The much-awaited mobile taxi app has finally arrived. And Goa has given a big thumbs-up to Goa Tourism Development Corporation’s Goa Miles. An app which promises a taxi reservation in two minutes flat was welcomed with two bookings per minute on an average in the first hour after launch. And from a few thousand app downloads on the first day there were over ten thousand users on day-2. This speaks volumes of a service which was so desperately needed.
Taxi associations who feel threatened with this app-based service obviously have a few reasons to bleat. Going ahead, they will no longer be in a position to fleece the unknowing tourist, or for that matter the gullible Goan. They will not be in a position to turn down that not-so lucrative short trip. They will also not be in a position to keep the customer guessing anymore. For, here comes an app-based service which will take the traveler that extra mile at any time of the day or night. A service which will have pre-defined fares with payment options of cash, credit/debit cards or even through other payment gateways like Paytm.
If there were protests at Dabolim airport and in Margao, they were solely because the taxi mafia has just begun to feel the heat. It is the time when reality started to dawn on them that the monopoly they enjoyed thus far will come to a screeching halt.
As expected, the taxi owners are indulging in false propaganda against the service foreseeing a loss over trips to far flung village destinations. The promoters of the app had made it clear that a part of the cost of their return travel will be factored in the fare itself, while also offering benefits of the Goa Miles network which could connect the taxi to the nearest possible waiting customer. And there is nothing illegal in the app as claimed by the United Taximen Union.
Objections to an airport counter which the government is using to promote its app, doesn’t hold ground. This is a new launch and Goa Miles is an unknown app to the tourists who descend in the State. When tourists have been consistently complaining about the high cost of travel within the State, it’s the government prerogative to tell the world, in whatever way it can, that we have changed. No questions asked.
Those in this lobby may have given up their traditional businesses to take on the wheels of taxi businesses only because it ‘carried’ the moolah and it was literally free-for-all. The government must take the blame here for letting the taxi lobby hold the entire system to ransom all these years. And there cannot be a question of taking them into confidence going by what was witnessed early this year. Lest we forget, over 15,000 taxis had choked Panaji and ran riot over government’s decision to go ahead with the implementation of speed governors.
While Goa Miles takes off in Goa, it is still early days and there are huge challenges that lay ahead. Like any other system, there will be several teething issues as witnessed on day-2. And there will many who will be critical of the flaws. The app-based taxi model may take some time to flourish, considering the huge village network Goa has, where volumes may not be high in comparison to Ola and Uber platforms operative in metro cities. But there are bigger risks which are lurking nearby. Goa has seen taxi lobbies and clusters at every starred hotel, and breaking through this stranglehold will be fraught with risks to life and property for those under Goa Miles. A huge police force, with many in riot gear at Dabolim Airport may have prevented any untoward incident, but what happens hereafter is hard to
speculate.
If the government has thrown open the app-service to all Goan taxi owners, and assured to protect their interest and even provided round the clock support, there is nothing else a taxi owner could ask for, except a bargain without boundaries. It’s time to end the absurd talk and quietly board Goa Miles.
