DARE - Because Entrepreneurs Do

Well, one of the businesses that can never be organised is that of carpooling. Its a popular option for cost saving and reducing pollution, and there have been many efforts to make it organised but most in vain. There are a number of websites that facilitate carpooling, by giving options to car drivers and other users. A quick search will reveal names of carpool.in, commuteeasy, indimoto, carwale, carcabpool, carpoolworld, carpooling.in, poolmycar.in etc. However, the uncertainty of the availability of cars and difference of timings of office-goers, websites have not been able to do a wonderful job. There are postings by people who have a vehicle to offer, and by those who want a vehicle for carpooling. But difference in routes, timings and needs for flexibility, most of those are lying old and unanswered. However, it in no way means that carpooling is not happening. In offices, schools, neighbours etc, people do pool in vehicles, even though its to save their own money.
And in a way, even the conveyance provided by companies to their employees can be called pooling, since it is done either in cabs or buses, saving time for companies and cost for employees, and some green brownies for environment.
In corporate hubs like Gurgaon, there are crossings where you can find people pooling vehicles with strangers, as what we can call hitch-hiking. Each and every vehicle (which include trucks) going there is looked upon as potential time and hassle saver for the commuters. In fact, even for coming there from main city (read Delhi here), there are native-defined places where you catch the call center cabs, which are coming empty after leaving night shift employees to their homes. Commuters come to the cab 'stand' and have to wait for a willing cab driver to stop the cab, and confirm destination. Though it may financially hurt the owners of cabs as they are undergoing revenue - pilferage, those drivers are in fact doing a service to public and environment, even if they earn from it (Rs 25 for a 35 km ride is not bad at all). The unofficial cab 'stands' that I know of are Karol Bagh, Wazir Pur, Saket, Dhaula Kuan besides others. There might be mention of these in some orkut or facebook communities, but otherwise, only the natives know about these options.
On the lighter side, there have been instances where innocent personal car owners have unknowingly stopped cars at such 'stands', may be to see-off some friend-relative and people standing outside (with demand more than supply of seats) just open the doors, and sit inside forcibly, as if kidnapping the driver. It happened with my own sister-in-law and her cousin. They were like what this happening!! Then the people had to be instructed to get down from the car, which is an embarrassment for the 'high-nose' commuters (sorry for poor Hindi translation). 

Mon 07 Jun 2010 00:02:54 IST 

Nimesh Sharma