Bhubaneswar, Oct. 23: Comfortable travel in the city just got a bit more affordable with one taxi aggregator launching a cab-sharing option for residents of the state capital.
Recently, Ola announced the launch of its hugely popular Ola Share scheme on its platform here. Ola Share allows economical commute and also reduced congestion, since a ride can now be shared by up to three people at any point in time. Customers benefit the most with up to 50 per cent discount on the fares.
As an example, if a person travels the 12-km distance from Rasulgarh to Khandagiri, they will pay as little as Rs 70 if the cab is shared with another customer instead of the full fare of Rs 140.
To use the Ola Share option, one has to select it as a separate category in the app. On sharing the drop location, the Ola app will use advanced algorithms to match users looking for a cab on the same route in real time. When additional users en-route are identified, the driver's device gets an alert with navigation to their pickup location within minutes so that they can join the ride.
A user can join multiple groups or simply choose to share a ride with anyone. As soon as users request a share ride on the app, they are matched with other users from their groups along their way. On the other hand, driver-partners get instant access to increased revenue of up to 50 per cent through continuous fulfilment of booking requests.
According to Prashant Dehury, a senior manager in an IT firm and Rasulgarh resident: "The service will benefit those people who seek comfortable and affordable travel and also those who do not want to haggle with autorickshaws or wait for city buses."
Some of his colleagues already use app-based cab services on a regular basis to commute to work. "Now I can share a ride with them and save a few bucks," Dehury said.
Ola's chief marketing officer and head of categories Raghuvesh Sarup said: "With better on-road utilisation of the vehicles, many more cars can be taken off the road every single day. This will go a long way in making Bhubaneswar cleaner and greener and reduce traffic congestion".
All of Ola's security features such as track your ride, share ride details, SOS, emergency contacts, 24x7 customer support and number masking would be available for users on Ola Share, he said, before calling the cab-sharing option as "smart mobility for the smart city'.
In a related development, Uber, another app-based cab service, launched intercity services between Bhubaneswar and Cuttack, thus reducing the difficulty in making the journey between the twin cities.
Riders who want to travel between the two cities can slide to the new "BBSR to Cuttack" or "Cuttack to BBSR" view accordingly after they launch the app on their smart devices. All rides that begin in Bhubaneswar and end in Cuttack or vice versa will have at a flat fare of Rs 299.
