Comments
Online bus ticketing platform, RedBus launched a carpooling service on its platform, called rPool on Wednesday. Starting with Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, rPool allows office goers to avail and offer rides in their personal cars for commutes. The rPool tab can be accessed directly from within the RedBus mobile app.
“While governments and various other institutions are evaluating multiple options to tackle congestion in cities, as one of the largest facilitators of road travel in the country, redBus is poised to make a difference through advanced technology and professional expertise. If four people share a car for 10 kms via the rPool platform, 4-5 litres of fuel can be saved with CO2 emissions cut by 9-11 kgs. With a large existing base of users across the country, redBus is poised to scale the rPool proposition at pace, positively impacting quality of life, environment, and the economy” said Prakash Sangam, CEO, RedBus.
He said, rPool will be rolled out to other cities after the company evaluates the uptake of the service in the three cities over the next 3-6 months. rPool will compete with shared ride services such as Ola Share and UberPool.
Open to working professionals only, rPool ride givers can give only two rides a day and charge only ₹5 per km for hatchback and ₹6 per km for sedan. To activate the rPool account, ride givers must first go through verification through their mobile number and by providing their corporate email ID to which RedBus sends an OTP that has to be entered for activation.
Creation of user profiles based on user reviews allows participants the option of choosing the people they wish to travel with, based on their ratings. Women ride givers or takers can choose to travel with women alone. User privacy is ensured with phone number masking which enables users to connect to each other via the RedBus app.
According to multiple studies conducted, Indian cities are among the most congested in the world. In Bengaluru alone, additional time taken to travel during peak hours is at 162 per cent compared to a 68 per cent in Kuala Lumpur or 79 per cent in Jakarta.
Bengaluru’s vehicle population has grown the fastest in the country, with over 8 million vehicles for a population of over one crore, resulting in slow speed traffic, long queues at traffic signals and high levels of pollution, among others.
As an inaugural offer, for the first 500 ride givers in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune each, RedBus will not charge commission for the first five years. Part of the MakeMyTrip Group, RedBus has globally sold over 180 million bus tickets to date and has a customer base of 20 million users.
Comments
COMMENT NOW
Comments
Comments have to be in English, and in full sentences. They cannot be abusive or personal. Please abide by our community guidelines for posting your comments.
We have migrated to a new commenting platform. If you are already a registered user of TheHindu Businessline and logged in, you may continue to engage with our articles. If you do not have an account please register and login to post comments. Users can access their older comments by logging into their accounts on Vuukle.