Carpooling via organised platform will solve office commuting problem

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 our beautiful city, feel the fresh air, and understand how Earth finds 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 operate in most parts of the nation. 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 the office? I don’t want to be part of gatherings, be it a bus or a Metro. Hey, I just spent 50+ days at home 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 the workforce traveling daily to the office and a safe mode is important and not everyone has their own car. Let me find someone who is going in the same direction from my apartment or locality to the office. Better than traveling with some random drivers in a cab every day. Let’s try Carpool.

#CARPOOLING is not new to people as it has helped them to share travel expenses and builds a 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 the direction of their office. Manually it is very difficult and they will FAIL. A 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 the 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 organized platforms will be the best commuting post-COVID also. Let’s discuss this more:

Why Carpooling with Personal vehicles via the Organised platform is safer than other modes of transport?

1. Contact Tracing of individuals is easier via Organised Carpooling platform

A carpooling app 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 a need arises.

#Safe and Traceable

2. “With Great Powers comes Great Responsibility” – You own a car and heading in the same direction, help someone from your locality

You own a car and hence you have the luxury of going easily to the office, with no traffic 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 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 sharing to only 1-2 seats. This ensures safe social distancing of individuals and reduces the 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 “COVID-19 Risk Assessment” built-in the app for users to self-assess themselves and get a Safe tag. 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 100000+ people have already given the same.

Cool, You are ready for Carpool now. Zip Zap Zoom!!

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.

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. 

Traveling to office has 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 a higher priority. Hence cab drivers have been guided to ensure complete sanitization of passenger seats 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 the same people each day within the community.

I request all of you to come forward and help your colleagues and friends to Carpool.

Written by 

Priyadarshi Singh

Director of Sales & Marketing – Quick Ride