Carzonrent India Private Limited, the sole licensee for Hertz International in India, has announced the launch of its radio taxi services — EasyCabs — for Delhi.

The fleet of 250 cars are fitted with GPRS technology, digital fare meters and thermal printers for issuing bill / receipt etc. The company maintains that the chauffeurs for EasyCabs have been recruited after conducting four verifications (which included police, bank and two personal verifications). They also had to undergo a multi step process which included various tests such as written, spoken, attitude, psychology, road knowledge and behavior.

"All of them have gone through training sessions and are committed to delivering a very different and pleasant taxi experience to the residents and travelers to our capital region. We will make sure that the commuters experience with Easy Cabs remains the pleasant and constant each time they commute. All Easy Cabs will be available for hire by dialing 43434343 from any phone. This number will roll out across India, over the next 36 months during which period we will launch this service in all business and tourist cities in India," said Ashok Vashist, Vice President- Radio Cabs Business, Carzonrent India.

Speaking at the 'EasyCabs' launch, Minster of Transport and Power, Haroon Yusuf said, "With the launch of Easy Cabs radio taxis, we have taken yet another step towards providing a reliable and safe mode of transport to the people of Delhi and to those who would be visiting us. Carzonrent India has good experience in handling the Indian Car travelers with quality services, which they provide through Hertz and I am sure that experience will be showcased through Easysabs too."

"EasyCabs launch is a part of our plans to support the mission of Delhi Government to provide safe, eco-friendly, cost effective and efficient modes of transportation to the citizens and travelers to the National Capital Region," said Rajiv K. Vij, CEO, Carzonrent India (P) Ltd.

The company plans to bring Easycabs to Mumbai and has received a go ahead of providing up to 10,000 cars. Hyderabad and Chennai will also soon see 500 cars each. While tier-II cities like Pune and Jaipur will get 250 cabs each in the near future.

On the lines of Yellow Cabs in New York, USA and Comfort Cabs in Singapore, Easycabs will offer swipe machines for payments through credit cards for which they have tied up with ICICI bank for the use of swipe cards. The company in the near future will also issue a prepaid card to its regular users.

According to the plans for NCR, Easy Cabs will go commercial on 1st January,2007. "We want to gift Easycabs services as a new year present to all the commuters and travelers specially the women," added Mr Vij. The company plans to add 250 more cabs within 3 months and build a fleet of 5000 cabs before Commonwealth Games 2010.

The services will be provided 24x7 in Delhi by a dedicated call center. The customers can call 43434343 for the Easycabs service whose call centre will locate the Taxi closest to the pickup location through real time GPRS screen and instruct the Easycabs online to pick up the client. Also the client will be billed from the point of pick up till the drop point and the billing will be on a per kilometer basis as fixed by Delhi Government-current rate of Rs 15 per km.

Easycabs will also be positioned at the airport, metro stations, railway station and inter State Bus terminals, besides this being available at major hotels, tourist spots, hospitals, prominent shopping malls, cinema halls and other important locations.