Online Taxi Aggregator Ola Sacks 1000 Employees

Online taxi aggregators make it to the news one way or the other, and in latest news is Ola, who has sacked 1000 employees after shutting down TaxiForSure. The employees are being given three months' salary as compensation.

Ola acquired TaxiForSure around a year and a half ago, and has been merging TaxiForSure's business post its acquisition. Sources say that Ola has completely phased out TaxiForSure's business, and this came into action starting July 30, 2016.

Ola has moved all the drivers from TaxiForSure to Ola, and has also been urging its users to migrate to the Ola app for better service, drivers, and experience.

Out of the 1,300 people who joined Ola seeking a better future, only a handful made it successfully and other employees, including the CEO left the company in search of better opportunities. The people who are being fired include mid-level managers hired from premium business schools.

Ola's sudden decision seems to be resource trouble, although the company was valued at $5 billion at the time of its last fundraising. Ola has raised around $1.2 billion from investors, including SoftBank, a Japanese based firm.

Ola, issued an official statement quoting:

"The TaxiForSure (TFS) value proposition as an economy brand for customers, has been seamlessly integrated onto the Ola platform with the launch and rapid adoption of Ola Micro. TFS has contributed immensely towards Ola Micro's success within a short span of time.

Ola Micro has expanded to over 90 cities across India and accounts for the largest share of first time cab users coming onto any mobility platform. This has helped us achieve our objective of building an economy mobility offering for millions of users across the country.

With all TFS driver-partners and customers coming on board the Ola app, the integration is now complete. As part of this integration over the last 18 months, we have achieved immense operational efficiencies, that have resulted in an improved experience for customers and driver-partners alike.

In the course of the integration, we have absorbed as many TFS employees for open roles in Ola to support our growth. For positions that cease to exist as a result of this transition, we are offering enhanced severance benefits and outplacement services to help affected employees pursue new career opportunities."