Amit Lakhotia and Udai Singh Meena, two ex-MakeMyTrip employees, have recently launched a new online service called GetMeCab.com, that allows users to check for cab prices online, and make bookings. MediaNama readers might recall that an online cab booking service, Olacabs.com, had recently raised funding. Getmecab offers cab rentals in Delhi-NCR, Mumbai and Bangalore, and has tie-ups with around 25 car rental operators such as APEX, Global Travels, RBTS, KS Car Hire and RBS Tours and Travels, and aggregates their inventory. The company says it has access to a fleet of around 700 cabs. The site focuses on inter-state travel, airport and railway station drops and day long city rentals, although it does intend to offer point to point intra-city travel in the future, as more operators make their inventory available on a real-time basis. GetMeCab also allows cab operators to use its own global distributions system (GDS) for inventory management of their fleet. Customers can search for cab rentals after specifying their requirements, browse the available cars along with their fares and indicative total cost. They can then book the cab by paying 10% of the estimated price online, and get vouchers, paying the rest after the trip gets over. Monetization According to Lakhotia, monetization is through commissions from cab service operators. Although, the company does not ask for commissions upfront, after an operator gets familiar with the system and makes substantial number of bookings, the company starts charging a commission on a per booking basis. So why would operators pay…
