Redefining taxi market with affordable luxury

In a market, where customers of cab services are willing to pay twice or thrice the normal rates, in order to get to their destinations during the peak-time pricing hours, the idea of being driven around the city in a Merc for just a few bucks more seemed ready to be explored. And that’s exactly the disruptive idea the team behind KHO Cabs envisaged could create a new revenue stream. K Naresh, the CEO of the company tells us, “Our intention was to provide an opportunity to common man to travel in a luxury car at an affordable price. During our market survey, we found that there were quite a few gaps in the market. So, on a pilot basis we decided to introduce about 10 cars right now in the Mercedes C Class and GLE variants, which are owned by Fast Track. There are another 40 cars that are in the pipeline.” 

Giving us a lowdown on the pricing model, Naresh tells us, “We have three pricing packages – one exclusively for the Kho app, which is available on the AppStore and Google Playstore. Also, as Fast Track has close to 50 lakh customers in its database, we decided to come up with an ‘surprise’ package for them. What we offer them is an upgradeable package for a luxury car that they can avail of at Rs 500 over their normal cab fares from the airport. We have KHO packages that are priced at Rs 1,000 for an hour or 10 km. We believe our rates are comparatively 33 per cent of the existing rates, when it comes to hiring a luxury car (four hour/40 km packages cost around Rs 6,000).” The company’s customer base for these luxury services are primarily international visitors arriving in Chennai at the airport, requesting pick up and drop services from the airport and hotels. Corporate clients are also a group that we have set our sights on. As Chennai happens to be quite major on wedding-related preparations, such families are also potential customers for our services. In the past two days since our launch, we have already had 40 trips done and have an advance booking for about 100 cars, which is quite a high figure for this segment” Naresh mentions that as per customer requests, the company also offers special services to its customers on account of event-based requirements like birthdays, anniversaries or even family dinners. 

The team is keen on adding close to 100 cars to its inventory by this financial year end and also has some aggressive expansion plans up its sleeve on a pan-India basis.