‘Carpool will be preferred mode of travel soon’
sRide, a carpooling app, founder Lakshna Jha tells Telangana Today why carpooling will be a preferred mode of transport once travel restrictions ease.
Covid restrictions have brought work-from-home to the fore. As a result, car pools too have seen a fall in the number of rides.
sRide, a carpooling app has used the pandemic to repurpose the location-based platform to offer new services including for reaching out medical essentials. sRide founder Lakshna Jha tells Telangana Today why carpooling will be a preferred mode of transport once travel restrictions ease.
Problem being solved
Carpooling cuts the clutter in work travel as same set of people travel in the same direction at same time in the same car. sRide has over two million registered users across ten cities. In Hyderabad alone, we have 4.5 lakh users on the sRide platform. The average distance travelled in a carpool is about 10 to 15 km. This is mostly office commute.
Covid impact
Like other sectors, the carpooling segment too got affected due to Covid. We changed the technology and enabled a system where users could get connected with each other to offer or get help. It is called sNeigbour, as the name indicates it is a connecting link between people on a select route or area. The service, launched in April, has seen over 10,000 people getting connected.
Use cases
This has been used for sourcing oxygen cylinders, hospital beds, driving to vaccination centers, providing cooked food or groceries. The trust element built earlier is coming into play.
Rising costs
Currently, the cost per kilometer is about Rs 3. We will take note of the current fuel price situation when the next revision is due to protect car owners’ interests as well. Also, the maintenance and upkeep costs are on the rise due to hygiene, sanitisation and others in view of the Covid protocols. Members can get any car they like including electric vehicles. They will be treated on a par with other cars. Comprehensive insurance to cover the driver and the co-passengers are mandatory for all.
Growth factors
Vaccination numbers are on the rise. People will get back to offices soon. This is favourable for carpooling as such people would prefer to travel with colleagues and co-passengers that they know. We are in talks with many offices and companies in Hyderabad asking them to goad their employees to pool on our platform instead of using personal vehicles.
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