Source: Economic Times
The idea is sounds good in principle, but Uber has failed in delivering/maintaining service in their base fleet. The hygiene/comfort/reliability issues had degraded to such an extent that they broke their own duopoly in india and allowed brands like BluSmart to come up and fill the service gaps. Unless Uber maintains some level of centralised control over their fleet, their service delivery will continue to fail because their operating model atleast in India inadvertently tends to attract local aggregation (ie one guy deploying 3-4 cabs on the network and hiring contractor drivers). In their bid to maximise profits, they will eventually have to either pass on the premium vehicles’ maintenance cost down to the customers (going beyond their wtp zone) or squeeze the drivers out, which would lead to service degradation down the line and the cycle continues.
The other doubt I had was on the usecase. A premium cab only makes sense to me if someone else is paying (business / client trip) or if i have to travel further than usual. The business clientle already has suitors in BluSmart and I wonder how they’ll price the cabs for longer distance in a way that the price remains justified
