Online, SMS-based services to get distance, approximate autorickshaw fare

It's common knowledge that most auto-rickshaw drivers in Indian cities fleece their customers at every chance they get.

Here is a list of online and SMS-based services to get distance, approximate autorickshaw fare and other location-related info (currently for South-Indian cities - Bangalore, Hyderabad, Chennai):

+ LatLong.in - Helps you locate places, get directions & find places near you. This service is accessible directly from their site, over SMS & their mobile site.


To know where a particular place is,
send <place name> to 90088 90088
To get help to go to a particular place,
send <place name> FROM <starting point> to 90088 90088
send <place name> TO <starting point> to 90088 90088

+ Suruk - provides autorickshaw fare and helps with routes via SMS via textWeb's platform. To use their service, send SMS/text in the following format to 9243342000 - @autofare <city>, <source>, <destination> 

Suruk also provides a smartphone app to pre-calculate auto-rickshaw fare, possible routes for a journey, a digital meter to verify if the autorickshaw's meter is rigged and driver conduct (!!) based on experiences of Suruk users (who lived to tell their tale).

+ MeterPodu - crowd-sources auto-rickshaw fares between places and shows the approximate distance (via Sid). You can find info through their site or via their Twitter account,  @meterpodu

The messages have to be in the following format:
@meterpodu get+auto+CHN+T.Nagar+Mylapore
@meterpodu add+auto+CHN+T.Nagar+Mylapore+70

Use these city codes for respective city:
Chennai-CHN, Bengaluru-BLR, Hyderabad-HYD