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Wednesday 14 February 2018

Why Carpooling Is Still A Dubious Affair in India?


The idea of carpooling is pretty simple – to reduce the horrendous traffic especially in metropolitans like Delhi, Bengaluru and Hyderabad. A lot has already been written and said about carpool apps in India in the past 2-3 years. With the ever increasing traffic, cab service companies like Uber and Carmi in US came up with this idea of carpooling as a super accessible and economical venture. This peer-to-peer business model has already become a huge hit in the western countries. While the same initiative was taken in India as well, there is still a long way to go for carpooling app development in India to become as popular as in US.

Carpool Apps in India Expectation

When carpooling option was introduced in Indian cities, it was expected many commuters would register for carpool apps that help connect car drivers with those looking for rides. And when in Delhi the odd and even scheme was run, the carpooling seemed to be a viable option. Successful tie ups would not only help lessen the traffic, but it’s also a great way of saving fuel. With growing awareness campaigns about the need to reduce traffic and pollution on the whole, the popularity of the apps was expected to rise steadily.

Well Uber and Ola are not the only who are offering carpooling services. ‘SRide’, one of the carpool apps in India was developed in 2014 by a team of software professionals based in Pune, Delhi and California in the US. This app is currently available on Android and iOS and any working professional can register with it by furnishing name, address, personal and official email address. The app team verifies the member credentials through his/her employer records. Once successfully registered, the user can look up other registered members traveling on his/her route and time and connect with them to avail or offer a ride. On completion of the journey, the rider needs to pay the car owner at the rate of Rs 3/km. The app, has more than 5,000 members and receives more than 300 posts every day.

Carpool Apps in India Quick ride

We encourage members to travel only with verified members. The payment aspect is a one-to-one deal between the driver and the person availing of the ride. However, at Rs 3/km, it is as cheap as using a public transport, yet offering the convenience of a car. Our app is already integrated with Google Maps, and we are now trying to connect it with Paytm to offer convenience of payments too.

Similar other app which was developed in 2014 by a team of city-based IT professionals and is currently accessed by around 2,500 people, enabling users to exchange kilometers for rides. Someone offering carpool service earns in kms and the one availing of the ride spends them. Siddhartha Jagtiani, founder and chief technical officer of the app had this to say,

If you accumulate enough kms by driving more often, you earn enough for fuel and maintenance. If you spend in kms, you spend only what you normally would spend if you drive an economy car. It’s a simple system which requires no login and elaborate registration process. I, as a commuter, have faced the traffic problem and felt the drain on my energy and time, and thus thought of developing this app.

Carpool Apps in India Choice Is Yours

For all those companies who are offering carpool apps in India, they see congestion as a problem waiting for a solution. They then try building up a platform which users can access and avail carpooling services. Many young companies have built carpooling apps and services, which help you hook you up with fellow commuters who are traveling the same route.

There was a bunch of enthusiastic people who swore by carpool apps in India. There were radio jockeys who would explain us the benefits of carpooling but considering the Indian mindset, the interest has already started fading. It seems carpool apps in India will never go mainstream. You can build the best technological solutions but the concept will still not work. The reason being the Indian laid back attitude and consumer behavior.

Carpool Apps in India Not Mainstream

Now with several such top carpool apps in India, most of the commuters are not aware and those aware are skeptical about availing this service, especially the female commuters. Earlier, carpooling means your dad used to share a ride with his colleague. Now let’s be honest, we hardly even know our neighbors and traveling with a stranger is still a social stigma. It’s worse when it comes to strangers. Carpooling app development firms may have done all the background verification about people I need to pick up along the way, but all I need is one bad experience to put me off.