Carpooling, not informal but via aggregators will solve office commuting problem
Priyadarshi Singh
Building Sustainable Urban Mobility in India | IIM-Ahmedabad | DCE
Welcome to Life once again! A sigh of relief came in Lockdown 4.0 with the government announcing more relaxations in the coming days. Its time to actually go out and see the beautiful Yamuna pics, feel the fresh air and clarity people were talking about and how Earth find ways to heal itself. Ya Ya Ya, I know i am going around like someone talking for 30 mins to end by saying " I will get back to you". Ok, let's focus back again.
The offices (Private and govt) have been allowed to open in Delhi and with 33% or 50% in other states. Ok, That's good news for the economy. "WFH bhi bahut ho gya, lets go to office now". Oh Wait, how will i be able to reach office? I don't want to be part of gatherings, be it a bus or a Metro. Hey, i just spent 50+days to avoid it and you want me to do it now even when the situation has only worsened not improved actually. I do not have my personal mode of travel and hence dependent on other modes. A Taxi or a Cab? More than 20 unknown people sit in one cab in a day and i am expected to sit in the same. Should I risk it?
Corporate people do constitute around 60% of workforce travelling daily to office and a safe mode is important and not everyone have their own car. Let me find someone who is going in the same direction from my apartment or locality to the office. Better than travelling with some random drivers in a cab everyday. Let's try Carpool.
#CARPOOLING is not new to people as it has helps them save on petrol expense and builds social community too but at this time people will be scared to travel in buses or Metro. They will try to find people around them going in direction of their office. Manually its very difficult and they will FAIL. Lot of people are lucky and will start doing #informal_carpooling with no Tracking who traveled with whom?
What is needed to solve this problem is an Organised Carpooling platform in each state which can be used by everyone. It is a #closed_community_platform where people in the same companies or apartment can share the vehicle among them while commuting to office or back home. It needs to be done as per government guidelines of 1+2 in the car. Then comes another question as to how carpooling, not informal but via organised platforms will be the best commuting post covid also. Let's discuss this more:
Why Carpooling with Personal vehicle via Organised platform is safer than other modes of transport ?
1. Contact Tracing of individuals is easier via Organised Carpooling platform
Carpooling apps like #QuickRide, #SRide #Rpool always collects the data of people which are sharing the rides via their platform. It includes name, contact number, starting and drop off points. This means, unlike informal carpooling, this can be used for tracing the person if in case need arises.
#Safe and Traceable
2. "With Great Powers comes Great Responsibility" - You own a car and heading in same direction, help someone from your locality
You own a car and hence you have the luxury of going easily to office, with no traffic too waiting for you. Think of your locality guy/girl who was dependent on other public modes of travel till now and may not be #Atmanirbhar as of now. They are looking for help from people like you. Its a closed community carpool and hence the fear also goes down; plus you make new friends. Restrict your carpool with known and verified professionals, preferably from your own residential society or company. Be a Friend in the times of need.
3. Assuring Social distancing while carpooling
We at Quick Ride have addressed all Carpooling norms in line with state and MHA guidelines i.e restricting carpooling to 2 individuals. This ensures safe social distancing of individuals and reduces risk of infection unlike buses or other modes.
Remember that song from the movie Break ke baad "Dooriyan Bhi Hai Zaroori, Bhi Hai Zaroori, Zaroori Hai Yeh Dooriyan". One day you won't remember Covid19 also just like you are unable to remember this movie Break Ke Baad. :-)
4. Assessment of individuals before Sharing carpool
In order to reduce the risk of transmission of Covid19, we have a "Covid19 Risk Assessment" built-in the app to assess risk of each member based on their travel history and to identify the carpooling options which are safe, passing risk assessment. The assessment asks users if they have been actively practicing social distancing, if they have traveled recently or been working from home and if they have fallen ill or have any symptoms before they can use the platform. So far 12000+ people have already given the same.
If there is still that hesitation, you may ask your riders or ride givers to show their Arogya setu app status. This may help you to build more trust with them.
Cool, You are ready to Carpool now. Zip Zap Zoom!!
5. Limited to 2 carpool rides in a day
- Users of our platform can only carpool twice a day, thereby limiting travel between work and home. This ensures that fewer people share a vehicle thus reducing the exposure to infection through shared contact points, which would be the case in shared options like buses, shared cabs and bikes etc, which are used multiple times by multiple individuals.
It is indeed "Cool to Pool" but just twice a day. Summarizing the benefits in one small table.
Travelling to office have always been a #challenge. In the past, it was the traffic, congestion, crowd but now even though cars are less yet safe and clean is higher priority. Hence cab drivers have been guided to ensure complete sanitisation of passenger seat at the end of each trip. On the other hand, a corporate person is more likely to keep its car clean each day plus can carpool with same people each day within the community.
I request all of you to come forward and help your colleagues and friends to Carpool. You can use Quick Ride carpooling app for a start and Get you 1st ride free also.
#Carpooling #lockdown4.0 #covid19 #safe #socialdistancing #self_assessment #twiceAday #beAfriend #CarpoolingInDelhi
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4 年Yes, car pooling seems to be the way forward
Managing Director at BEAT NETWORK. B2B AND B2C MARKETING PROFESSIONAL, BRAND STRATEGIST, BARTER BRANDING, ROI DRIVEN MARKETING, OOH, AOOH Brands Activation Professional.
4 年Promote your brand at the petrol pump in pan India through hoarding or activation...where you may distribute some discounted coupons along with deisel or petrol which can be redeemed during taking quick ride service