Soon, you will have to pay Rs25 more on Meru’s phone bookings

Booking a Meru cab by calling the company’s call centre will invite a convenience charge of Rs25 from early next year.

The move is aimed at discouraging call centre bookings, as the management wants to decrease human interface and automatise booking services through its website which will be re-launched in late January. A commuter will be able to check a Meru cab’s availability and also make a booking within a few minutes on the website.

Meru’s chief executive officer Rajesh Puri told DNA that under the present system, when a person places an enquiry on the website, it is processed by a person from the call centre. To speed up the process, an automatic system that will function online is being introduced.

“This system is non-intrusive as compared to the call centre method, under which a person has to wait on the call for long before his ride is confirmed. The idea is to encourage people to use technology.”

Presently, Meru’s Mumbai call centre receives about 15,000-18,000 calls a day. Of these, 10,000-14,000 calls are for bookings, while 2,000-3,000 are for simple enquiries. Puri said it will be difficult for Meru to handle so many calls once further expansion of its fleet takes place.

Hence this online booking system, which the CEO insisted can handle a substantial number of bookings without being overloaded, is being introduced. The convenience charge will not be applicable if a commuter flags a cab on the road or books it at the airport.

The new website is likely to be launched in the second half of January and the convenience charge is likely to be introduced “in the first quarter” of the year. The company is yet to obtain official permissions from the transport department.