Wayanad: At a time when the district's tourist footfall is rising, the drivers and owners of tourist taxis have introduced an app-based taxi facility named 'Spot Taxi Call Centre.' The pilot version of the initiative was launched a few days ago in Sulthan Bathery municipal area and Noolpuzha village panchayat.
The project would be expanded to the whole taluk soon. The region was selected for the launch as tourists from Bengaluru flock to the area often resulting in good demand for taxis, said cabbies.
The hundreds of resorts, homestays, lodges and hotels of the taluk would soon be able to avail of the service. After analysing the app's performance in the initial stage, it would be launched to the entire district. According to N Sajeev, secretary of the Spot Taxi Call Centre, more than 100 taxis have already enlisted themselves with the call centre. “Both the drivers and owners of vehicles are the investors as well as beneficiaries,” he said, adding that the share of a driver in the project is Rs 1,000 whereas the owners' share is Rs 500. "We have already installed the QR codes in almost all properties and we are getting good responses too, " he said.
The drivers feel that the initiative will help even those who have no direct link to tourist properties in the area. They can now get in touch with resorts and tourists avoiding middlemen. The middlemen used to take away a share of taxi fares as commission, they said.
According to Anto George of Buddy Soft Technologies, the firm that provides technological backup for the app, each tourism property would be linked to the network and if a customer needs a vehicle she can enter the system by scanning the QR code. “A visitor will only have to enter her mobile number and the number of persons. These would be transferred to the call centre from where the customer would be contacted,” he said. “From the call centre, the driver of the available vehicle would be contacted. If one vehicle is not available the vehicle next in line would take the turn,” he added.
