Mobility company redBus launches car, bike pooling service in Delhi

The service, which was first launched in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune, caters exclusively to professionals and keeps commercial operators out

Mobility company redBus on Thursday launched its car and bike pooling service in Delhi to provide better transportation options to professional and daily office goers. The new service allows people in the national capital to avail and offer rides in their personal cars and bikes while commuting to and from office.

The service was initially launched in Bengaluru, Hyderabad, and Pune six months ago after which the company decided to roll out in Delhi. Citing rising carbon emissions owing to the increasing number of cars on the road, Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus said that in Delhi the population of cars is more than the city’s population and therefore the company aims to add more people into already available cars instead of adding more vehicles on the roads.

“Being one of the largest facilitators of road transportation, redBus is committed to making a difference in urban commute space. We are rolling the new service with a focus on two key areas safety and tech-based solutions. The new service will provide a facility to ride takers and ride givers in easily finding mode to commute to and from their offices,” Sangam said during the launch.

The new feature has been integrated within the redBus application available on both android and iOS platforms. To avail services, a person will have to register with the app and provide all his details. The company is providing the facility exclusively to professionals and is keeping commercial operators out of the system. To verify the profession the application will deploy an Artificial Intelligence based algorithm to check the photo identification of the individual.

Prakash Sangam, CEO, redBus during the launch on Thursday. Photo | Shibu Tripathi

In order to compete with Ola and Uber, the leaders in the ridesharing market, the company has fixed the prices at a maximum of Rs 5 per km for carpooling and Rs 4 per km for bike pooling. Users will be able to rate the drivers and vehicles on the app while providing feedback about the service.  Meanwhile, female ride givers will only get female ride takers.

Talking about the revenue model of rPool, Sangam said that at the moment they have invested in the development of the system and will not charge any amount to ride givers, but in the future, a commission-based revenue model is on the cards.

Expressing that the service has an environmental benefit, Sangam said, “with right adoption and implementation at a scale, the service will significantly reduce vehicular traffic during peak hours in the city, thus reducing carbon dioxide emissions.” The company has therefore added carbon footprint detail features with the ride givers profile to monitor their emissions.