Taxi start-up Rapido has launched its hourly two-wheeler rental service in six cities – Bengaluru, Chennai, Delhi-NCR, Hyderabad, Jaipur and Kolkata.
The service will allow customers to rent two-wheelers for fixed rate of Rs 99/hour for a maximum of six hours, The Economic Times reported.
The move seeks to address “changing needs of customers” amid the COVID-19 pandemic, and will allow for “multiple errands on a single trip to limit exposure to multiple drivers” and to avoid the hassle of multiple bookings, the report said.
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“We are the only player in this space to launch the first-of-its-kind service. As customer needs grow, people doing multiple bookings can actually shift to this model,” Aravind Sanka, the co-founder of Rapido, told the paper.
He termed the move an “innovation to serve different customer needs,” adding they saw potential as customers were opting for bike taxis instead of public transport.
The service is also expected to benefit customers who usually find it hard to find transportation during return journeys from far flung areas within their cities, it added.
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While the coronavirus pandemic did hit Rapido’s business, it now operates at 75 percent of pre-COVID-19 levels – with bike taxis clocking the highest recovery margins. During the period it also launched courier services to compensate for loss of business.
At present, logistics comprises 20 percent of the company’s business and is expected to stay so even after recovery. Rapido expects full recovery over the next two to three months.
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