Uber has today expanded the scope of its ‘Dial an Uber’ feature across India, and has made it operational across all of its 29 functional cities. This feature was initially launched in four major cities — Nagpur, Kochi, Guwahati, and Jodhpur. After a successful roll out in these cities, the said feature will now be functional across all 29 cities where Uber presently operates in India.
With providing an ease to consumers by removing hassles of app booking along with targeting non-tech friendly population of the country, Uber’s “Dial an Uber” feature aims at both consumer experience as well as magnitude.
Commenting on the same, Apurva Dalal, Head of Engineering at Uber India, said,
We began with introducing ‘Dial an Uber’ – an ‘India first Innovation’ in four cities, as a pilot to overcome the challenge of serving under all kinds of networks, especially low or poor connectivity. Buoyed by the overwhelming responses, we are pleased to announce a national roll-out.
‘Dial an Uber’ offers a convenient choice to customers looking to book a ride and is a testament to our focus on using our technological edge to make mobility reliable and accessible for everyone.
It is rather quite easy to use the new feature. On your mobile browser, open up “dial.uber.com”. As the web page opens, enter your mobile number to get pricing information, fare estimate, and request a ride. As soon you confirm a pickup,your driver will be connected to you. At the end of the trip, your mode of payment would be cash.
If you cancel the booking, cancellation fees will also be charged on your next trip.
The feature launch — on a personal note — is actually a contradiction to Uber’s policy globally, wherein it envisions itself as an enabler of mobility by deploying futuristic tech. Why am I saying that ? Well largely because dialling and booking a cab is not really a dramatic change in the cab hailing industry after all.
But then, Uber is increasingly focusing on making itself more localised as per the domestic market demands, and ‘Dial an Uber’ is definite to positively impact company’s services in India.
The company’s arch-enemy in India — Ola — too is continuously working to enhance overall consumer experience. It recently debuted Ola Play, which fulfils personalized infotainment needs of onboard passengers. Besides, about a month back, Ola had made it possible to book cabs on offline mode. Ola cabs can be booked using SMS service, wherein an auto generated message is sent to driver regarding pickup location and contact number.
However, like most of Ola’s feature announcements, the offline booking update from Ola was also released in response to an initial launch of a similar (app-less booking) feature update by Uber. The rivalry between the two is also visible through major changes in their app design. While Ola brings in Ola WiFi, 2G optimization, and regional language support; Uber now collects user’s location.
