Ola expands its inter-city ride offer

The service now allows customers travelling outstation to pay for only a one-way trip

Ola, the country's largest taxi service aggregator, has become more aggressive on inter-city travel, now allowing customers travelling outstation to pay for only a one-way trip. It is now present in a little over 500 cities and towns.

Ola said this had become viable as its ‘Outstation’ offering had gained significant scale, such that drivers could easily find rides home when going outstation. In turn, more customers were likely to use their outstation cabs, as they'd now save on the return fare.

In a September interview, Pranay Jivrajka, operations head at Ola, said their goal was to enable every mode of transport in the next five years. This has led to four categories of cabs - Micro, Mini, Prime and Lux, at different price points. Ola has also offered shared rides, autorickshaws, outstation cabs, rentals and shuttle buses.

While the firm hasn’t yet tied up with public transport bodies across states, it says it wishes to explore that, too. Ola’s outstation move would directly impact car pool entities such as BlaBlaCar, seen as cheaper alternatives to booking personal cabs.

Uber, Ola's rival, has also experimented with inter-city rides for customers, with fixed rides between Mumbai and Pune.