Amidst rapid growth of bike taxi and bike-sharing or rental platforms in India, bikepooling has almost lost its significance in the market. Lack of ride availability, improper technology interface, safety and decline in investors’ interest are core reasons behind shut down of several carpooling service providers as well as bikepooling apps.
While commuters hardly use any app solely focused on bikepooling space, Quick Ride, SRide, ePoolers are offering a combo of carpooling and bikepooling platform that connects driver and rider.
Joining the list of aforementioned players in bikepooling space, online bus ticketing major redBus has launched two-wheeler pooling service starting from Bengaluru.
The MakeMyTrip-owned company already offers carpooling service under newly launched vertical – rPool. Currently available in Bengaluru, Hyderabad and Pune, rPool allows office goers to avail and provide rides in their personal cars for commutes directly from within the redBus mobile app.
redBus has announced bikepooling facility through an email to its users. On the lines of carpooling, bikepooling is also expected to launch in these cities in the coming months.
Entrackr has tried to book rides through rPool in multiple locations in Bengaluru, but it only created a request showing no bikepooling option available at the moment.
To lure daily commuters, redBus offers rides starting as low as Rs 3/km. Users can also set recurring rides to enjoy a hassle-free ride throughout the week. Recurring trips auto-generate riders daily commute (home to office and vice versa) and eliminate the need to post rides every day.
rPool is also offering attractive incentives to ride-givers in the form of reward points that can be redeemed at fuel stations and online shopping.
Apart from following all safety measures, rPool provides insurance in case of accidents and medical expenses reimbursement to riders and drivers.
Where reducing congestion, saving fuel and time is the aim and motive for any ride-sharing company, the fact that they can’t provide a guaranteed trip due to lack of active rides has been a major challenge for this segment.
Will rPool be successful in creating a large bikepool service? While it won’t be easy for the company to scale service that has supply constraint and safety concerns, redBus may make a significant dent because of its parent’s (MakeMyTrip) grip on the online travel ecosystem.
