India has beaten New York in a race for driver-owned ride-hailing. Even before its full-fledged nationwide rollout, Bharat Taxi, celebrated as the world’s first national ride-hailing mobility cooperative fully owned by drivers, has become the world’s largest driver-owned mobility collective.
In just 10 days, Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Limited, promoted by eight major national cooperatives, onboarded over 51,000 drivers across Delhi and Gujarat’s Saurashtra region, according to a report.
By contrast, The Driver’s Cooperative in New York, a similar platform launched in 2020, has around 4,000 members.
Beta consumer trials began in New Delhi, with driver-members activating services on the Bharat Taxi app yesterday.
The app is reportedly now live on the Google Play Store, and officials said the iOS version would follow shortly.
The chairman of Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Ltd, Jayen Mehta, told a section of the media that the beta trials had started in Delhi and the response had been overwhelming.
According to the report, the cooperative’s promoters include AmulFed (GCMMF), NCDC, IFFCO, KRIBHCO, NAFED, NDDB, NCEL, and NABARD.
Officials said that after the soft launch, taxi services would be formally rolled out in Delhi and Gujarat within a month, covering these states in the first phase of the nationwide launch.
In a notable move, the cooperative, registered under the Multi-State Cooperative Societies Act, elected two driver representatives to its board: Kishan Patani from Ahmedabad and Dhara Ballabh from Delhi, the report added.
Mehta also said that driver registrations had gone live in Saurashtra, where over 1,000 drivers in Rajkot joined within the last two days, and that registrations in Ahmedabad would begin in mid-December.
Also Read: Gujarat: Uber Given 15-Day Deadline to Halt Private Two-Wheelers as Bike Taxis https://www.vibesofindia.com/gujarat-uber-given-15-day-deadline-to-halt-private-two-wheelers-as-bike-taxis/
