1. Decide what you will run
The kind of trips decides the car, the permit and the rates. The common ones:
- Airport and railway station transfers, at a fixed price for each route.
- Local packages for a city, such as 4 hours and 40 km or 8 hours and 80 km.
- Outstation trips, one way or round trips over several days, billed by the km.
- Group travel in tempo travellers and buses, for tours, weddings and pilgrimages.
- Corporate duties, cars for a company's staff or guests, billed monthly.
Decide too whether every car will be yours, or whether you will also attach cars from other owners and share the fare with them, which is how many operators grow without buying.
2. Set up the business
- A sole proprietorship is enough to start. A partnership or a private limited company can come later.
- A current account and a UPI ID in the business name, so customers pay the business and you can see who paid.
- Udyam registration as a small business is free and online, and some banks ask for it for a vehicle loan.
- GST registration once your own turnover crosses ₹20 lakh a year, or earlier if companies ask you for tax invoices. Our guide to GST on cab services has the rates.
3. Papers for each car
A car that carries paying passengers is a transport vehicle, with papers a private car does not need:
- Commercial registration, with a yellow number plate (black letters on yellow), or a green plate with yellow letters for an electric car.
- A permit from the RTO for where it will run: a taxi or contract carriage permit for your state, or an All India Tourist Permit for tourist trips across states.
- Commercial vehicle insurance, covering passengers. A private policy does not cover a paid trip.
- A fitness certificate, renewed at the intervals your state sets.
- A valid PUC certificate, and the road tax your state charges on commercial vehicles.
Fees, renewal periods and some rules differ from state to state. Your RTO, or an agent who handles RTO work, will give you the list for your state and your vehicle.
4. Papers for each driver
- A driving licence valid for the vehicle, and the badge or authorisation your state asks of commercial drivers.
- Police verification, which many states, hotels and companies ask for.
- A copy of each on file, with the expiry dates, so a lapsed badge does not stop a car on the highway.
5. Set your rates
Write your rates down once, for each car type and each kind of trip, so every customer gets the same price for the same trip. Your rates are yours; these are one sample operator's, Sharma Travels, for a sedan, to show the shape of a rate card:
| Trip | Sharma Travels' sedan |
|---|---|
| Outstation | ₹12 a km, at least 300 km a day, driver allowance ₹300 a day, night charge ₹250 |
| Local package | 4 hours, 40 km, ₹1,300; 8 hours, 80 km, ₹2,200 |
| Over the package | ₹200 an extra hour, ₹14 an extra km |
| Per day | ₹3,000 a day with 250 km |
| Fixed route | Mumbai Airport to Pune, ₹3,500 |
Say in your terms whether km are counted from your garage or from the pickup, and that toll, parking and state permits are extra at actuals. Most disputes over a bill come from one of those two.
6. Get bookings
- A Google Business Profile with your phone number, area and photos, so you show up when someone searches for a taxi near them.
- WhatsApp Business, with your rates in the catalogue and your booking link in the profile.
- Hotels, travel agents and wedding planners in your city, who need cars for their guests every week.
- Local companies, for staff and guest pickups billed monthly.
- Aggregators, such as attaching a car to Ola or Uber, to fill the days you have no bookings of your own.
Reply fast. A customer who asks three operators for a price usually books the first clear answer.
7. Run each trip and bill it
- Send the driver the trip: the customer, the time, the pickup and drop.
- Have the driver fill a duty slip with the opening and closing km, the times, and the toll and parking.
- Make the bill from the slip and your rates, take the advance and the balance by UPI or cash, and write down what each driver collected.
- Give a bill or tax invoice for every trip, numbered in order.
8. Watch the costs
The costs that decide whether a car makes money are the loan EMI, fuel, the driver's salary and allowances, servicing and tyres, insurance, permits and taxes, and the days it stands without a booking. Write them down for each car every month, beside what it earned.
