Scrolling through your Facebook feed, learning a few new recipes, crossing a new level on Candy Crush. Or if you have those unlimited data packs, then, continuing with your downloaded shows. Why are we talking about all these things? Well, raise your hand if you have done any of this on your daily commute.
Most of us expats have come to metro cities in search of jobs. Even if you have a progressive office, one thing that puts off almost everyone – commuting to the workplace. And considering the traffic in peak hours, you frown – you curse but eventually end up taking a taxi or public transport. And then? Stuck in traffic for ages. Only if there was a way to reduce vehicles on the road – Carpooling (Not the first time you’re hearing it)
HSR to Manyata Tech Park via Taxi – A sneak peek in the daily commute of a Techie, Advithi
Meet Advithi, a project manager who has been working in Cognizant in Manyata Tech Park, Bangalore from last three years. Advithi hails from a small village near Alleppey in Kerala and is quite happy in Bengaluru. The only thing that drains smile from Advithi’s otherwise pleasant face is the mere thought of commuting to her house in HSR during rush hours.
Advithi stays in HSR Layout and it takes her almost an hour in the morning to reach her office in Manyata Tech Park via cab. And this, we’re talking about the good days when Advithi managed to leave home at 8:00 AM to reach office anytime before 9:30 AM. For two years straight Advithi had been commuting via taxi. Apart from spending a fortune, taxi’s never guaranteed a quick commute owing to the traffic conditions in the city.
With a yearly package of around 12Lac, Let’s have a look at how much Advithi has spent on her daily commute between HSR to Manyata Tech Park via taxi.
Are you too facing similar commute issues like Advithi?
Put yourself in Advithi’s shoes, aren’t we somewhere struggling similarly. The daily commute takes a toll on your physical and mental health. Considering the long traffic signals, rush hours and the unexpected rain. And, it’s a common mentality to leave the office and rush home once done for the day.
This struggle is not solely in Bangalore. If you’re staying in any other metro city, you understand this pain. Forget getting a seat, entering Metro during peak hours is a problem that nobody understands better than Delhi residents. And, Mumbaikars have though become used to traveling in crowded local trains but that still does not solve the issue of traffic. Does it?
Carpool is not only a solution for people looking for rides but even for people who have been traveling alone in their vehicles. There is no hard explanation but the majority of the traffic on the road is because vehicles are not being used to their full seating capacity.
Do you know as per a census released by Ministry of transport, over 200 Million motor vehicles got registered in India in the year 2015? And over the past four years, this number has reached a staggering increase. If you’re still wondering why there is so much traffic in India, this should help you look for an answer.
Although, an increased number of vehicles is the prime factor there are small factors equally responsible for creating this havoc. Let’s look at a few:
- Private and Public vehicles on the same road due to inadequate mass transit options.
- Bad road quality, potholes(duh!) causing a delay in the movement
- Obstacles on the road – illegal parking, wrong turns, unsupervised pedestrian crossing
- Inadequate green time considering the number of vehicles at any given point
- Overdevelopment blocking mass transit
Advithi opts for buying a new car
Spending a fortune on taxis for two years, Advithi soon realized that there is no return on this investment. Also, physical and psychological stress was too much to handle. So, following her finance friends advice, Advithi decided to buy a car instead. Now buying a car for us Indians is still a big decision. Considering that Advithi comes from a working background, she decided to buy a four-wheeler through a financing option. While Advithi was ready to make the downpayment through her savings, she decided to go for a car loan.
Let’s have a look at Advithi’s spending on her brand new car.
She doesn’t have to depend on Taxi now, Advithi has made her life a lot simpler with this decision of buying a car. But is this a smart decision? Buying a car will not solve the traffic issue, the only difference is you will still get stuck but… in your “personal car” this time. Well whether Advithi made a smart decision or a fuelish decision considering her monthly spend on fuel is up to her to decide. However, talking about fuel, let’s have a look at Advithi’s monthly spending on fuel.
So, to round up Advithi’s monthly expenditure on her car comes down to:
| Factors | Amount |
| Fuel | 6,500 INR |
| Car EMI | 10, 788 INR |
| Total | 17, 288 INR |
Our Techie, Advithi decides to share ride with colleagues through carpooling?
You know what’s one of the best things about working with bigger crowds, there will always be someone to talk to. No matter how strictly you want to keep your professional and personal worlds different, you will still end up having a few “Work Friends”. And, there is no harm in having them.
Chai-sutta breaks, Friday lunches are always fun with your work friends. Advithi too has made quite a few friends in office. While most of them commute using their own mediums, an app made Advithi do something different. Quick Ride a growing carpool community with over a million users. Just to test the waters, Advithi along with few of her colleagues living close to HSR decided to use Quick Ride to carpool. Quick Ride matches users traveling on the same route by providing them the ease to select and share rides with people they prefer.
The pilot soon became a habit. And it’s been almost a year now that Advithi has been using Quick Ride. And it’s not just with work colleagues, she has made quite a lot of carpool friends from different companies in and around Manyata Tech Park, Bangalore.
She is happy to save the environment, as there was always a little guilt that Advithi had been facing since she bought her beloved car.
“I thought buying a car would solve my daily commute problem. But the joy was soon replaced by this guilt of adding more to the already worse traffic in Bangalore. So, I decided to use Quick Ride to help fill my empty seats. At least through Quick Ride, I’m using my car to its full capacity and helping in reducing 3 taxis from the road.”
Advithi’s daily commute cost is NOW almost 0 as with Quick Ride her fuel cost is compensated by redeeming fuel points that she earns by offering her empty seats.
Advithi is now a member of ‘Assured Supply Pass’ on Quick Ride
There is no doubt that you feel good when you do good either for yourself or for others. And there is no better way to feel instantly happy than by realizing how much you’re saving through carpooling. Don’t trust us, ask Advithi! She is not only saving on fuel, saving the environment but saving more. EMI is not a concern for Advithi now. As she is traveling at a price that two years back she would not have even imagined.
What is Quick Ride Assured Carpool Incentive Scheme’?
Assured Carpool Incentive Scheme is exclusively designed for ride givers like Advithi. This pass provides ride givers with an assured monthly amount XX for their daily commute. How cool is this! Consider it like knowing that you will pass your class, the only thing you got to do in return is to come to class regularly. In this case, you cannot reject any ride.
So, all Advithi is doing right now is giving rides without cancellations. However, if any ride taker cancels his/her ride, Advithi is still eligible for her assured amount. And at the end of the month, Quick Ride credits the assured amount as Quick Ride points.
And did we mention you can redeem the points for fuel? So, Advithi is technically spending close to nothing on her vehicle except for her EMI payment. Quick Ride takes care of her fuel costs.
What are you planning now, start carpooling!
We couldn’t have given you a better understanding of carpooling then by picking one of our customers as our case study. If, you too have been spending a fortune or thinking of buying a car, then, stop. You don’t need a vehicle to start carpooling, share rides with other car owners through Quick Ride.
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