Ola plans to reach out to over one lakh driver entrepreneurs

Cab aggregator Ola today announced that it plans to reach out to over 1,00,000 driver entrepreneurs through ‘Auto Driver Partner Melas’ across all major cities and towns in the country.

Cab aggregator Ola, the local competitor for American cab-hailing company Uber, today announced that it plans to reach out to over 1,00,000 driver entrepreneurs through ‘Auto Driver Partner Melas’ across all major cities and towns in the country.      

Bhavish Aggarwal, CEO and co-founder of Ola, an app-based cab service provider, poses in front of an Ola cab in Mumbai.(Reuters)

This multi-city programme is an on-ground initiative to  help thousands of aspiring auto driver partners to take the  first step towards entrepreneurship and achieve their dreams,  the company said.      

The OLA Auto Mela will bring together a host of  manufacturers, service providers, and financial institutions  under one roof, to enable deep discounts and savings for their customers and build a large customer-base in return, it said in a release.      

Ola held its first Auto Driver Partner Mela-’Ola Baasha Mela’- in Chennai between April 8 and April 10 where hundreds of autorickshaw driver partners availed the opportunity of becoming micro-entrepreneurs by owning autorickshaws for the first time.      

This initiative that will kickstart from Bengaluru,  will move to Mumbai, Delhi, Hyderabad, and Pune  over the course of the next few months, the release said.      

Ola Chief Operating Officer Vishal Kaul said, “with a multi-city initiative at such scale, we are enabling access to capital, consistent revenue as well as training for aspiring driver entrepreneurs.”      

Ola said Driver partner Melas help it nurture  micro-entrepreneurship in the ecosystem, creating a steady  stream of supply to address the burgeoning mobility needs of  the country.