The New Hyderabad Cab Rent Service to give Ola and Uber a run for their money

Sikars, the inter city cab services rolled out its service in Hyderabad this April with the motive to provide luxurious and hassle free cab service for highly competitive price. But in a country where Uber and Ola have captured majority market, how will Sikars manage decent business? The founder says his approach is organic with Sikars cab service. He is open to enroll drivers from Uber and Ola, but the objective is to rope in city drivers.

IndianCEO talks to the Founder & CEO, Karthik Poighal at their studio to know about Sikars and their plans.

IndianCEO: But why would people prefer a Sikars over Ola or Uber?

Karthik Poighal: Well, the founder confidently says they offer a cheap trip for distance more than 50 kms or 100kms. Ola takes charge for a round trip. He says ‘ If a person is travelling from point A to point B which is 100kms, we normally charge Rs.15/km. So what happens is when we drop a customer at point B, we try to pick another customer from point A. So the previous customer only has to pay for the distance he travels. But for now, our customer base isn’t that huge. So what we do is we only charge for the return fuel. So the driver isn’t at loss because he gets the money back for fuel. The customers end up paying almost five hundred less than what they pay in Ola.’

We agree that there are some local vendors who does the job in just 1000 bucks, but their cars have white number plates. We are totally into legal business. Unlike Ola or Uber, we do not put our drivers into any kind of pressure. They have a soft target for the day.

IndianCEO: How do you plan to get business?

Karthik Poighal: We are doing 30 to 40 rides per month, which is commendable as we are new. We are working more on reference base.  We are a part of the BNI group which is very helpful in getting us new business. We are targetting IT sectors to be precise.  People staying several kilometers beyond Hyderabad, visit home every weekend. Those are a good source of business for us.

IndianCEO: Tell us about your Team

Karthik Poighal: Well I am the founder of Sikars cab. I worked with L&T previously. I have got two team members from Uber. Prashanth was the first person to join my venture.

IndianCEO: What are your challenges

Karthik Poighal: We are deliberately not on a massive expansion mode. We are checking customer reactions. See we are new so every step has to be well calculated. There are instances where we had to pay on top of what customers pay. Till date my friends are funding the venture. I am in talks with a bank for loan. I do not want to tie up with any company as I want full independence over my venture.

We are taking care of luxury factor as well as eco factor of cars. The cars which we rope in, are checked thoroughly on documentation. We do not enroll cars registered before 2008.

IndianCEO: How would you define your USP

Karthik Poighal: Well we have come up with something unique which women will love. We have a special shopping package. The car will take you from shop to shop of your choice. When you are done with shopping in a particular destination,  the driver will help you carry the shopping bags to the car. So women can only concentrate in shopping. They need not worry about parking or getting a cab at every destination. Even if you shop till you drop, you know assistance with bags is waiting for you.

We are waiting for our  dedicated app service to launch soon. We have seen how Ola and Uber works, so we are careful not to repeat their loopholes. We are honest with our rates. We do not implement sudden surcharge without a valid reason. Therefore we forsee our venture to stay and run smoothly for long term basis.

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