Expensive Way to Travel. Review on Ola Cabs

Ola Cabs, a smart initiative taken by the company, are a web-based taxi service company that allows users to book cabs for transportation purposes. The company comes as an alternative to Uber services.

I first came to know about this application from my friends and decided to give it a shot. However, all I have to say is Ola is simply an expensive way to get to a destination which can otherwise be reached at a far cheaper price. And it is definitely not Pocket Friendly. I first booked through Ola Cabs soon after downloading the app. Online booking wasn't possible due to some error(which still persists in my region), so I called them instead. My destination was Dhanbad Station, which is at a distance of 10 km from my home. Normally, it takes Rs 25 to reach there in an Auto(public auto, obviously) but Ola Cabs charged me Rs 270(Rs 245 more) for the same distance. The Cab was a Sedan with air conditioner. I still regret booking from Ola Cabs. Few reasons, you should never book through Ola:

1.) Way too Expensive - Now, it is reasonable to set an extra price than public mode of transportation owing to the private treatment, the comfort and not to forget, the AC. But when the price goes above your head, you feel like drowning. Ola does that, atleast in my opinion. Ola has a base charge of Rs 35-Rs 40. The charge per km is Rs 13 for mini-cabs and Rs 15 for the Sedan cabs. In addition to that, there is an additional charge of Rs 1/minute till you reach the destination. Atleast, the last and the first two price addition are completely unnecessary in my opinion. Moreover, the mini cabs are not available for advance booking. Only the Sedan is which means the ride is going to be expensive.

2.) Never Available for Online Booking - Now, we all know about the attractive offers a company presents when it is new in the market to grab a tight hold. So did Ola when it was launched. Every user who downloaded the application and booked a Cab online through the app for the first time would get a Rs 200 discount on their ride total. For some reasons, this feature never works in our region(which is Dhanbad, Jharkhand). Everytime, I tried to book a cab in advance, it always showed'Already Booked on this Date and Time' message. No matter what date I tried or what time I put, it always said the same thing. Unfortunately I had not been able to utilise the Rs 200 off coupon and so did my friends here.

3.) First Booking and They come Late - I booked through Ola just once like I said earlier for going to the station and on the first time itself, they arrived late. My train was scheduled for 6:25 PM and I had booked the cab on 3:30 PM. The cab arrived at 4:15 PM(almost 45 minutes later). The driver made some excuse regarding traffic jam which ceased the topic any further. Had I booked a little late, my train would have departed for sure.

4.) Deliberately Slow Drivers - Now this may sound funny but Ola Cabs are a damn to slow. I don't know the reason but the drivers doesn't seem to accelerate or are allergic to it, maybe. It is evident that Ola additionally charges Rs 1/minute which means 1 hour into the cab and Rs 60 sweeps out of your pocket in addition to the other charges. My Sedan driver seemed to love his role as a driver and enjoyed the air while driving, even public auto's overtaked us, and my 45 minutes ride was completed at an usual more than hour. I don't know if the drivers deliberately do it or are they Traffic-Rule-Followers freak but I guess if they are into this traffic rule or something, then God bless the customers.

5.) Stuck in Traffic and You are in Doomsday - The moment you step into the Ola Cabs, the minute charge is appliable and stops only if you lift your butt out of the Cab which means if God is ungracious on that day and you happened to get stuck in a Traffic jam which lasts for some 15-20 minutes, be sure to get doomed with additional charges. And if it happens to be a couple of jams which quite frequently happens in my city and for sure in metro's as well, then the only option is to'Meditate'.

Final Verdict - In my review, my intent is not to insult Ola company but to address them to improve their services and bring down the charges. I, being a user, would love to visit again but few things definitely needs to get fixed first.