The taxi industry in Lima Peru is very chaotic and poorly managed. Registered and unregistered taxis fight for business on crowded streets, at the airport and popular shopping venues. Cars are often poorly maintained and dirty. Drivers are also very inconsistent—both in their timeliness and overall professionalism.
The official unemployment rate in Lima, Peru is around 10 or 11% (1). That means that up to 1,000,000 people are out of work in Lima. However, accurate statistics are hard to uncover given how many “forced entrepreneurs” are working in the informal economy where good records rarely exist. Many taxi-drivers are well-educated, yet underemployed or unemployed professionals hoping to make a better living any way they can. Whoever they are, whatever their story, there are roughly 250,000 taxi drivers operating in Lima, Peru.(2) The least fortunate among them are left with no other option than to rent a vehicle from a sponsor who often charges daily rental rates that many in the developed West would find extortionate.
The microfranchise model is predicated on two fundamental premises:
Economic development has the most impact when businesses are locally-owned and
The capital those businesses generate stay rooted to the community in which it was earned. This promotes the multiplier effect of helping other businesses to lift the entire local economy.
Taxi Excel—the first franchised taxi business in Lima, Peru! Taxi Excel promotes local business ownership and capital rooted to the community. Local taxistas progress to owning their own vehicle with the added benefit of an international network of support to make them more successful. As a franchisee one is “in business for oneself, BUT not by oneself”.
For about the cost of renting a taxi, Taxi Excel can help a taxi driver own their own car in 4 years. Taxi Excel can help bridge the gap between the poor with its network of financial partners. Developing a relationship with a mainstream commercial bank or other financial institution is the key to establishing a credit history. That good history can allow taxi drivers to leverage their taxi cab asset to secure additional funding later for other projects. This provides a ladder out of systemic poverty.
Taxi Excel provides a range of services to help taxi drivers be more successful and own their own business (taxi), including:
Financing assistance (through financial partners) Marketing and brand-building
Business development services
Training
Maintenance and Support
Benefit Summary: Earn more money
- Charge higher, premium fares
- Dispatched and business contract fares
Reduce operating expenses
- Bulk purchase car parts and tools
- Negotiated rates for maintenance and repairs
Improve lifestyle
- Enjoy a free day off each week, with no quota due
- Pick up dispatched fares—don’t drive around all day looking for fares
- Work with private business contracts—more reliable, more lucrative
Own your own car
Be a part of a prestigious brand
- North-American franchise consulting, know-how and management
- Significant investments in operational optimization, documentation, program design, training and marketing.
Taxi Excel aims to be the comfortable, prompt , safe and reliable taxi service in Lima. Unlike many imitators, it is Taxi Excel’s investment in programs in support of these brand promises that sets it apart.- Comfortable: uniform brand standards and regular car maintenance
- Prompt: GPS-enabled “smart” dispatch control center to deliver the nearest taxi to the customer
- Safe: mandatory defensive and evasive driver’s training and remote taxi montioring
- Reliable: control center monitoring of dispatched fares, tracking pick-up times
Taxi Excel brings a level of professionalism and reliability to the taxi industry in Peru that is absent in today’s marketplace.
By embracing the model of local ownership and rooted capital, MFS aims to provide a superior transportation service to the community while simultaneously helping lift taxi drivers into the middle class.
1-The Economist, Pocket World Fact Book, 2008
2-COFIDE and Lima Chamber of Commerce, 2008
