BackredBus forays into car, bike pooling segment in Delhi
rPool, a shared mobility service, will cater only to office goersThe company launched this service in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Pune last year
PremiumNEW DELHI: Online bus ticketing platform redBus on Thursday launched intra-city shared mobility service rPool--car and bike pool services — for office goers in the national capital region.
rPool, a shared mobility service, will cater only to office goers in Delhi to avail and offer rides in their personal cars and bikes, while commuting between home and their workplace. The service can be accessed suing the redBus mobile app. Last year, the company had launched such services in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune.
“It uses advanced technology to connect ride givers and ride takers in the fastest and most convenient manner possible. The matching algorithm ensures that ride givers don’t have to deviate or take any detours from their daily work route and ride takers get to travel the maximum distance of their commute as a part of the shared ride," an official statement said.
Chief Executive Officer of redBus Prakash Sangam said that the number of rides have been capped to four per day to ensure that the service does not turn into a non-commercial activity. As far as their revenue model is concerned, the company will not levy any commission—charge imposed on the ride giver or the vehicle owner for using the redBus platform--for the time being.
“We will charge a small amount (commission), but not immediately." Sangam said, adding that the company wants to take it slow as they want people to understand that private car pooling service is a viable model.
Metro cities in India are among the most congested in the world, with traffic issues only worsening in the last few years.
According to a report released by Dutch real-time traffic information and services company Tom Tom, Bengaluru is the most traffic-congested city in the world, with Mumbai and Pune in the four and fifth spot respectively, and New Delhi in the eight spot. Delhi residents have lost over a week’s time, stuck in rush hour traffic in 2019, the report said.
Towards the issue of congestion in urban India, the Centre, in a first, plans to issue guidelines that will spell out details for shared mobility, with specific focus on private car pooling services, with a larger plan to curb pollution and de-congest urban roads.
According to a report released by the NITI Aayog, shared mobility has a number of potential benefits, most of which arise from an increase in system efficiency through higher asset utilization and improved connectivity. “Whereas private vehicles often sit idle, or with low occupancy, shared vehicles are often better utilized, with more passengers and goods in available vehicle space and higher utilization, leading to reduction in total vehicle kilometer travelled, lower fuel consumption, reduced emissions and lower cost of transportation," the government’s policy think tank had said in a report.
Pilani Soft Labs Pvt. Ltd-owned redBus.in, which was founded by Phanindra Sama, Sudhakar Pasupunuri and Charan Padmaraju in 2006, was acquired in 2013 by Ibibo, which was taken over by MakeMyTrip.
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