“If you no longer go for a gap that exists, you’re no longer a racing driver.” – Ayrton Senna. This was a quote mentioned by the famous F1 driver during the interview of his last championship race.
The ride hailing business is developing a mile per minute and is no less than a professional race to build efficiencies and reduce operational and technological gaps. Companies in the ride hailing industry have grown by leaps and bounds with the influx of financial support received from VCs (venture capitalists) and other investors over the past decade. It has heavily transformed the transportation industry from being heavily dependent on public transport and local taxi services, which were erratic and most times an inconvenience to customers today having the convenience of booking a ride at their fingertips .
The general usage of the internet, with the rise of social, mobile, analytics, and cloud computing, has made access to information quicker than ever before. The e-hailing sector is developing due to rising internet penetration across countries. According to Internet World Stats, the internet penetration rate was 63.8 percent in Asia, 88.2 percent in Europe, 43.2 percent in Africa, and 93.9 percent in North America. In addition, worsening traffic congestion and rising fuel prices are driving demand for e-hailing services. Transactions are shifting to real time and the trust in ecommerce is solidifying.
We can characterize the behaviour of the customers/users under the following categories:
The ride hailing economy is here to stay, and driven by a sense of perceived benefits, being affordable, convenient, efficient, and better for the environment, is building a stronger community based on trust between providers and users. The key factor for growth of global ride hailing market is increasing demand for personal mobility services, with surge in electric vehicles sales, rise in the industrialization and urbanization, rise in smartphone users, and increase in the number of ride sharing services platforms such as Ola, Lyft, and Uber. Ride hailing market is being occupied by the major players such as Uber, Ola, RideOs, Grab Lyft, Gett, DiDi, and many of the players have begun to implement electric vehicles for ride hailing. This has led to a demand surge in the electric vehicle market globally.
The industry has grown at the above rate due to the following technological trends supplementing the economy:
Though the industry has been growing with great speed and velocity over the past decade, it has not been a smooth ride. Companies like Uber, Grab, Gojek, Lyft have to be at pole position and avoid being one of the back markers. As the F1 driver has to deal with problems like flatspot and brake bias on the race track, the ride hailing industry deals with its own set of curves in the form of these challenges:
The Pitstop
All F1 teams are supported by the pit crew for all requirements, right from monitoring the conditions of the car to functional changes required between laps and competition analysis. It is imperative for the pit crew to support the driver and the car at all times of the journey to ensure it manages to optimize the lap time and zoom ahead in position.
Ride hailing companies like Uber, Grab, and Gojek also need this constant support to withstand the challenges they face in the industry. IT companies provide the “crew” and support their business needs, circumventing challenges, reducing costs, and increasing reach while digitally transforming and automating processes so that businesses can sustain in this new normal.
Some key offerings provided by IT companies are as follows:
Beyond the flag
Today Ride-sharing is quickly gaining momentum by harnessing the power of digitalization. There are tests and pilots being run by organizations to understand the viability of autonomous vehicles and self-driving. This idealistic world would soon become a reality since organizations like Google and Uber are actively working on technologies to deliver an autonomous riding experience. One of the most likely ride-sharing trends for 2022 is an increase in the electrification of ride-sharing fleets. Electric vehicles are becoming increasingly popular, and companies like Uber are already exploring EVs. As more customers demand clean, sustainable transportation services, it will be necessary for Uber to expand its fleet with electric or hybrid vehicles.
Abhishek Dhanuka
Presales Consultant - Travel, Transportation, Logistics, Hospitality & Public Sector, Digital Operations & Platforms
Abhishek has 2.5 years of work experience in the customer strategy and BPO presales domain. He has worked with clients and created solutions ranging from the following industries - logistics, airlines, ride-hailing, food-delivery, and hospitality.
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