An outstation tour undertaken on short notice during a long weekend is usually beset with problems, from the beginning.
Booking seats on trains or buses is likely to be difficult. Engaging a private taxi is expensive. For city travel, there are several taxi aggregators like Ola, Uber and Meru to depend on. For long-distance travel, there are few options.
But now, new start-ups and established taxi aggregators are beginning to move into the long-distance ride sharing space, giving the option of economy and comfort.
Cabus.in, an inter-city travel start-up launched a few months ago, operates on taxi-based carpooling platform. Response to the service has been encouraging.
R. Ramaseshan, director of Sooqle Logistic Solutions, says the cab service available between Chennai and Bengaluru has been getting a lot of repeat customers, who are drawn to the idea of having a comfortable travel, as in a private vehicle, at charges one associates with public transport.
“The best part of our service is the importance given to security, particularly to women customers. We are very particular about the person accompanying any individual woman who has sought our transport services,” he says.
One carpooling service which has been making waves in the country is BlaBlaCar, which operates through the social media platform.
Raghav Gupta, India Country Manager, says the web-based carpooling service is based on verification, social profile and peer-to-peer rating. According to him, the service has been used by 3.50 lakh members, including people from south India taking long rides of 600 km and more.
Informal car pooling through social media is one of the available options. Those operating through Facebook include Bangalore-Chennai Carpooling, Ride Share & Carpool: Bangalore & Chennai and Ridesharing Pondy-Chennai-Pondy.
Ride sharing is also catching up within the city with Uber launching UberPool in Bengalurur and GreenGaadi providing ridesharing in auto rickshaws.
