Carpool firms rush to fill vacuum created by BluSmart & Refex eVeelz at KIA

Bengaluru: The abrupt collapse of Refex eVeelz and BluSmart, the country’s two top all-electric taxi service companies, and its subsequent exit from the Kempegowda International Airport (KIA), has opened the door for carpooling firms in the city to capitalise on the growing demand for cabs at the airport.

From carpooling to shared taxis, each firm is experimenting with its own format to help travellers get to the airport with ease.

Ride-hailing firm Quick Ride, with a fleet of 800 electric vehicles, is set to open its pick-up zone at both terminals by next week. The firm will offer the option of both private taxis and carpooling.

"With carpooling, people use their own vehicles and through our platform, find people travelling in the same direction as them. These are not taxis,” clarifies KNM Rao, founder and CEO.

On the other hand, QuicReach, another ride-hailing company, offers only shared cabs. The firm uses yellow-board vehicles and provides cab-sharing services for long distance travel from Bengaluru. A majority of their bookings are, however, to KIA. On an average, the company receives 100 bookings to the airport everyday.

"A shared cab brings down the cost of travelling to the airport by around 40%-60%, and it doesn’t increase the overall travel time by much,” said Shubham Jain, founder.

Sneha H, a Malleswaram resident, prefers booking a shared cab from the airport. “I have only been using shared cabs. It saves money and you don’t have to haggle with the other drivers at the airport. You get a shared cab quicker than booking an Ola or Uber nowadays,” she said.

Go Pool, a two-year-old startup, offers the option of ‘cab-pooling’. "If two to three people from the same vicinity are travelling to the airport around the same time, we put them in touch with each other and then they can book a cab and split the costs,” shared Akash Jadhav, founder.

Srinivas Alavilli, Fellow, WRI India, feels while shared cabs are a step in the right direction, more people must opt for mass public transportation. "Shared mobility is always better. As of today, approximately 20% of trips to the airport are by BMTC buses. There is more scope here as most of the usage is from the airport and not “to” the airport,” he said.

The Bengaluru International Airport Limited (BIAL) is currently in the process of onboarding multiple cab service firms to meet the growing demand for cabs, sources told DH. 

Carpooling Vs cab-pooling

Carpooling refers to an arrangement where a group of people travel together by car. While carpooling makes use of private vehicles, cab-pooling uses yellow board vehicles.

As per the Motor Vehicles rules, only yellow board vehicles are allowed to transport passengers and goods.

Price difference

On cab-aggregator apps like Ola, Namma Yatri and Uber, a trip from MG Road to Terminal 2 at KIA at 7 pm costs around Rs 790 to Rs 1,050. A shared cab is almost 50% cheaper at Rs 390-Rs 500.