Ever wanted to book a flight or bus ticket at the last minute and had to shell out exorbitant amounts? Especially, during the holiday season? Or there were absolutely no seats left and you had to forego that much-anticipated trip? It was a situation similar to this that got Pradeep Reddy and Krishna Vedula’s minds working and they came up with CoYatri. An inter-city ride sharing portal and app, it lets working professionals and students post and share rides as and when an inter-city road trip is in the offing.
According to Pradeep, the ride-sharing portal connects lone travellers looking for seats and car owners with empty seats looking to reduce their fuel and toll expenses. “The site lets users check if a car owner will be driving to their destination and book or share a seat in advance,” he explains, adding, “The idea of CoYatri originated from a thought of maximising the output from a common and under-utilised resource like a personal vehicle which in turn benefits someone who does not have a similar resource at hand. That is how Krishna and I decided to work along these lines.”
Launched early last year CoYatri has clocked 3,000 plus users with over 400 rides being posted and is popular with the employees in the IT sector. “Anyone who has valid credentials, like working professionals (public and private sector) and university students, car owners and co-travellers who are willing to share rides and expenses can utilise the facilities provided by CoYatri,” explains Pradeep.
What makes the site popular is the fact that the rides posted here usually cost at least 50 per cent lower than bus tickets, especially with travel agents hiking prices during the busy periods. Car owners too welcome the chance to cut down expenses by sharing the ride and splitting costs with co-travellers. Another way to look at it, say Pradeep and Krishna, is that it’s a great way to cut down fuel consumption and thereby our carbon footprint.
Interestingly, both Pradeep and Krishna worked in the IT sector before giving it all up for their entrepreneurial dreams. “I always wanted to set up my own business and it’s been a passion. Krishna eventually, joined me and we also received $1,00,000 angel funding from Sudheer Gaddam, the CEO of a US-based IT company. My goal has always been to be able to come up with products and solutions to common problems people face in their day-to-day lives. CoYatri happens to be just that,” says Pradeep.
Given the security concerns over commute by cabs, Pradeep and Krishna were very clear about the steps they would take to ensure security. The duo put in place a system that records every user’s details in their database before they can share a ride. “We can’t have a security guard in every vehicle and there is little we can do once a ride is shared. What we do though is ensure that even before a user can sign up for our service they provide all their details like e-mail ids, phone numbers, company details and a copy of any government approved id card. Also we provide women with the option of filtering rides and request for only women co-passengers,” explains Pradeep. While the company verifies the details provided by users they also request them to upload photographs of their vehicles along with registration numbers before posting a ride.
While currently the company does not charge the users anything they plan to introduce a minimal service charge on each seat booking. “We also plan to reach one million users and build an organised city-to-city ride sharing platform, while addressing the ground level issue of public transport,” says Pradeep.
