Online marketplace Droom moves to sell pre-owned taxis too

The emergence of shared mobility concept has led to an increased demand for commercial cars across segments from small to luxury.

However, not many can afford new cars and to provide easy access to such taxi drivers in terms of pricing and availability, online marketplace for buying and selling of used cars Droom is launching taxis.

These pre-owned taxis will be available at prices starting from ₹1 lakh.

Sandeep Aggarwal, Founder, Droom, told BusinessLine that “It is difficult for a driver to invest ₹5-6 lakh and pay high road tax to start his business.

“With this initiative, Droom will decrease the cost of starting a business and a buyer will get a certified, inspected taxi with the fair price evaluated through Orange book value. Buyers can easily opt for a loan from Droom credit and make a hassle-free transaction online.”

Besides, the Droom ECO-certified inspection report will give the buyers a better idea about the condition of the vehicle.

“We received a lot of queries from interested buyers for used taxis, hence, we decided to include such vehicles in our list of offerings.

“Additionally, pre-owned taxi further diversifies our product type and adds a unique dimension to the burgeoning vehicle listings on our platform, thus enabling us to reach out to newer clients and markets,” he added. Although Droom sells such taxis only to individual dealers and sellers through its B2C and C2C operations, it aims to tie up with large taxi aggregators and local taxi vendors, he said.

Droom, which started its operations in 2015, claims to have captured about 65 per cent of the automobile transactions share online.

Having raised around $65 million in five rounds, Droom said that it has a $489-million in annualized GMV growing at 220 per cent and is present in over 500 cities across the country.

In India, taxis are one of the biggest contributors in the commercial automobile transaction, including car, bus and trucks.

In India, every year around 34 lakh used and new commercial automobile sold out of which only 0.01 per cent is through online platforms, Aggarwal said, adding that Droom is the first player to enter this segment with a vision of having all the commercial vehicle available on its platform and enable buyers and sellers a hassle-free transaction of used commercial automobile.

“As there is merely 0.01 per cent in the online market for commercial vehicles in India, we are aiming to add more commercial vehicle category on its platform to increase online transaction percentage and holds the maximum share of it,” Aggarwal added.