UB-Idea Series: The Timeshare Taxi Fleet

One of the great worries as Indian cities grow and do so in an unplanned way is the access to the automobile increasingly for some and lack thereof for most others. And of course, the pollution and the traffic chaos go hand in hand without saying. Last week I had the misfortune of having to traverse some hundred kilometers in one day from one end of Hyderabad to the other and back and I did this in auto-rickshaw in part and in a car-taxi the rest. Hoping to get some respite from the dust and heat I decided to call the much hyped citi-cab service but somehow I ended up calling a competitor to citi-cab called Call Taxi. The cab arrived almost an hour after I called and to my chagrin, the car, a Maruti Omni, did not have air-conditioning and so for all practical purposes I traveled in an auto-rickshaw.

I know of many people in Hyderabad who own a car but seldom use it. Some of these car owners use the cars to drive their families around during the weekends but some others have the cars but cannot drive them. So they employ either a part-time or a full time driver who himself might live quite a distance from the car-owner's house and therefore will have to use his own transportation to get to the car-owner's house before getting behind the wheel. These drivers are not very reliable and their turnover is very high. Also these not so automobile-savvy car-owners have a hard time taking care of their cars. Between the unreliable drivers, car maintenance and the big monthly payment (EMI), these car-owners sometimes wish there was an easy way. And IMHO, there is one.

I call it the Timeshare Taxi Fleet (kinda sorta like the timeshare resort homes) that will be set up with a two-part tariff. The business idea basically is that many of these people who travel by auto-rickshaw a lot and sometimes use a car-taxi pay a membership fee to own a piece of a taxi fleet. The taxi fleet along with the drivers and all the scheduling etc is managed by the company that will run this business. When the members need to use the taxi they call a number and the taxi will be available for them within half-an-hour. Then the member will pay at a rate similar to what they would pay an auto-rickshaw but for more comfort like nice cars, well maintained interiors, air-conditioning to name a few. An online portal could be used to make any advance reservations including any rentals for multiple days. Between the convenience of having a nice car and a driver in minutes and the lack of all the pains associated with owning a car, this would be a great alternative to buying a car for most people.

Let me illustrate this idea with a few more details. Say a hundred people in Hyderabad are interested in this. Say we wanted to buy ten cars, we would use the membership fee (which is on an amortization schedule and if a member leaves, they will get the remaining value of their membership) and buy ten cars. But when someone actually uses the car, they will have to pay for the car per auto-rickshaw rates. For longer duration uses, there will be discounted half-day, day and weekly rates. These rates, however, will be higher than what you would pay for EMI and driver's services combined to discourage some people hogging the cars too much. There are a lot of logistics that will need to be worked out (including what if everyone wants a car at the same time or if nobody wants a car) but they are beyond the scope of this blog. GPRS, GPS, online portals, route and docking (where the cars will be parked when idle) optimization programs, cell phones etc are some of the few technologies that will be in use in the business model. Over time, many of those that currently have a car will most likely find this much more attractive than owning the car and will switch and there will be many copy-cat services. But the first one to move will have an enormous advantage.

If anyone ends up using this business idea, please let me know as courtesy. There is no obligation whatsoever beyond that. I will be gladly willing to develop the idea further for a business plan.

UB-Idea Series: The Parking Carousel

Now this is not a new idea. The car parking carousels of all different kinds are common in Japan. Some are more sophisticated than the others but they all operate on the same principle that cars are transported as if by an elevator to a parking space on a spinning carousel to achieve maximum parking density while utilizing vertical space and by eliminating human parking. Given the amount of stress the Indian cities are going through for car parking space among other things, it is again a surprise that some adaptation of the parking carousel concept has not taken off in India. It is likely that this is because of the high capital costs and the potentially very high parking rates that will need to be collected to hasten the return on capital. A good friend of mine who did some preliminary study of these types of systems told me that it would cost around 150 rupees per day in parking charges to cover the cost of the equipment. Given that this is a lot of money in the Indian context, it is imperative that parking carousels are manufactured within India with cheap indigenous designs. Any takers?

UB-Idea Series: The Bloodmobile

Actually the Bloodmobile idea was a part of an unpublished post from a few weeks ago when I went to a blood donation camp on the ISB campus and was very disheartened with the way it turned out. I then wrote a very acerbic account of what happened that day but decided in the end not to publish it after I realized that most people who had not donated blood outside India actually felt that the blood donation camp was organized very well. But even those that felt everything went well would agree that the blood donation process can be made more efficient and effective with a Bloodmobile.

So this Bloodmobile is basically a bus with a couple of registration desks with the donor databases on the computers, a few very comfortable reclining beds, all the refrigeration required for the blood once drawn and all the food and beverages given after the blood donation. The very first time might take a little longer as they put you in their database but once you are in it, the subsequent times, it is fairly quick. They do some instantaneous blood tests to see if you have a fever and some other simple diagnostics (a quick and dirty HIV test) to make sure you are eligible to donate. Once you are done with the paperwork, you move to the super-comfy reclining beds and you can kick back and let the nurse do her work while you watch TV.

The alternative is a small van carrying rickety triage beds that will need to be unpacked and installed and which are terribly uncomfortable for the donors. Add to that a bunch of paperwork that is repeated every single time, blood packets collected stored in iceboxes and poorly trained medical professionals. With a Bloodmobile and some token but nice incentives like a T-Shirt that proclaims that I am a proud blood donor or something to that effect, more donors can be attracted and donating blood does not have to become an act performed under pressure from unrelenting self-righteous people.

According to the Florida Blood Services website, one of these Bloodmobiles costs around $85,000. But I am sure they can be made a lot cheaper in India. Where is the willing entrepreneur?

UB-Idea Series: Custom Menu Card

Looks like I am hung up on cards. But this is a favorite idea of mine that I am surprised is not already in existence in a big way. A little context first before I give away the idea. Two of my favorite places to get food or beverage are Subway and Starbucks. While ordering a double shot tall extra hot cappuccino with two raw sugars, slightly wet was an experience in itself (see below for a quote and video link from the movie You've Got Mail), it could get quite annoying saying the same thing day after day or worse, wanting to order something different but the barista assuming you want "your usual." And of course choosing your bread, your cheese, whether you want it toasted or not, and your assortments for the filling for your subway sandwich is an equally fulfilling American experience. But these custom food orders can be expedited beyond belief if the rest of the operational issues like more number of workers to meet the faster ordering process is taken care of.

Enter UB's custom menu card. Along with the many adjectived cappuccino above, I could have the Seven Pump Extra Hot Chai Latte and eight (or more) other favorite combinations on my card each one numbered. These custom orders can be updated on a website by any card holder. Of course, we would make a card reader that interfaces with the computer and also with a label maker that prints your order once you order it. The small label can be peeled and affixed to the coffee cup or the sandwich wrapper so that the person preparing your food can use clear, legible and ordered instructions to make their job easier as well. Of course once this technology takes off, numerous other businesses will want this for their products too. It is possible to combine this with my earlier customer rewards card as well.

If anyone ends up using this business idea, please let me know as courtesy. There is no obligation whatsoever beyond that. I will be gladly willing to develop the idea further for a business plan.

Tom Hanks' character Joe Fox in You've Got Mail: "The whole purpose of places like Starbucks is for people with no decision-making ability whatsoever to make six decisions just to buy one cup of coffee. Short, tall, light, dark, caf, decaf, low-fat, non-fat, etc. So people who don't know what the hell they're doing or who on earth they are, can, for only $2.95, get not just a cup of coffee but an absolutely defining sense of self: Tall! Decaf! Cappuccino!" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=58jxg31k5_k

UB-Idea Series: Consumer Experience Rewards Card

When I set out to write this blog, one of my objectives was to come up with one business idea per day, preferably but not necessarily in the Indian context. Here is one to get this kick-started.

At the Indian pizza huts, there is a bell that people ring on their way out if they feel that they received good service. It is kind of cool but annoying at the same time. And of course there is no data collected of this valuable customer feedback. So how about we get major retail and hospitality industry companies to sign up to sponsor a consumer experience card? This card is given to any consumer that is interested - a single card that could be used at all the participating business outlets. A card reader would be developed that simply registers the card ID and simple feedback on a 1-7 scale for a couple of questions (customizable by business and changed as needed) and transmits to a central database. These card readers would be placed at the exits of the restaurants, pubs, grocery stores, hotels etc of the businesses that sign up. Every time the consumer provides the feedback, they get reward points redeemable for some monetary value at these participating businesses (something reasonable like a free pizza for providing feedback 10 times).

The businesses get valuable feedback on the service they provide and if they are up for it, the data could be made public on a website for consumers who then can make well informed decisions about the merchants and so this serves as some sort of an Angie's List, but only better and free. It could be a win-win as businesses get valuable feedback almost on an instantaneous basis, while consumers gain from improvement in customer service not to mention the freebies they get via reward points.

If anyone ends up using this business idea, please let me know as courtesy. There is no obligation whatsoever beyond that. I will be gladly willing to develop the idea further for a business plan.