Title - INTERVIEW: RailTaxi India Pvt Ltd to mull 1bn Investment in India

Japanese International Cooperation Agency (JICA) and few other private angel investors are in discussions with RailTaxi India Pvt Ltd – a startup company planning to roll out commercial and luxury cars at the origination and destination stations of Indian Railways for the para-transportation requirements of reserved passengers traveling on Indian Railways. RailTaxi is rolling out some 10000 fleet across 2600 select cities/towns/important business districts in the country on a franchisee model and has developed the platform for the same in association with NTT Data (a Japanese MNC).  Mr.Chakravarthy, Founder of RailTaxi concept explains its roll out plans and investment prospects.

RailNews:  Explain the Objectives of RailTaxi India. RailTaxi:  RailTaxi India aims to enter into the space of para-transportation business catering to the requirements of Indian Railway reserved passengers.  RailTaxi aims to collaborate with Indian Railways entities viz.CRIS/IRCTC on revenue-sharing model by interconnecting the Data Centre of RailTaxi with IRCTC/CRIS Servers so as to serve the passengers in the intra-city and inter-city journeys covering metros/mini-metros/Important Business districts/towns/tourist destinations and in the rural areas across the country. RailTaxi shall offer the luxury and commercial cab services at more than 2600 select railway stations.  RailTaxi Cabs will carry the Logo and Design of RailTaxi India Pvt Ltd (alongiwth Indian Railways Logo if approved) and operates on co-branding. Options are being explored currently.

RailNews: Please give us a Project Snapshot of RailTaxi. RailTaxi: RailTaxi will run the Taxi/Fleet on Franchisee model wherein authorization of RailTaxi Agencies in select 2600 locations will be undertaken. RailTaxi Authorised Agencies shall own the taxi and operates under RailTaxi brand. RailTaxi shall target the potential passenger of Indian Railways in approximately 2600 Railway stations. The project will be similar to that of the existing Radio Cab businesses in India (which are primarily targeting only Air traffic passenger in the intra-city para-transportation from the Airport in 4 Metros in India as on date), whereas RailTaxi shall target the Rail passenger market in collaboration with Indian Railways. Selection of a Railway station is based on the parameters of Passenger traffic, goods, freight, inward-outward loading, important tourist destinations and the high revenue generating Railway stations with significant revenue contribution to Indian Railways. There are approx.2600 potential Railway stations identified on Indian Railways – the natural target areas for RailTaxi operations. RailTaxi shall utilize advanced technologies in the processes, operation and for the security of Rail passenger.

RailNews: How a Reserved Passenger can opt for RailTaxi? RailTaxi: RailTaxi shall negotiate with Indian Railways for provision of a sentence on the Passenger Reservation Slips (both physical paper slips and online IRCTC form) wherein, a passenger can opt for RailTaxi as a Service alongwith the train reservation. There shall be provision of a sentence in the Reservation Forms “Would you like to avail RailTaxi as a service at the Origination/Destination stations? If so, please check in the box* ” (*stands for a Disclaimer by Indian Railways). With this facility, a passenger can now avail RailTaxi at the Origination/Destination stations on the date of journey. The information of the passenger opting for RailTaxi as a Service will automatically reflect in RailTaxi Call Centre due to interconnection of RailTaxi Data Centre with that of IRCTC/CRIS servers. RailTaxi call centre executive shall make a phone call to the Passenger anytime in 1-60 days in advance (since Railway reservations are done in India in in advance of 2-3 months) and further lock the lead. In this arrangement, RailTaxi shall have a Revenue-sharing arrangement with CRIS payable on either monthly/ quarterly basis. For this purpose, an Escrow Account shall be opened by RailTaxi and CRIS/IRCTC in any of the nationalized/Scheduled bank of repute.  Discussions are underway currently.

RailNews: Give a brief on RailTaxi Authorised Agencies. RailTaxi: Authorization of RailTaxi Agents on a Franchisee model @ 2600 Cities/ Business Districts/Towns/Tourist destinations is in the final stages. RailTaxi provide the details of the passengers opting for RailTaxi at the origination/destination stations one or months in advance to the Authorised Taxi Agents. Agencies are selected on parameters of financial strength, experience in operation of fleet, resource mobilization capabilities, effective role play in the nominated territory etc. RailTaxi Agents/Drivers shall also be given regular trainings before launching of RailTaxi. RailTaxi would also be conducting a 3 day training program for all the Authorised Agents of RailTaxi every quarter. The programme will be on the Technology, improving specific skill sets, psychological test, code of ethics & business conduct, moral values, respect towards passenger and the socio-obligatory responsibilities of RailTaxi Driver and sharing of their experiences to others during the training sessions. RailTaxi representatives and drivers shall have a specific look and attire in their physical appearance to portray the branding of RailTaxi all along. Specific skill-tests on driving, knowledge on repair and mechanics for the drivers are part of the training. A police verification process will also be invoked as a parallel activity to ensure that no case is pending against the authorized agents/drivers and that they are not having any criminal record before they are put on full board. Moral ethics, code of conduct, style of language, physical appearance of taxi drivers play a major role for RailTaxi.

RailNews: What is the role of IRCTC/CRIS. RailTaxi: RailTaxi Datacentre Servers shall be connected on virtual IP tunneling with IRCTC/PRS Servers located @ Delhi & Hyderabad. RailTaxi will enter an MOU with CRIS & IRCTC for provisioning a small sentence on the Reservation Slips (or IRCTC Portal) viz. “Would you like to seek RailTaxi as a service? If so, please check in the box”. Once passenger gets the reservation ticket opting RailTaxi as a service (either online/physical), passenger information then shall automatically reflect in the RailTaxi Call Centre enabling RailTaxi make a phone call to Passenger directly in the specified regional language based on the mobile number identification and take details of the origination/destination para-transportation, and after confirmation, the lead will be closed with an auto-generated SMS sent to passenger’s mobile confirming the service at the origination & destination stations on the specific dates.

RailNews: Tell us to what extent you have gone ahead in terms of registrations, planning and operational aspects. RailTaxi:  The domain name is registered on www.railtaxi.in and the website is under design and development currently.  The architecture and design of the Data Centre and the Call Centre is in the process of development in collaboration with different OEMs of repute.  We are confident that we will be ready with near exact BOM by Nov-Dec, 2013 and will be clear on the investment required in IT/ICT environment, coupled with other operational expenses for the first one year by November.

RailNews: Explain Technology in the RailTaxi fleet operations.  Explain the role of ICT and the ERP. RailTaxi:  RailTaxi will have integrated GPS enabled Vehicle Tracking System, movement capture, meterage and physical/online/virtual billing systems. RailTaxi shall be equipped with GPS based billing/tracking system. The OE fitment of Telematics on the vehicle shall ensure better integration with the vehicle systems and enhance the reliability as well as the life of the Telematics units by combining Telematics with different vehicular systems like engine management system, fuel delivery system, transmission system, etc. to launch Telematics applications in fuel management, prognostics and diagnostics. The passenger and RailTaxi Operators will have an additional tool in their hands for managing fleet in a productive and profitable way. With these advanced technologies in place, RailTaxi is poised to serve rail passengers para-transportation requirements in all the commercially important rail geographies having significant Railway importance. RailTaxi can find out where the vehicles are in the country with real time tracking and constantly update the location of every vehicle of fleet on the website and can monitor the movement of RailTaxi with options of zoom, pan and search vehicles on a digital map thus assuring complete security and guaranteed safety to passenger onboard RailTaxi through live online tracking of vehicles. RailTaxi shall also monitor any unauthorized vehicle movement and determines the exact location of vehicles with a user friendly graphical map. RailTaxi will also set specific zones around the areas where vehicles will be travelling, known as geo-fencing, which notify if any of the vehicles move out of these zones via SMS or email. RailTaxi provides a system that notifies whenever vehicle moves out of the authorized areas. These include delivery points, pick and drop sites, vicinity of the Railway station areas, warehouses, factories and tourism spots etc. A range of alerts designed to notify via email or SMS for various situations in different geographies (like nearest police station numbers of the jurisdiction where passenger is travelling, paralelly SMS on over-speeding/stoppage/main supply removal/entering/exiting a geo-fence etc enable us to take quick and swift action in case of emergencies or urgent issues. The journey management shall assign a specific trip to any vehicle within the fleet with start and end locations, specify the load carried and the estimated time of arrival at the destination. The journey management tracks the specified vehicle and provides alerts as per the parameters set. Journey management helps us increase the cost efficiency with the best fleet utilization through trip assignments and tracking of RailTaxi and also generate reports of vehicle travel, over-speeding, stoppage, fleet summary, etc. and improve the performance of fleet. Paralelly, there will be an SMS Based Query Facility which determines the current location on your mobile by sending an SMS to the server. The SMS based Query Facility provides with all the information of RailTaxi vehicle at any given time/place. On the Remote Unit Management, the units installed in vehicles can be diagnosed, programmed or configured by the over-the-air programming facility and reduce the need to visit a service centre thus saving time and expenses.

RailNews: Explain RailTaxi ERP management and modules. RailTaxi: For automating RailTaxi front-end operations for customer management and integrating the global positioning system (GPS) with the interactive voice response (IVR), it is felt that there is a need for an integrated backend system. Thus, implementation of an ERP system is felt necessary and accordingly RailTaxi need to work with companies like IBM/Accenture for effective ERP implementation methodology. The ERP modules in the areas of finance, human resources, and enterprise asset management (fleet management) etc will have to be worked out as discussed below:

Business Process Management: As part of the ERP implementation methodology, crystallize the business processes in black and white and get rid of grey areas before initiating the project. This will help implement the project within the stipulated time and budget. For this purpose, RailTaxi engaged Gartner Research to help it define as is processes, to be processes and raise a structured request for proposal.

People Alignment & Project Management: An ERP implementation touches all areas of an organization and should hence have an absolute ownership and sponsorship right at the very top. Regular communication from the top management helps employees understand the significance and expected impact of the new system. Softer aspects related to people play a crucial part in ERP implementation methodology. The ERP implementation methodology requires a structured approach. Create a project management office with a full-time project manager from the organization heading it. A core team should be formed with dedicated full-time resources from each key function and information technology department. The team should meet regularly to formally review the project status. You should also form a high level steering committee which consists of key members of the senior management from the organization as well as the System Integration partner. The core team should escalate major unresolved issues to the steering committee, which should meet at least every quarter or more frequently based on need.

Training for Authorised RailTaxi Agents and the Users: The next step of the ERP implementation methodology involves conducting multiple ‘as-is’ and ‘to-be’ workshops with key stakeholders. Detailed use case scenarios should be documented. Multiple conference room pilots (CRPs) should be held to enable the key team members visualize the new system. Sign off on documents and CRP sessions should be obtained from key stakeholders. The data migration plans should be submitted well in advance so that the team gets adequate time for preparation. User training is the most crucial area that often gets neglected. At RailTaxi, we chose the ‘train the trainer’ approach. Training can be given in multiple phases before and after the implementation. While migrating from the legacy system, parallel go-live should be considered for a brief period.

Post-implementation review: The last step of the ERP implementation methodology is post the go-live status. A detailed review should be carried out to ensure that the organization achieves the benefits that were set at the start of the project.

RailNews: What about Call Centre & NOC for RailTaxi. Where do you think the challenge arise? RailTaxi: The RailTaxi Call Centre and NOC (RailTaxi NOC) are planned at Hyderabad. The bandwidth for MPLS-VPN between the Data Centre of RailTaxi to the Data Centres of Indian Railways will be availed from RailTel (a Govt.of India PSU under Ministry of Railways) once the sizing of bandwidth is concluded. The trained manpower of 250-500 Call Centre Executives to serve Rail Passengers in different geographies with conversation skills in the local language too apart from Engish and Hindi. All the above initiatives are to achieve a goal of a more comfortable, safe and secure travel of Rail Passenger on board of RailTaxi.

RailNews: What about the activities, branding, registrations and involvement with External Agencies RailTaxi: RailTaxi is registered at Hyderabad. The PAN Number and TIN Numbers were applied. Once PAN/TIN IDs are acquired, a Current Account with HDFC Bank is envisaged to be opened up by mid of September, 2013.

RailNews: How would you justify RailTaxi concept? RailTaxi: RailTaxi concept particularly at the time of opening up of FDI in India gives a clear logic. There is an increased economic activity in the rural sector. Telecom revolution has touched its peak and India could attain an 80% tele-density as of April, 2012 TRAI report. In the light of 4G roll out by end-2013 (as per TRAI regulation), and in the light of opening up of FDI in India, it is expected that the economic revolution in the rural packets of the country is going to be the next phase of developmental activity and thus the para-transportation concept from RailTaxi is going to be a big success.

RailNews: What is the total Investment you are looking from the Investors? How Investor is putting their money in RailTaxi? RailTaxi: We are expecting 1bn investment to meet the CAPEX and OPEX costs till one year from the date of rolling out of the concept. RailTaxi will achieve break even within 1 year from the date of its envisaged launch model both in operational and financial point of view.  We have engaged in discussions with various Investor companies like JICA and few others have also shown interest to invest in RailTaxi from Singapore and China. We have not yet finalised anyone, however are keen to look at such Investor who can understand Indian Railways and its Passenger segment psychology and the potential market.

RailNews:  So, you have not finalised the Investor yet. Right? RailTaxi:  Yes, we have not yet finalised the Investor.  Options are open.

RailNews: You said revenue sharing by RailTaxi with IRCTC/CRIS. Explain it. RailTaxi: RailTaxi will discuss with CRIS/IRCTC for signing an agreement / MOU to interconnect its Data Centre servers with that of the Reservation servers of IRCTC/CRIS. There will be a revenue sharing model worked out on a percentage basis, per lead generated out of rail reservation. RailTaxi would be keen to open up an Escrow Account in this regard for mutually appreciative prospects.