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Testimonial
Corporate: -
Indian Drivers is one of the most one of the most professionally managed organization we
have worked with. They not only understand the business need but work very closely with
our clients that makes it a win - win for the all the stake holder concerned. We recommend
them highly – Kuldeep Ghosh (CEO & Co-Founder of Cab-Eez Infra Tech Pvt Ltd)
Individual Permanent Driver: -
I am availing monthly drivers’ services from Indian Drivers for more than 3 years now, the
best thing about them is they keep on sending you drivers until you are perfectly satisfied.
Also, when one driver leaves, you get multiple option to choose a driver – Parikshit
Dhopadkar (Customer Permanent Driver)
On Demand Service: -
I am a regular & proud user of Indian Drivers. I’m grateful to my friend who recommended
them. Their drivers are well mannered, and professional and more than that they are very
punctual! I would like to thank Indian Drivers – Mrs Jamadar (On Demand Service)
Driver Testimonial
I have been associated with Indian Drivers since 9 years now and am very satisfied. The
company does not charge me anything to get the job whether it is a badali or permanent
job. Even their staff is very helpful and always ready to solve ou issues. I am proud and
happy to associated with Indian Drivers. Sunny Salvi (Driver)

A Slow Car to Success

Success has a price and time to pay that Indian Drivers (A Unit of ID Car Drivers P Ltd ) knows
only too well. 15 years ago, three friends Parag Palsokar, Krishna Badwane and Dinesh
Rahane realized that getting a driver for a car was not easy. “And so, we came up with a
rudimentary idea of providing car drivers”, says Dinesh. Like all ideas that people come up
with, what seems simple can be rather tedious. And long, as Dinesh tells.
“We were all working professionals (with banks) and knew we had to have more than an
idea to do business. So, we did a survey to find out if the need existed in the market or only
in our minds.” To do that they went into areas of Pune where it is believed that drivers lived
– Janata Vasahat, PCMC, Parvati and so on. They met and asked more than 500 drivers if
they needed jobs and what were their expectations & challenges. “Similarly, they asked
about 200 car owners their driver needs & requirement. The answer was yes, there was a
need for drivers who met up with the expectations of car owners.”
Initially Parag devoted all his time to a small cubicle from where they met and interviewed
drivers. But getting the drivers for an interview was not easy. “We tried by inserting flyers in
newspapers and chose papers that they read like Sandhyanand, Pudhari, Yashobhumi and
Samna. The three of us would go at 2.30 a.m. to the various sites in the city from where
newspapers were distributed. There we physically oversaw the newspaper boys insert our
flyers in each paper for distribution.”
It worked. In the first year itself Indian Drivers had interviewed more than 1000 of drivers.
“We categorized them in Standard, Classic, Gold & Platinum by the years of experience, the
kind of cars they could drive, their grooming and manners. So, Standard category driver
could drive hatchbacks or small cars and had 5 years’ experience. Classic driver could drive
sedan car & having experience of more than 5 years, Gold was one who had 7.5 years’
experience and could drive SUVs or semi-automatic cars. Platinum drivers were those who
could drive luxury cars like BMW, Land Rovers etc. In two years, we aggregated 2500 drivers
in Pune.”
With the supply side ready, they now needed to get a grip on the demand. “We spoke to a
lot of people of our service and were getting calls for drivers on demand. This demand was
met manually by us. We’d call the driver and he would do the job. This way we had some
growth but it was slow. By 2015 we had 15000 drivers on our database and had served
20,000 customers.” So far, so good.
In 2015 the arrival of Ola and Uber in Pune drove home some truths. Says Dinesh, “we
understood the value of technology for our business. Ola and Uber used an app and that
could bring about great change in our business. Also, instead of focusing only on On
Demand customers we felt we could expand our market by catering to the corporate
sector.”
It took them two years to get their app developed. Says Dinesh, “we were and are to date
bootstrapped. Whatever money was spent, initially Rs 5 lakhs, as done by the three of us.
And whatever money we made we put it back in the business after being very frugal in our
spends. So, we met a software engineer Mr. Munnawar who was kind enough to develop
our app but allowed us to pay him in instalments”. The app was ready to roll in the market
in 2017. What this did was help us reach out to more drivers. Even today we have about
55000 downloads by drivers across the country.” Meanwhile we added corporates and
individuals to their client pool. By 2019 they saw a revenue of Rs 250 lakhs.
Covid Learnings:
“Covid started around 2019 and luckily for us our corporate clients like M&M, TACO,
Faurecia, Bosch, Total Oil, Emerson, ISMT Ltd etc. continued to pay the salaries of our
drivers. Our offering to large companies was unlike what we offered to Placements and On
Demand customers. Here, we had to manage the payroll meet all statutory compliances
(GST, PF, ESIS, etc) and company paid us on monthly basis. with their social responsibilities,
they continued to pay us even though the drivers were at home. We managed to avoid a
loss and provide our drivers with income in those hard days.”
But what they realised was that their network was not good at all. “Growth had stagnated
and while we were busy with developing our service that we did not look at networking
which can be a big boost to any business. This business goes far and wide with personal
recommendations. So, we joined all such networking groups, TiE Pune, BNI, Saturday Club,
MCCI, DCCI etc. This helped us big time. Our revenues that were stagnant before Covid now
grew to Rs 2.10 Cr
Growth is the only way forward:
“So far, we have generated employment for 20,000 drivers through our platform. Every
week we organize Training for drivers where we train them communication skills, hygiene,
speed behaviour on highways, grooming, etc. In training any driver can join although it is
free of cost training, at completion of the driver training, they are given a certificate. Every
week there are about 50 to 60 drivers benefiting from training.
“Since we started with the vision of providing car driver to all car owners and corporates all
over India, hence we expanded our services to Mumbai and Bangalore. Our growth doubled
from Rs 2.10 Cr in FY 21-22, Rs 4.1 Cr in FY 22-23 to Rs 9.20 Cr in 23-24. Tapping the
potential in other cities helped. Earlier we were not serving commercial cars like Ola and
Uber, now we are providing them drivers.
How did you build a driver base in Mumbai and Bangalore?
Pretty much in the same way we did in Pune. We put small classified ads (this is what we can
afford) in papers in their local languages. Even if a driver does not want a job at that time,
he keeps this ad and uses it when the need arises. This way our driver base rose to 10,000 in
Bangalore and 15,000 in Mumbai. In addition to this we now have 55,000 downloads of our
app all over the country.
“If driver download our app in non-operating city, we keep informing them our business
operational cities and keep them engage for other road safety message. It helps us expand
our driver base across India and if we get a one-off request for drivers in other cities, we can
serve them since we have these drivers available with us. Like Delhi we have 7500 drivers”
The Numbers:
To date, we have served 35,000 On Demand customers, 12,000 individual customers, have
65 corporates many who are Fortune 500 companies as our customers. We started with an
investment of Rs 5 lakhs in the early days and so far, have invested Rs 70 lakhs in our
business. Last year our business grew to Rs 9.2Crs and we will hit Rs 20Cr in the next
financial year and in 25-26 we will see revenues Rs 60Crs.
What are you basing these projections on?
We are deeply penetrating Mumbai, Bangalore and now Delhi where there is huge demand.
Already companies are approaching us with driver outsourcing requests. In addition to this,
we are working on our other venture – ID Mobility Pvt Ltd, that aims to provide EV vehicle
for staff transportation services to large corporate. We are planning to start with a fleet of
50 EV cars. Plus, our app has become more user friendly now.
Earlier we had a software professional who had developed the app for us. Now we have
bought that company and outsourced the running of this company to another software
company. This way they can keep developing our app adding, deleting features as we need
them and at a viable cost.”
While the picture is rosy, they have had to put some uncertainties like collection of
commission from drivers under control. Says Dinesh, “we have developed a e-wallet for all
on demand drivers this arrangement ensure us our commission is deducted from driver’s
wallet & credited to our account well before customer trip started. For example, Driver got
On Demand trip assignment for four hours which will cost to customer of Rs 500/- from that
our 20% commission Rs 100 will deduct from driver wallet and customer pays to the driver
once trip is finished. If driver wanted to take the trip, then he has to recharge his wallet
minimum of Rs 100 then he is allowed to take the ride/trip. So, we don’t have an issue
about recoveries from our drivers or customer
For individuals who wanted to hire drivers on monthly or permanent basis then we charge
one month’s driver salary as our commission. In this service we do yearly contract with
customer, in year we provide replacement of the driver in case owner wanted to replace the
driver or driver leave the job, background check, police verification and driver has to go our
training program.
In Corporate clients we raise monthly bill including all statutory compliances and we charge
15% commission on monthly bill
Competition:
Well, there is DrivU that caters to only On Demand customers. We cater to all categories of
customers. Besides they have raised huge funding rounds and are had a revenue around Rs
80+ Cr last year. We have been bootstrapped so far and are doing great!” Eyeing Rs 80 Cr
turnover in two years. With their grip and understanding of their business growth will just
be the result of these three musketeers!