Ola - Coupons and offers

About Ola

What is Ola, and what does it offer?

Ola is India’s largest mobility platform and one of the world’s largest ride-hailing companies. It serves in over 250 cities across India, Australia, New Zealand, and the UK. The Ola mobile app offers various intra-city travel solutions by connecting customers to nearby drivers and a wide range of vehicles like bikes, auto-rickshaws, metered taxis, and cabs, enabling convenience and transparency for millions of consumers and over 1.5 million driver-partners.

Ola was founded in December 2010 by Bhavish Aggarwal and Ankit Bhati to build mobility for a billion people. Ola now serves over a million rides every year with the help of over 1.5 million driver-partners and more than 7000 employees who work to make the technology more user-friendly.

Why should you choose Ola?

Ola has various fleets for you to choose from, ranging from Sedans to SUVs to luxury. They have options that suit every pocket. Ola also has a membership program called Ola Select, under which you can ride in Prime cars at the fare of Minis without having to pay extra at the peak hours, along with a zero-waiting time. To travel with the lowest fares, Ola also gives you an option to share your ride. For a faster travel experience on a fixed route, you can opt for Share Express, which runs on some fixed routes with zero deviations. With verified drivers, an emergency alert button and live ride tracking, all your rides are safe and secure.

Riding solo for a long route? Don’t worry, Ola has you covered with the In-Cab entertainment where you can play music, watch videos and a lot more with Ola Play. Some fleets also provide free WiFi to stay connected even when you’re travelling through low network areas. While you’re at it, you can also go cashless and pay for your ride online via Debit/Credit cards. To avoid the hassle, you can recharge your Ola Money and forget about paying each time as the fare will get deducted from your Ola Money Wallet directly.

There have been a plethora of strengths that have ola get a headstart ahead of its competitors

• Ola was the first taxi aggregator service provider in the country and hence is considered a trendsetter.
• The services (security, comfort, and economic) offered by Ola are well appreciated by the customers as they created a lot of convenience for the end customer and business opportunity for the driver and car owners.
• Digital marketing strategy is an integral part of their overall marketing plan that has helped to create awareness about the company.
• There has been significant growth in the customer base due to high authenticity and good user experience.
• Financial mergers and collaboration has brought funding for expansion and growth.
• Collaboration with government authorities for medical help in a crisis has created a very positive word of mouth.

Most Popular Fleets of Ola

Auto

Get an Auto at your doorstep without the hassle of waiting at the stop and then negotiating for the fair.

Ola Share

Eco-friendly rides at pocket-friendly rates with a fully air-conditioned car that you can share with others who are travelling on the same route or close to your drop location.

Ola Mini

A regular comfortable AC hatchback that you can rely on for your daily commutation.

Ola Prime Sedan

Most suitable for long distances, these sedans come with free Wi-Fi and top-rated drivers. These are hand-picked fleets of the best cars with extra legroom and boot space.

Ola Prime Play

Now, you can enjoy music, movies, and much more on the go. Prime Play Cars come with in-cab entertainment consoles that keep you entertained with movies & music and keep you connected while on the move.

Ola Prime SUV

These SUVs are the perfect choices for your weekend getaways. They have free Wi-Fi, top drivers, and have plenty of room for everyone, including those extra bags.

Ola Micro

This is Ola's cheapest budget service. At micro costs, Ola micro offers compact, air-conditioned cars with well-qualified and efficient drivers. The vehicles take optimum care of convenience, cleanliness, and security.

Ola Lux

Ola Lux is limited to South Mumbai at the moment. These vehicles consist of functions like information about the driver, SOS buttons, live monitoring, and Ola Money. Ola's luxury service offers top-of-the-line luxury Sedans with auto-connect WiFi service.

Ola Bike

To help you avoid the traffic on busy roads, Ola Bike helps by reducing your travel time, significantly and that too at the most affordable rates.

Bestseller: How to book a budget-friendly Ola Micro cab

• - Install the Ola app on your mobile phone or browse online.
• - Create an account by using your phone number or email.
• - One time password (OTP) will be sent to you for verification
• - Set up your account successfully.
• - To start a ride enter your pickup location.
• - Mention the complete address or else enable the location access in your mobile.
• - Enter your drop location.
• - From the cabs available, choose Ola Micro.
• - Choose from the “Ride later” or “Ride now” options.
• - Click on the “Ride now” option to book your ride.
• - Get confirmation of the driver and cab details on your phone.

Attractive Ola discount coupons only for you

You can find the best coupon for Ola on magicpin. The user choice coupon is a gift voucher worth Rs 100 that can be availed for a single ride only.

How to Redeem

• Download the Ola App and select a ride.
• Click on Apply coupon
• Enter the Gift Voucher & click on apply
• Confirm your booking

Terms & Conditions

• Only ten vouchers per person can be purchased in a single day.
• Gift card cannot be transferred for value or re-sold or redeemed for cash.
• magicpin or their affiliates are not responsible if a Gift card is lost, stolen, destroyed, or used without permission.
• This is an Ola Insta Gift Voucher (GV) / Gift Card (GC) and would be accepted on the Ola App Only. The GV / GC can be redeemed towards any category other than Ola Drive, Ola Share, Rentals, Outstation, Food, Luxury, Auto, Bike & Shuttle.
• The person who has the Ola GV / GC Code is deemed to be the beneficiary.
• To use your OLA GV / GC, open the OLA App on your mobile. Enter the voucher code in the apply coupon section BEFORE booking the ride.
• Only ONE GV / GC can be used in one bill.
• Please visit https://www.olacabs.com/fares to check the list of cities where OLA services are available.
• This is a One-time use GV / GC.
• The GV / GC cannot be used to pay any state toll, if applicable on the ride.
• No Credit note / Refund for the unused amount of the GV / GC will be given.
• Ola GV / GC CANNOT be revalidated once expired.
• Ola GV / GC cannot be clubbed with any other Promo code.
• Ola GV / GC cannot be redeemed on specific block-out dates. Ola may add or delete any date at its sole discretion.
• Any dispute related to the GV / GC should be referred to the issuing company and the decision of the issuing company shall be final.
• Ola makes full efforts to accept Insta Gift Vouchers (GV) / Gift Card (GC), but on account of any technical reasons the GV / GC may not be accepted on the app.
• If an Insta Gift Voucher (GV) /Gift Card (GC) gets blocked on account of a technical issue, it would get enabled in 72 hours.
• Gift Voucher is valid for a single ride.
• Vouchers are for online redemption only.
• This coupon code is powered by Gyftr. For enquiries or complaints please email at Help@gyftr.com or call on 1800-1033-314.

Cancellation Policy of Ola.

• You may be charged a cancellation fee if any one of the following occurs:
  • The estimated time of arrival of the driver is less than 5 minutes, and you cancel the booking 3 minutes or later after the driver has accepted the booking, or
  • the estimated time of arrival of the driver is 5 minutes or more, and you cancel the booking 5 minutes or later after the driver has accepted the booking, or
  • a driver has already arrived at your pickup location, or
  • a driver cancels the booking after waiting at your pickup location for 5 minutes or more, or
  • Cancelling an Ola Share ride 2 minutes or later after making a booking.
• However, the cancellation fee will not be charged by Ola if the driver delays in reaching the picking up location by more than 5 minutes from the shown estimated time of arrival.
• The cancellation fee amount may vary depending on your city and the vehicle category selected.
• A cancellation fee, if charged, will be added to the total bill amount of your next Ola ride.

Know more about Ola

Ola Business And Revenue Model | The initial Phase.

OLA extends a Taxi Rental Fleet Business as they onboard a group of cars and hire drivers to run those cars. There is a backend call centre to manage the calls and direct them to customers and drivers as per the requirement. Initially, customers had to call Ola's call centre to hire a cab, and cabs were made available for the customers at their desired venue & time. In 2015, the team identified huge potential in the digital or online business platform and moved their entire business model into an app-based platform. With this transformation, Ola, rather than purchasing their own set of cars, started working as a facilitator for the customers and the cab drivers. Now as per the new online business model, Ola connects drivers to its customers via a mobile application and vice-a-versa.

Appended is the step-by-step flow of the process which explains how the Ola app works:

• The user or the customer needs to get registered on the app first.
• Once a user or customer gets registered, post login, the GPS gets activated and there is an option where the App instantly detects the location of the user via GPS.
• The customer needs to enter the drop location. The App shows different categories of cabs along with their availability and at the price it is available. Now, the customer can choose a cab as per their requirements & preferences.
• After this, the customer’s request is immediately sent to the driver.
• Now the driver is supposed to accept the request. As soon as a driver accepts the request, a confirmation message with details of the driver is sent to the customer on their registered numbers or e-mail.
• Now the driver picks up the customer from the pickup location and completes the ride by dropping off the customer at the requested destination. After completion of the ride, there are many payment options available like-Cash, Ola Money, Debit/ Credit Card, UPI Payments, and many more. This is a small brief of how the Ola cabs business model works. The primary revenue-earning source of the company is the cab booking service. Beyond this, there are few other different ways through which Ola generates revenue for making profits.

Customer benefits from Ola:

• Customers can get free rides by referring a friend - The company launched a special program for Ola Loyalists in the form of some free rides.
• How can a customer claim a free ride - The company created a unique code, which will be emailed to a select few ola loyal customers and this code is all that is required to get and avail free ola ride. Further, the customer has the option to share the unique code with 5 friends. Customers can get a free ride on every 2 rides that the reference can avail themselves with the unique code.

With the intent to popularize its services, Ola planned for a promotional campaign and create a complete marketing strategy for Ola and its business growth

Ola managed end-to-end operations, right from attending the calls of the customer to providing a driving facility to the desired destination. The intent to provide such a service was to become a clear No. 1 market leader. Some of the initiatives of the strategy were as follows:

Empowering the drivers

Ola supported the drivers in buying their cars at huge discounts and affordable repayment schemes by collaborating with leading car manufacturers.

OLA mini

It was one of the most successful marketing campaigns by OLA. The main highlight of the campaign was the pricing which was equivalent to the auto pricing. Customers' convenience at affordable pricing make it all for OLA.

Customer-centric service

Customer is the king and one of the key aspects around which the marketing initiative revolves. This was done for building customer loyalty. Ola made sure that customers are treated well and are given all the comforts and convenience. The brand started focusing more on customer complaints and providing timely resolution.

Ola boats during Chennai Floods

Ola launched its ferry service in the situation of severe crisis. This was developed to help stranded people reach home and also to deliver essential material including food, water, etc. This enhanced the social reach for Ola, and also created a very positive image of the brand.

Economic strategies

Ola focuses on segmented target marketing where fleets are segregated according to customers’ needs and affordability. For example, Ola pink focuses on women’s safety and is introduced for women only. People prefer it much because Ola offers less price compared to other market aggregators.

Social Media

Ola used various marketing channels for brand promotion and awareness, from all the social marketing tools. Ola preferred Facebook as the number of users is high. The social media campaign over Facebook (which is one of the most preferred social media platforms) was named as the #chaloniklo campaign was a great success story. It enabled users to download the app and it increased the popularity of the app big time. After this campaign, the consumer acquisition rate increased rapidly earning a lot of profits for the company.

Effect of COVID-19 on OLA.

• As COVID impacted a lot of big organisations, OLA was also one of them and was equally impacted by the pandemic. The company laid off 1,400 employees as its revenue took a big hit amid the coronavirus lockdown. CEO Bhavish Agarwal mentioned that their revenue has dipped up to 95 per cent in 2 months of lockdown. Most importantly, this crisis has badly impacted the livelihoods of millions of our drivers and their families across India and our international geographies as well.
• Bhavish also mentioned in a blog that they had hoped the crisis was short-lived and the impact would be short-lived. However, he mentioned, the Ola leadership team has taken the decision of downsizing the teams and significant salary cuts to keep tougher decisions at bay. He pointed out that people are preferring to work from home and air travel has also been limited to essential trips, resulting in long-drawn implications for the company.

How OLA as a company supported its driver in the time of crisis

• Rs. 20 crore relief fund for driver-partners was planned to sustain them for a longer period of time.
• Crowdsourcing platform ‘Drive the Driver’ for drivers across platforms was launched and executed.
• Launched ‘Ola Sahyog’ an interest-free micro-credit program for its drivers to support them and their families at large.
• Free masks and sanitizers for drivers-partners to ensure that they keep themselves and others safe.
• Issued mandatory safety guidelines for drivers and riders.
• Lease commission rebates for driver-partners.
• Medical support & covered income loss of up to Rs. 30,000 for COVID infected driver-partners in India.
• Up to 14 days of financial assistance for affected drivers in international markets like Australia.
• In May 2020, OLA was supported by Softbank and Uber, which was a great help in resuming services in certain cities under green and orange zones. The deadly virus, which is changing consumer behaviour towards the usage and adoption of different services and pushing businesses to revise their business and growth strategies for the post COVID world, might challenge cab-booking businesses to address hygiene concerns of customers at large.
• Ola now lives in over 100 cities in green and orange zones and has mandated some measures to be followed by the drivers like cleaning and sanitizing cabs before every ride, the use of masks is essential, and disinfectants are mandatory. Non-AC rides to ensure that the fresh air resolves inside, asking for cashless payment options, and many more.
• LA initially was a start-up that constantly worked on its growth as well as enhancing customer relations, OLA experimented with many different business strategies and took every opportunity which was identified by them. A very big part of their success was focused on user experience which helped them become a multibillion-dollar brand.

Frequently Asked Questions about Ola

Q: Do I need to register on your site to book tickets?

A: No. You can use our service fully without the need to register. You need to provide your details at the time of booking.

Q: What if the car doesn't show up?

A: If the vehicle you booked doesn't show up, we will offer you a full refund immediately, if prepaid for the ride.

Q: What if the car shows up late?

A: We try our best to ensure our partners reach our customers on time. But in case of delays, do call us, and we will help you out by either providing an alternate vehicle or giving you a full refund.

Q: What is OLA's peak time charge?

OLA peak time charge is a fare-rationalizing rule of using a multiplier X or a flat surcharge to the standard fares causing the fare to be higher than the standard fare during certain times, i.e. if X is 1.2 at some point in time, then the usual fare will be multiplied by 1.2 to get the final fare.

Q: Why is there a need to apply a surge charge to my standard fare?

OLA being a marketplace, doesn't control the number of vehicles online on its system/platform; drivers & operators are independent & work as per their convenience. During a typical day when demand & supply are met, there is no need to put an extra effort to pull the supply side of vehicles.

OLA applies an X multiplier or flat surcharge to the standard fare based on various situations and scenarios like the place of pickup, time of pickup, type of vehicle, demand situation, supply scenario, etc. Using advanced analytics, unique algorithm, past ride experiences, etc.,

The OLA software calculates an appropriate surcharge to apply over and above the standard fare. This enables OLA to develop proper incentives for drivers to stay logged in to the system for additional earnings.

Q: How does Ola make profit?

Ola makes money on each cab ride — and this is the biggest milestone for the company. After considering the account expenses such as driver payout and customer discounts offered, the company considers the take rate as the commission charged by Ola from their drivers.

Q: How much does Ola pay per km to its partners?

OLA pays as per the standard fare set by the government of India. After the centralized fare hike of city taxis in February by the government, (which has no interference of aggregators like Uber and Ola, and others) that ranges from Rs 14.5 per km up to Rs 18 per km for a non-AC cab and from Rs 19.5 per km to Rs 24 per km for AC cabs.

Q: Which are the top cars of OLA?

Some of the top cars of OLA are:

• Toyota Innova Crysta.
• Maruti Suzuki Wagon R.
• Honda Amaze.
• Hyundai Xcent.
• Maruti Alto 800.
• Maruti Suzuki Swift.
• Maruti Suzuki Dzire.
• Maruti Suzuki Ciaz

Q: How can one become a partner of Ola?

The driver/ partner needs to apply to become an Ola driver-partner. The driver can start earning in 24 hours. Some of the mandates are:

• The driver needs to register with Ola, and the company shall contact the person/ driver.
• Ola has opened local offices in all the cities where they operate.
• To attach the car with the cab companies like Ola, the driver needs to contact the nearest regional office or can contact the main or head office directly.
• After finishing your registration, the driver will get a representative from Ola who will inspect the car.
• After all these, the driver will get a new smartphone within a week from Ola.
• The local office will also provide all details, necessary guidelines, and other things to get you started.

Conclusion

Online cab booking was a completely new business model a couple of years back and entering into different segments has been beneficial for the company and society at large. All the streams have helped the company to generate more revenue and attract a lot of customers to Ola’s primary business segment, which is the cab booking service.

In the industry of online cab booking, Ola has the most significant market share in the country as of today. Moreover, the company’s revenue has also increased multifold, up to 10X times in the last four years. Thus, Ola has become the No. 1 and leading on-demand, instant cab booking service provider in the country.

Contact Ola

Phone:

• +91 806 735 0900
• +91 804 665 5300
• E-mail ID: support@olacabs.com