Dec/03/2014
Updates from Recently Rides by Ola and Uber in Pune and Bangalore ( Week of 1st Nov 2016 )
Below are my experiences from Ola , Uber in Pune and Bangalore couple of weeks during my India visit
1. Both companies are running for mainly profit and NOT to make public commute easier.
2. In Bangalore city, I have observed both these are surged pricing thought the day and do they expect common person to use their service instead of Autos ?
I felt this cheating similar to auto person who manipulates meter to charge more or asks more money upfront otherwise refuse to ride to a particular place.
Commuters don’t need this day light robbery
3. In Pune city one need to give toll to travel within city itself, not sure why customer needs to pay this ? e.g. for one of the trip I end up paying 40% into toll fees.
4. Can’t these public transport companies talk with government and get rid of this costly toll fees, which doesn’t sound logical ?? If somebody travels in his/her own car , s/he doesn’t need to pay toll
5. Majority of consumers in big cities have smart phone but don’t have 3G/ 4G. If these companies implement “Wi-fi Hotspot” throughout city ( at bus stand and almost each nook and corner of city ) , with that network customer can book easily
6. If these companies can run shared 6 seater autos or mini vans on major routes every 5 mins throughout the day ( 06:00 – 22:00 ) it can help a lot to both consumer and companies as well.
7. More autos needs to be on Ola platform current number is too small to make bigger impact. Not sure why Uber is not getting autos onboard
8. Have your own autos fleet with professional drivers
9. Car sharing companies can start food and grocery delivery as majority of consumers spend weekend in these 2 activities.
I had written below article ~ 2.5 years back to share ideas about improving commute in big cities of India. Had sent email to Uber as well, but didn’t see much improved in commute.
————– published on 12/Mar/2014
Uber need to implement India specific strategy as below; to make them successful and darling of million of Indians who are fed up with traffic , bad public & private transport , high rising commute costs
What should be Company Motto / Aim:
Unreliable , crowded , dirty Public Transport ( Even costly Volvo Buses in Bangalore ) and Rude , Cheater , Criminal Minded ( mostly ) Auto Drivers VS Safer , Reliable , Cheaper Ride Sharing By the Common People for the Common People.
2 & 4 – 6 Wheeler Sharing in Big Cities
1. Rider makes money
2. Co-passenger/s wants comfort travel with cheaper price
3. Saves time , energy , money
4. app to get real time updates on smart phone
5. Integration with feature phone as well based on SMS service
5. Airbnb for 2 Wheerlers
6. This works well in big cities ( > 1 million population ) as well with smaller cities ( < 1 million & > 01. million )
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_most_populous_cities_in_India
There are minimum 50 cities which fall under Big City category
There are minimum 150 cities whig fall under Small – Medium size cities.
7. Rating system about driver who is doing ride share , if a driver gets consistent bad rating , s/he shouldn’t be part of Uber system.
8. The system will work based on some part of iTunes store review and airbnb reviews
Problems:
1. People not happy with Public transport
1.1 Unreliable
1.2 Overcrowded
1.3 Dirty
1.4 Costly
2. Not happy with Auto guy who cheat and don’t come when needed
2.1 Mainly run by criminal minded people who don’t find any other job to do
2.2 Super costly
2.3 not safe
2.4 Slow
2.5 Unreliable
3. Self Vehicle
3.1 fuel cost
3.2 stressful in heavy traffic
3.3 long distance commute
3.4 long hours of commute
Solutions from Uber :
1. On demand reliable cheap service
1.1 Will work from Smart Phone and Feature Phone as well ( as many middle class indians still don’t have smart phone and mobile internet is bad + costly )
2. Cab drivers can earn extra money when their cabs are idle between office hours
3. Personal vehicle owners can earn extra money
4. Saves oneself from traffic jams , fuel cost , stress
Personal Experience Use Cases:
1. I use to drive from Bilekhalli to Richmond Road 13 km one way with my bike for almost 3.5 years
1.1 I would have love to take a ride even for 2 – 4 INR / km on the way to office as well back home.
1.2 Bus costs similar but no time guarantee , no comfort as buses are over crowded
1.3 Auto are costly , rude , cheat , over charge
2. Use to travel from Ring Road to Koramangala using un-authorized vehicles who use to drop employees and later on the way back pick up people who were waiting for bus.
2.1 These people use to charge 1 – 2 INR/ km
3. Many people travel from Point A to B almost 15 – 20 km one side
3.1 With Uber they can pick up shared ride ( Bike , Car , 6 – 20 seater vehicle )
Drivers getting easy loans to buy multiple vehicles 6 – 20 seaters.
They are busy in morning and evening 2 hrs each. In between they are idle but want to make extra money.
They can compete against pathetic public transport and auto people.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Uber_(company)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Real-time_ridesharing
https://techcrunch.com/2016/12/05/gett-launches-get-together-carpooling-service/
Average money spent on fuel in Bangalore by s/w professionals
~ 1,500 INR * ~ 10,00,000 s/w engineers = 150,00,00,000/- INR ( 150 crore per month )
VikramVI Knowledge Sharing 