Come together to fix the dent caused on your pocket by soaring petrol prices. Literally. Due to the rise in petrol prices, shared travel — carpooling — is gaining mindshare. Car owners are locating prospective carpooling partners through social media and online classifieds, local search engines and even through internal office platforms.
Facebook, Twitter communities have also seen increased posts from people looking to share a ride to work. Groups like CarpoolKlan and Carpool #India are up on these popular networking sites for people looking or offering such options.
For Chirag Kharbanda and his colleagues at Infosys, petrol expenses were becoming a pain till they took to carpool. Through their internal office network, the employees formed a forum calling carpoolers. “The forum soon became a hit with many. So, for me, with a round trip of around 30 kms, I manage to cut down my travel expenses to one-fourth as I have got four partners to travel with me to work,” says Chirag, who works as assistant manager operations.
A daily drive from Delhi to Gurgaon was tiresome for 26-year-old Dolly Raj, who works with Wipro. “I genuinely wanted someone to share the drive with me, both to split the fare and share the drive. And when I posted my requirement on the Intranet, I got a response from a girl who works with the HRD department and it is working out fine between us so far,” she says.
Online local classifieds like OLX.in have seen an upsurge in searches for share-a-cab services. With a specific category for carpoolers, OLX.in enlists numerous ads from groups and individuals in need of an alternative means of transport. According to Amarjit Singh, country head OLX.in, looking at the youngsters, even elders of the family are looking at carpooling as an option to keep their monthly budget in order. “Youngsters today are exposed to the Western culture where carpooling is common. Initially, for us, the idea took time to gain steam in India, as we have a conventional mindset, but money matters have done the trick. We have around 2,000 ads on carpooling segment and have seen an increase of 25-30 per cent post hike in petrol prices,” he says.
For 25-year-old banker, Neha Singh, along with cutting down on her travel expenses, this comes as an opportunity to do her bit for the environment. “Of course, we are saving on petrol expenses in a big way, we are also cutting down on air and noise pollution and maddening traffic jams since the number of vehicles plying on roads is minimised,” she says.