Home-grown company RYDE officially launches the app in Singapore and prepares to launch in Hong Kong next.
The home-grown company will be competing against the likes of UberPool and GrabHitch which offer similar carpooling apps for riders to split the cost of their paid journeys with fellow passengers.
Screenshots from the free app that can be downloaded from the Apple App Store and Google Play.
RYDE is an iOS and Android app that lets paying subscribing members carpool.
A driver offers rides based on the journey he/she is planning to make while a rider posts the journey he/she needs.
“Our approach has been to solve the two key challenges of carpooling methodically – poor information exchange and a lack of mutual trust. We are the number one carpooling app in Singapore and our focus is on the social aspects of carpooling,” says Terence Zou, Founder and CEO of RYDE Technologies.
The app matches the two of them, based on best match, offering each a list of close matches in terms of their planned timings and routes, as well as personal preferences each can set – such as gender, age, and other profile information.
Drivers pay a subscription fee of S$30 a year to RYDE and can offer an unlimited number of rides while riders pay S$15 subscription a year to receive an unlimited number of rides.
Riders can also choose not to subscribe but they will have to pay 1 credit (currently set by RYDE as S$1) for each ride.
The credits can be purchased within the RYDE app that runs on iOS and Android devices.
The app also recommends an amount of money for the rider to pay the driver, based on the journey.
“We are not a taxi company and we do not collect money on our platform. Riders pay drivers directly to split the costs. Our drivers could offer their rides for free if they wanted to – we do not take a cut from them. Members only need to pay an annual subscription fee to join the network. We believe that our simple model works well for both drivers and riders,” added Terrence.
The amount is less than what a public transport provider would charge since LTA stipulates that the money is for defraying the costs of the journey for the driver – rather than to allow the driver to turn a profit.
Drivers can offer the rides for free if they so desire.
RYDE does not take a cut from the recommended fees.
Having launched a beta version before today, the carpooling mobile app today launched version 3 with enhanced features.
RYDE’s network currently has 20,000 members, having grown 100% in 2 months.
The company hope to hit 50,000 members by mid-2016.
Below are more details about RYDE from the press release.
RYDE, founded by Harvard Business School graduate, Terence Zou, is part of the new sharing economy.The app connects drivers to riders travelling a similar route and gives people access to a car without having to own one. RYDE helps to reduce congestion by filling empty car seats.
“Last month, we successfully matched thousands of people on our network. Data from LTA shows that in Singapore, about 11 million passenger trips are made daily – these include those by buses, trains, taxis and cars. Private cars make up 30% of those trips and the average occupancy is only 1.7. There are 600,000 private cars in Singapore that could be mobilized to provide an innovative yet sustainable solution to help solve our problems – we are only just beginning,” Terence said.
This optimises resources on our roads and is in line with the government’s push towards a “car-lite” city.
RYDE’s app upgrade enhances information flow between members. The app allows riders to make both advance and on-demand requests while drivers can also post ride offers.
Its “real-time” capability enables members to see the most relevant requests at any point in time.
To tackle the trust issue, RYDE focuses on member verification through the submission of photo IDs.
Furthermore, there is a community self-policing mechanism where members review each other after every trip.
Any member with average rating below 4 stars will be suspended for 1 month.
Many commuters have turned to RYDE during public transport disruptions, such as train breakdowns.
“Data analytics is a very critical tool we employ to give us the competitive edge in our operations. We analyze our data and identify patterns to help us make better business decisions. For example, we know that the average distance carpooled was 14.6 km in 2015. We also know where the request hotspots are during peak periods in the mornings between 8 am to 9 am and in the evenings between 6 pm to 7 pm. These are the types of data we analyze to come up with solutions to improve match probabilities,” Terence explained.
A power fault on the North-South line on November 25th last year left approximately 70,000 commuters stranded.
During this disruption, RYDE’s requests increased 8 times.
This is one example of how the public is using RYDE’s carpool network to find solutions.
RYDE has also conducted the first comprehensive survey on carpooling where 1000 people were asked what their primary motivations and concerns were when carpooling.
This provided valuable insights to understanding the attitudes of people towards sharing rides.
The survey revealed that more than half of the riders and drivers carpool to save some costs while a significant proportion cited meeting new people as the primary reason.
Tags: Android, Apps, carpooling, Google, GrabHitch, GrabTaxi, iOS, Play, RYDE, Singapore, transport, Uber, UberPool
This entry was posted on Friday, January 15th, 2016 at 10:00 pm and is filed under Android, App, Apps, Events, events, iOS, Launch, newArrivals, Press Release, Prices, Software, Travel, travel. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.
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