Chennai based Fast Track takes ad route to show Ola, Uber down

CHENNAI: Chennai-based Fast Track, a native rival to Ola and Uber, is using technology in a way its rivals may not have expected it to. The company has made short video clips that it is being circulated on WhatsApp to win over lost customers who migrated to app-based aggregators.

In one such clip, a group of auto-rickshaw drivers fire salvos at Ola's dynamic pricing, questioning the rationale of the algorithm behind the changing rates and comparing it with the fixed rate charged by Fast Track.

In recent television commercials aired on regional channels in Tamil Nadu, Fast Track also makes a veiled attack at new "app" aggregators who change rates from servers at the click of a button.

"What we are planning is another round of ads in the coming months about the referral programme of app based aggregators," says Redsun C Ambigapathy, an entrepreneur and the company's managing director who has built Fast Track for over a decade to over 4,000 cabs in Chennai.

Ola, which entered Chennai in October 2013, has garnered nearly 13,000 cabs and 14,000 autorickshaws so far.