Ola looks to add 25,000 drivers to its platform in Bengaluru

Ola, the country’s largest taxi service aggregator, aims to add 25,000 cars on its platform in this city; it is organising a week’s ‘mela’ here from Wednesday. The company will bring drivers, manufacturers and financiers under a single roof, facilitating attractive discounts for buying cabs.

Ola is partnering with manufacturers Toyota, Nissan, Ford, Fiat, Mahindra, Hyundai and Chevrolet, to offer cars at discounts to drivers who sign up on its service as part of the mela. The latter will also be able to get spot finance options from Mahindra Finance, Cholamandalam Finance, Punjab National Bank and IDBI.

“Driving is growing as a lucrative career choice of hundreds of thousands across the country. Through a Driver Mela of such scale, we are enabling aspiring driver entrepreneurs to choose from a wide range of options across purchase, lending, financing and other support systems,” said Karan Singh Shekhawat, vice-president of operations.

Apart from making it easier for drivers to buy cars, the company will also look at pushing its car leasing service, by allowing them to lease cars at a down payment of no more than Rs 15,000.

Ola is claiming that drivers have the opportunity to earn up to Rs 1 lakh a month by offering their services on its platform. It has, it says, 350,000 cabs on its platform across the country and is present in 102 cities. Engaged in a battle with global rival Uber, it is looking to make more cabs available on its platform, while also subsidising rides to get more passengers to use its service.

At the mela, drivers will also receive support for getting permits, getting their licences converted to drive commercial vehicles and even to convert white-board vehicles to yellow-board ones, to be able to legally operate on its platform.