Ola, India’s leading mobile app for personal transportation today announced the launch of the country’s first social ride-sharing offering on its app. Customers will now be able to take advantage of a first of its kind social ride-sharing system, with the same comfort and convenience of booking an Ola, now far more economical since the ride can be shared with up to two other users from social groups that a user is part of. OlaShare will now be available in beta, to select users in Bangalore and across 5 cities over the next three months. Customers can use Ola Share at an introductory fare of Rs 50 anywhere in Bangalore, for any number of rides.
Customers can now travel with users from social groups they choose to be part of, without having to share their ride with strangers, allowing for increased privacy. To enable this, Ola has introduced the concept of social groups on its app. With Groups, colleagues from a workplace and friends from a college can come together to share rides amongst themselves. A user can join multiple groups or simply choose to share a ride with anyone. As soon as a user requests a Share ride on the Ola app, they will be matched with other users from their groups along their way.
Ola Share makes it possible for economical city transportation from improved utilisation of vehicles on the road. The benefits of ride-sharing are far reaching and will help in making our cities cleaner and greener as well as urban mobility extremely efficient, by reducing pollution and congestion on the roads. Most vehicles, for the lack of better options, see only 33% utilisation of capacities. Ola Share, by giving users the option of sharing rides with people from familiar groups, will encourage users to share rides in a reliable and convenient manner.
Ishan Gupta, Head – Ola Share said, “At Ola, our goal is to build mobility for a billion Indians and this requires us to innovate constantly, for the future. WithShare, we not only bring economy, convenience and comfort of travelling with people in your circles, but also increased inventory utilization of vehicles on the platform. This will also contribute towards significant reduction of traffic, congestion and pollution in our cities. Ola Share is a major step in the direction of sustainable transportation, allowing us to serve more people at a fraction of the cost, with driver-partners benefitting from increased revenue.”
Using Ola’s ride-sharing system, customers can choose to book an ‘Ola Share’ cab, which will now start appearing on the Ola app as a separate category. On mentioning the drop location, Ola will use advanced algorithms to match users from common groups who are also looking for a cab on the same route in real time. Once additional user’s en-route is identified, the driver’s device gets an alert with navigation to their pickup location within minutes, to join the ride. A maximum of 3 people can share a cab together via Ola Share. Driver-partners get an option to log into the Share platform, getting instant access to increased revenue of up to 50%, through continuous fulfilment of booking requests.