Luxury on call

It’s an evolution of sorts — from the rickety black and yellow taxis, to the comfortable radio fleet cabs. Now, TAB Cabs, the latest entrant in the radio fleet cabs market, promises to bring a higher level of comfort to the Mumbai commuter. “We are the first tendered radio taxi service in India with a licence from the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Transport Authority,” says Jagdish Purohit, managing director, SMS Taxi Cabs, the company behind TAB. “The others have simply bought permits from existing cab owners.” 

Though SMS Taxi Cabs was registered in July 2011, TAB, which is an acronym for To-And-Back, started service this February with a fleet of 200 Toyota Etios. Having now scaled up to 360, the company is eventually targeting a fleet strength of 4,000. The Etios will soon be complemented with Maruti Suzuki’s SX4s and luxury sedans will also be pressed into service. “We intend to carve a niche with our quality of cars,” says Purohit. Apart from the regular frills like GPS, SMS and online booking, TAB is banking on its well-groomed chauffeurs to play brand ambassador, and a 3G-enabled tablet device in each cab to lure the customer.