Anand S., an SAP consultant with TCS, travels 60 km on his Honda Activa every day. He starts his workday around noon — he lives in West Mambalam — and braves the heat as he goes via Saidapet and Madhya Kailash to reach his office at Karapakkam. At 11 p.m., when most of Chennai is asleep, he rides home.
From this week, he won’t be alone in this journey.
“Hopefully, I’ll get people to ride pillion… and earn money in the process,” he chuckles. Anand has registered with Vroom, an on-demand bike-sharing mobile platform that seeks to, apart from other things, “redefine city commuting”.
Vroom was the result of a series of discussions between A.V.R. Venkatesa and Prema Ramalingam, who wondered about the unused capacity of pillion rides. “In Chennai, our public transport is strained and overcrowded most of the time. When we were wondering how to solve this, we stumbled upon this idea — which is basically giving a ‘lift’, only that it is now formalised and charged. After a few interactions with people who regularly ride bikes, we realised how you can actually give a lift and save money,” explains Venkatesa.
Within a few weeks of campaigning, Vroom — which was officially launched on October 2 — has managed to get more than 300 enrolments. Enrollees are from various sections of society — they range from software engineers to AC mechanics — because there are only two conditions required to be a rider: own a bike and have valid documents.
The commercial aspect is a great attraction for a rider, who will clearly make money for an otherwise solo trip. “There is a big difference between drivers with Ola/Uber and the riders here. While there is performance pressure in the former, with bike sharing, the riders are like you and me… who do maybe two or three rides a day,” he adds. “For many people in the marketing and servicing sectors, this could act like a source of additional income for a trip they will anyway be undertaking. We’re also working on an initiative that will match only women riders with other women passengers.”
The other major advantage is that with a bike, you can get to places much quicker, than by say, a car. Venkatesa and Prema stress that bike-sharing is a great way to get to a place on time — rather than relying on a four-wheeler that could be stuck in traffic for eternity. But that’s not all — you could even turn up for an important meeting on a shared bike and still manage to look fresh… with the help of tissues and helmets that you’d be given during the ride.
In the future, Chennai, a city that reportedly has approximately a 2,093 vehicles/km vehicle density, might need to seriously consider options such as ride-sharing on a larger scale, to bridge the gap between public transport and privately-owned two-wheelers.
Rido is another app that operates along similar lines to solve the issue of commuting by letting one offer or request rides on two-wheelers. The idea came about when friends Rajan Ramachandran and R. Balakrishnan had a discussion on how the city could take inspiration from Thailand, which has motorbike taxi services. With over 1,000 registered users, the app was launched in June this year.
“For the 3.7 million two-wheeler riders commuting to work every day, most of whom ride alone, this is a golden opportunity to save on fuel costs,” opines Rajan, adding, “For us, the primary challenge after the launch was matching; there were people willing to give rides, and others willing to take rides… but not on the same route.”
Rido’s model is simple — they charge Rs. 10 for the first three kilometres and Rs. 2 for every kilometre after that. The bike-sharing model, adds Rajan, is a win-win for both the rider and passenger. “With bike-taxis, the aim is to make a profit, but with bike-shares, it is all about sharingthe cost.”
How bike sharing works
At Vroom, distance and the time taken for a ride are the major factors for calculating the price for a ride. Example: Assuming you cover a distance of 10 kms in 30 minutes, your cost would be:
Distance fare (Rs. 4/ Km) 40
Time fare (Rse. 1 /Min) 30
Accessory cost (per trip) 1.5
Total fare 71.5
