profile: Wheely
OLIVER JONES: “From a customer point of view, you download the app and can either pre-book or order on demand a business class, first class or XL car in central and greater London”
Luxury on demand Can a chauffeur service work like a ride-hailing minicab? Yes it can, believes ambitious Wheely
Mark Bursa
R
ide-hailing may have revolutionised the minicab
market thanks to the efforts of Uber, Bolt and others. But high-end chauffeuring has remained largely out of bounds to the world of click-and-hail systems. Wheely is here to change that – and it’s not planning to hang around, says UK head of operations Oliver Jones. Wheely was born four years ago in Russia. It was the brainchild of Anton Chirkunov, a Swiss-educated Russian entrepreneur. Initially, it was positioned as “a Booking.com for ride-hailing”, says Jones. But over time, the concept changed and an opening in the market was identified: chauffeuring on demand. “Nobody else has been able to do what we do,” says Jones. Even Blacklane, the closest competitor, is not an on-demand service. Blacklane cars have to be pre-booked; Wheely “rides” can be hailed direct from an app, just like Uber.
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“From a customer point of view, you download the app and can either pre-book or order on demand a business class, first class or XL car in central and greater London,” Jones says. In simple terms, business class means a Mercedes E-Class; First is an S-Class and XL is a V-Class. In central London, the car should be with you in less than five minutes, and the benchmark in the greater area is 10 minutes – impressive for a premium service. “It’s better than Uber,” Jones says, gleefully. Fares to airports are fixed too, to make the system simple to understand. At present, Wheely is still quite Russia-centred, with operations in eight cities. “We are in London and Paris, and we’re launching in Dubai this month,” says Jones. The worldwide fleet – mainly owner-drivers – is more than 6,000 cars. In London, Wheely had quietly developed a book of 1,200 cars pre-Covid, though this has fallen to 600 now. Extending the age of admissible cars by 12 months has brought more drivers back into the fold, providing they upgrade in due course.
AUGUST 2021
