Meru Cabs has partnered with France's Taxis G7 and has launched eCabs, a global alliance of radio taxi operators which will provide cab services to foreign travelers in India and to Indian travelers going abroad through a mobile app. For example, a traveler going to France can book a cab through the app and Taxis G7 will provide the service, while in India it will be provided by Meru. Currently, the eCab service is present in France, Belgium, Netherlands, Canada, India and Ireland with plans to enter three more countries in Europe soon. By the end of 2015, eCab has plans expand to cover 50 cities, in 9 countries, and 3 continents, with 40,000 taxis. Commenting on the development, Meru Cabs chief operating officer Prem Kalliath told MediaNama that eCabs initiative is fashioned along the lines of Star Alliance in the airlines industry and seeks to provide cab services of a certain quality of standard through a dedicated supply. eCabs has two versions of the app, a basic version which allows immediate booking and cash payments, and a premium version which allows pre-booking, credit card payments, choice in vehicles and other options. The app does not have a digital wallet for payments. "Finding an international wallet service is a bit of a challenge, but credit cards will work," Kalliath added. Ola's alliance with other operators Interestingly in January, it was reported that Ola and South East Asia-based GrabTaxi were in talks for a global taxi alliance to take on rival Uber. The alliance was apparently being driven by SoftBank Capital and San-Francisco-based Flywheel. In…
