This will be a great development, which will be very helpful to passengers. Booking cab in advance shall free the passengers fromthe hotch-potch of booking cab on reaching destination and save time in addition to inconvenience. And the idea of pooling the same destination passengers is just awesome which shall save money/fuel also! Mr. Prabhu as RM and competition amongst the cab-drivers could do wonders for IR paxs.
It may be noted that AirIndia (under dynamic leadership of Mr. Lohani who also is a noted railway enthusiast), facing stiff competition from private airline operators collaborated recently with IR, to accommodate wait listed AC II & I paxs to fill unoccupied seats in AirIndia flights, which benefited paxs, AirIndia & IR alike....
more... Such collaborations which are win-win to all are best things to happen any where.
Good and mutually beneficial steps by pvt. taxi operators and Air India is directly a consequence of competition with other players in the same field.
Here the monopoly over the inherently efficient and cost effective rail transport becomes a disadvantage for IR, because it does not have sufficient motivation/ compulsion to improve and optimise. Today it looks like, this cushion too is pressed to its limit. In spite of inherently very high fuel consumption and lower economies of scale of air/ road transport, the super efficient operators of airlines and trucks/buses/ taxis have pushed lethargic IR out of its comfort zone.
Even after snatching about 60% of national freight/passenger share (from 90%/75% to 30%/15%) from IR in 69 years of Independence, they are still continuing to snatch the market share of IR, which is constantly falling! When the share further falls to very low level,say after 15-20years, IR shall be lose its relevance/importance to national economy. And in that case even the very powerful IR unions may loose their teeth too as nation may very well tolerate even a strike in IR. After snatching some more market share they will not remain silent. They will then snatch the permission/ authority to run rails, which is most economical mode of transport and give transportation at lesser cost whilst earning more.
The way out for IR to survive and thrive is to improve itself as fast as possible , lest the Air/Road operators thrust their way into rail operation to solve logistics problems being faced by our country. It is time for IR to take advantage of its biggest weapon, i.e. exploiting the inherent advantages of rail transport over the air and road transport like much less fuel consumption, economies of scale, environmental advantages etc. to hilt. There is no substitute to hard work, RM is working hard, he is ensuring that senior officials to do, need of the hour is the same change should percolate down to the lowest level. Continuous and al round improvement through innovation, adoption of state-of-the art technologies/work practices, optimisation of resources, ensuring financial prudence in all decisions/actions etc. are the first and foremost necessities for IR. DFCs shall be the biggest trump card with IR to beat its competitors (regain market share), if IR could construct the same within reasonable time.
There is one more threat that is gradually developing and which has the capacity to break the back bone of IR, i.e. development of water ways. Water way is still cheaper and more environmentally friendlier mode of transport than rail transport. IR could comfortably survive for 70 years in spite of all kinds of financially imprudent policies, because water transport was almost non existent in India. Also the road transport was just not developed/ geared up for carrying the bulk freight, which today is monopoly and main stay of IR, (60% of revenues comes from bulk freight). Our politicians indirectly (mis)used this monoply to the hilt, in order to fulfill their political ambitions. River transport & coastal shipping along with air and road transport are being pursued by the Central Govt in a big way and unlike IR, the private operators involved in those businesses are taking full benefits of it.
IR have to improve very fast and come out of mess, before the more potent competitor i.e. water transport gets going great guns.
