Uber, Ola hop on to ride-sharing bandwagon, launch operations in Bengaluru

New Delhi: Meru has been testing it, now competitors Ola and Uber have also joined the ride-sharing bandwagon.

Uber today launched UberPOOL within Bengaluru where rides could get up to 35 percent cheaper than UberGo. Ola also announced a shared service in Bengaluru where it is promising a flat introductory fare of Rs 50 for a shared trip anywhere in the city.

So uberPOOL is right now available between 7 am and 9 pm, from Koramangala, Inner Ring Road and Indira Nagar areas to anywhere within Bengaluru city limits. Each request can have a maximum of two riders per pick up. A passenger will be matched with another requester, for up to 4 riders in total. Uber says the upfront fare shown when booking is guaranteed, whether you’re matched or not.

Ola is starting with Bengaluru and plans to roll out in five Indian cities within the next three months. With OlaShare, customers can travel with users from social groups they choose be part of, allowing for increased privacy.

The OlaShare cab will now start appearing on the Ola app as a separate category. On mentioning the drop location, Ola says it 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 enroute is identified, the driver’s device gets an alert with navigation to their pickup location within minutes, to join the ride. A maximum of three people can share a cab together via OlaShare.

Ola’s senior director (Marketing Communications) Anand Subramanian told Firstpost driver partners can expect up to 50 percent more earnings and better inventory utilisation with OlaShare.

To a question on how will OlaShare launch help Ola’s expansion, he said, “We think this will mean exponential growth for Ola. The indicative number is the 50 percent earnings growth drivers can expect.”

He said two months back, Ola was doing 7.5 lakh rides a day, had 3.2 lakh vehicles in its fleet across more than 100 cities. And that the cab aggregator is logging 40 percent month-on-month growth.

Uber says co-riders are matched according to similar pick-up locations and destinations. And once a customer starts an UberPOOL trip, he or she can’t ask the driver to cancel the other rider. Meru had launched CarPool last month where again, riders can share cabs.