New Delhi : Amul isn’t just a brand of butter or milk. It’s a symbol of what happens when millions of small players come together to take on the giants. Now, a new entrant called Bharat Taxi is trying to become the Amul of ride-hailing services by giving drivers the power to run the show. It is launching in India on January 1, 2026, and pilots are already on in select locations across the country. But why the comparison with Amul? Because, just like the dairy giant, Bharat Taxi too is hoping to rely on a cooperative model to succeed.
The premise of Bharat Taxi is simple. It is a cooperative initiative, much like Amul, which means that there is theoretically no profit-seeking private organisation behind it. Instead, it is a service by 1000s of drivers who have joined hands to setup a cooperative. This is good news for both the drivers who are onboard and customers who chose to use the service. Well, potentially.
Who is behind Bharat Taxi
At the helm of Bharat Taxi is New Delhi-based Sahakar Taxi Cooperative Limited. The leadership is already “Amul-heavy” — some more Amul flavour — with Jayen Mehta, the Managing Director of Amul, serving as the chairman. The service is backed by Government of India’s Ministry of Cooperation and integrated with the National e-Governance Division (NeGD). Those names may bring credibility, but the real stars are the drivers themselves. They are the owners of the business.
As opposed to private ventures – and potential future competitors – like Uber and Ola, Bharat Taxi works on a zero-commission model so drivers can take home virtually almost all the money they make by the end of a typical workday. There is no number that we can confirm at this point, but reports indicate a sum anywhere between 80-100 per cent. Although, we do believe that some part of the earning will need to pooled into the organisation for its smooth running.
In other words, they might have to pay some platform fee, either daily or monthly to the cooperative. Drivers for competing services like Ola, Uber and Rapido often complain that after fuel, car EMIs, and a 20-30 per cent commission taken by the platform, they are left with very little. These relatively higher earnings are possibly the biggest incentive which is made apparent from the interest. Bharat Taxi reportedly chalked up more than 51,000 enrolments within 10 days of announcement.
The incentives don’t end there. Drivers aren’t just partners. They have a seat at the table. The governing board of Sahakar Taxi would include elected driver representatives, it is reported.
Meanwhile, passengers can expect the end of “surge pricing” that can double or triple the fare in app-based cab services in rain or at rush hour. If you frequent a place, like say home and work, there is a high possibility you’ll be charged the same (or close) each day rather than getting a random amount that on some days seems like someone pulled a chit out of a hat. We will see about that once the service is available more broadly.
Cooperative vs corporate?
The big question is, will the co-operative model work for something like app-based taxi service? The “Amul model” succeeds because of trust and volume. Bharat Taxi doesn’t need to be more profitable than Uber or Ola. It just needs to be more sustainable for the driver. Say if a driver makes Rs 500 more per day because there’s no commission, they are much more likely to stay on the app. If a passenger saves Rs 250 because there’s no surge, they will use the app and even recommend it to others.
The challenge, however, is the technology. Private apps have spent years refining algorithms for ride-matching and GPS accuracy. To counter the “experience” of incumbents, Sahakar Taxi Cooperative chose to use the same backend technology that drives the ONDC-backed Namma Yatri app. The Bharat Taxi app is made by the same developer – Moving Tech Innovations. India Today Tech tested it recently and it works mostly as intended. Given that it is still in beta, we can expect further improvements and refinements closer to launch and beyond.
The real test will be on the ground though. The biggest difference between it and Amul is that while in the case of Amul the folks producing the milk and butter are not directly involved in distribution, on Bharat Taxi, the driver owns everything. In Amul model, the product is the finished dairy item. And not the farmer. In case of an app-based taxi, the product is the driver and the car. The real-world conditions on the road are expected to be dynamic and the human factor — whether driver or the rider — are always going to be in play.
For now, it is hard to say how Sahakar Taxi Cooperative will handle both riders and drivers on its platform. And then there are the edge cases. Who takes the blame when things go wrong on the road — the driver or the cooperative — and how does it get resolved? These are questions that Bharat Taxi needs to not only answer, but ensure it is able to get right once the services are up and running.
Two examples of cooperative taxi services
We will see how Bharat Taxi will function, but if we are looking at similar examples which are already up and running, we can think of two. One is rather successful and chugging along. And another one, which might not be cooperative in the official sense, is sort of a hellish ride for customers.
The successful example is from New York. In the city, the Drivers Cooperative, has been serving as a driver-owned alternative to ride-hailing giants like Uber and Lyft since 2021. Despite the challenges, including the massive marketing budgets of Big Tech, it remains the largest cooperative of its kind in the United States to this day.
Then we have the Goa taxi owners, who might not be a cooperative in the official sense, but they definitely seem to cooperate with each other when it comes to offering their services to riders. Unlike the New York Drivers Cooperative, Goa’s taxi unions function as a lobbying powerhouse, blocking major aggregators like Uber and Ola from operating in the state for so-called “local interests” and charging exorbitant amounts of money from customers even for short rides. Any attempt to change this narrative, including the Goa Transport Aggregator Guidelines from the government to regulate the industry, has been met with significant pushback and protests from local drivers and the overarching unions they are officially or unofficially part of.
Which way Bharat taxi will go, only time will tell.
