The below concept has been in my head for a while, but got re affirmed when I used Uber and saw how well they used technology.
Working Name :
Hitch A Ride
Reason :
This Idea/thought came to me more as a tool to reduce our Carbon Footprint, it is essential and no step is too small to take.
Function :
To create a platform to put in touch people who own vehicles and those who do not, for car pooling.
How it shall work :
The basic concept shall be that whenever a registered person with a car logs in and makes his vehicle available for a ride, other registered users will get an update, who in turn can request a ride.
Software shall be like Uber, the car owner will feed in his route, interested people shall indicate their desire for a ride, the Car owner shall get the list of requests and confirm the ones he’s fetching. The Software shall be interactive, with GPS and Google Maps. The endeavour shall be to eliminate human contact by speech till pick up.
a.) It shall be a live platform, so anyone getting into their cars can make themselves available.
b.) The effort shall be to retain anonymity between the users. The software can enable that by acting as the intermediary for all communications.
c.) All users will feed in their preferred destinations/routes, so they’ll be only informed of rides that serve their purpose. We don’t want users getting fed up of ‘notifications’.
d.) Apart from being a live platform, it shall obviously cater to the regular concept of carpooling, where a group of people may decide to regularly share a ride. But shall provide all other services, ie. Look for new rides, look for new/other people to join a car pool etc.
USP’s
- It’s a live real time platform.
- Rewards : both, for people giving a ride and as well as taking one ( refer to revenue model).
- Anonymity, as well as some sense of comfort, since all users will be registered with their credit cards.
Challenges :
- Getting people to register !
- Awareness of the site and services.
- General apprehension of people giving a ride to strangers.
- Platform available mostly to only smart phone and credit card users.
Revenue :
- All people availing of a ride shall have a nominal charge,20-30 rupees maybe.
- The ride provider shall earn reward points, that can be redeemable for future rides taken by him, or for other discounts, products or services that we can offer through tie ups.
- The ride taker shall also accumulate ‘reward points’, and shall be able to redeem the same. Could be a ‘fifth ride free’ or discounts etc. Like above.
- Tie ups, through advertisers. Don’t know how this works so will need inputs.
As I’ve never been part of this industry, I may be wrong about the assumptions above as well as have missed out many points that need to be addressed. The above obviously is a broad outline, I have quite a bit of the detailing thought out.
In case this seems worth trying, I can provide my time, some office space ( for upto 4 people), accounts my current staff can manage. I have no clue what an endeavour of this kind shall cost to set up and run, till such a time that the revenues (If ?) take care of expenses. I am open to putting in capital if I get convinced it’s a viable model going forward.
I personally would use the above service if it was available, and that’s why my enthusiasm. Also, it would be great if we managed to get as many cars of the road and saved resources as well as possibly the planet !!
Please poke holes, and also point out the positives I may have missed.
There are some existing websites that provide a platforf for connecting people for car pooling. The concept is simple, but in my case, I intend to use technology to enhance the speed, convenience , cost as well as reach.
Paawan