of getting connected to a network — ONDC is a network, Mana Yatri is an application connected to the network and you are connected to the application. Hyderabad is the first city where this network will be used in India. By this, your life will be better, your income will be better and there will be less stress,” he said.
T-Hub Chief Executive Officer Mahankali Srinivas Rao, Madan Pillutla, Dean, ISB and transport union leaders Shaik Salauddin and Venkatesam also spoke.
