A car-pooled decongestion

The arithmetic of car-pooling can stump you in its arresting simplicity any day. In one go, a single shared cab with four passengers takes away three cars from the city’s notoriously jam-packed roads. And Bengalureans have remarkably shown the way, latching on to this concept in dizzying numbers, bettering every other Indian city.

Cab aggregator, Uber informs that its shared UberPOOL trips in Bengaluru have recorded an astounding 218% increase. Over a third (37%) of all Uber trips in the city today is pooled. This is one big booster shot for shared mobility, a definite alternative to the wayward private car-centric approach that has left the city in a chaotic twister of commute woes.

Bucking ban

Last year, the popular service was precariously close to be branded ‘illegal’ and banned by the State Transport Department. The rationale: It violated the Motor Vehicles Act and the Karnataka On-demand Transportation Technology Aggregators Rules, 2016. But good sense prevailed, and the service was allowed to continue.

To understand just how impactful the go-ahead has been, consider this: An Uber driver partner in Bengaluru clocked over 4,723 shared rides in the last one year. The trips he made were the highest among all Uber drivers nationwide.

Cost efficiency

So, why did Bengalureans switch to pooling in such big numbers? Obviously, cheaper costs have been a big factor. Riding solo might be faster, but a lot costlier. For instance, an UberGO trip from M G Road to BIEC on Tumakuru Road will cost upwards of Rs 350. Pooling will bring that down to around Rs 150.

The recently released Green Index by Uber had also shown how shared mobility can positively impact the environment. The aggregator informed that across 12 Indian cities, its ride-sharing platform helped avoid over 200 trillion kms of independent travel. This translated to prevention of over 36,537 tonnes of CO2 emissions.

Eco-friendly

To boost its car-pooling platform, Ola Cabs had launched the ‘Farak Padta Hai” campaign on World Environment Day. Citizens were urged to switch to Ola Share as a first step towards decongesting the roads. “The national campaign across 76 cities gained a lot of traction with our customers. We linked it to Metro stations, offering it as a real last-mile connectivity option,” explains Ola Cabs’ official spokesman.

Like UberPool, Ola Share too clocked a 2x growth in the past one year. Bengaluru and Kolkata were again the top two cities in terms of adoption. “Improved awareness and customer experience have increased the office-going commuter base by over 60% in the past one year. The uptake for Ola Share has gone up to as much as 70% from mass transit hubs in top seven cities with Bengaluru, Chennai, Mumbai, Kolkata, and Pune registering the maximum adoption.”

Driver complaints

Every trend indicates that the customer choice for ride-sharing is on the increase. But how sustainable is this growth will depend on acceptance by drivers. Uber driver Uday Kumar says the revenue from shared rides does not always match the solo rides. “We do get more trips in Share. But the total fare is less.”

To address this oft-heard complaint, Uber has now introduced surge charges for drivers. This additional charge, however, is not passed on to the ride-share customers. “During peak hours, the company does pay us the surge amount. It can go up from 1.1 to 2.3 times the fare. But it does not work out always in our favour,” says Kumar.

Easier availability

However, the surge policy has helped the customers in another way: Easier availability of ride-sharing cabs. “If there is limited number of cars in a particular area, we push the drivers to do a share trip. This helps more people to get a cab even if the trip takes a bit more time,” explains the OlaCabs spokesman.

The popularity of cheaper ride-sharing options has made even women commuters take to them in a big way. Drivers say women get into shared taxis even during late hours. “Since there are built in mechanisms now to track trouble-makers on the established UberPool and OlaShare platforms, they feel confident,” says Kumar. No major incidents have been reported from shared taxis so far.

Addressing safety

Layers of safety and security features are being added to these platforms, although acts of crime have exposed the loopholes. OlaShare currently offers features such as Track your Ride, Share Ride Details, SOS, Emergency Contacts, 24×7 Customer Support and Number Masking for their users.

The success of the two established ride-sharing platforms has spurred other mobility startups to follow suit. One of them is Quick Ride, a bike and car-pooling ride platform launched by the trio of K N M Rao, Subhro B Chakraborty and Shobhana B N in September 2015.

Quick Ride connects commuters travelling in the same direction in real-time. Rides are scheduled instantly for an immediate ride. There are also options for advance booking for upcoming rides. Real-time location and status of ride participants are displayed on a live map.