PAGE Blog Business Weekly Magazine
Pakistan is a country with immense potential, but unfortunately it is faced with numerous big challenges on the economic and social front. Due to an under-developed infrastructure of roads and a weak transport network, people wishing to travel domestically, from one city to another, having many difficulties in getting access to a transportation-mode that is safe, punctual and low-cost.
Recognizing this need for convenient and efficient inter-city travel, Tripda — Pakistan’s pioneering initiative towards a shared-economy, has recently created the largest carpooling platform in the country.
It is the first-of-its-kind smartphone Application/Online platform, to offer valuable services to facilitate inter-city travel-rides.
It provides car-owners with opportunities to share their vehicles, whenever they are traveling on long-distance routes. The passengers can benefit from this service, by booking an empty seat available in any car, which is traveling in the same direction. This way, car-owners and passengers can both save on traveling expenses by sharing fuel cost.
This innovative venture has filled an important gap in the long-distance travel market and provides a viable alternative to buses, trains and short flights.
Advantages
On an international scale, Tripda is currently operating in 13 countries across three continents.
More and more users in Pakistan are also attracted to the service, because now they can travel in the comfort and safety of a car, saving time and money, while they connect with interesting people during the ride. The safety offered by Tripda is evident from the fact that there have been zero reported incidents on Tripda rides so far.
Another major advantage delivered by Tripda is the reduction in highway traffic, which decreases air-pollution, thus protecting the earth’s environment from the detrimental climate-changes that are threatening the global community.
According to authentic studies and calculations conducted by Tripda, this initiative has already reduced 170,000KGs of CO2 emissions on the Lahore-Islamabad route alone.
Considering its remarkable benefits, Tripda is a perfect solution that individuals and even corporate enterprises can adopt to reduce their carbon footprint.
Foolproof concept
Tripda is fully committed to support the climate-change talks in Paris, which focus on saving the environment and inspire the creation of carpooling platforms around the world, as a mainstream, earth-friendly concept.
For the first time in history, the world is united to cut the carbon pollution that’s driving climate-change, by moving away from the hazardous fossil fuels, towards cleaner, smarter and efficient energy options, that can power our future without endangering the planet.
To achieve this goal, 195 countries — rich and poor, large and small and at various stages of development — have pledged to cut, cap or mitigate their carbon footprint.
Climate Action has gained global momentum, to promote clean energy and environmental protection as the key to human sustainability on earth. Due to the sharp fall in international fossil-fuel prices, the consumption of petrol and diesel in Pakistan has increased rapidly. This trend is harmful, because the country is already among the top ten nations facing risk of severe climate-change. Therefore, eco-friendly ventures like Tripda are the need of the hour for Pakistan.
New global regulations are being collectively implemented, to prevent high smog levels, by directly reducing the number of cars on the roads. Tripda’s long term plans include tapping and monitoring other routes, while collaborating with the corporate sector to promote carpooling and ensure a greener future. This service is truly unique as its demand and supply are organic in nature.
Built on the principles of safety and usability, Tripda encourages community ratings and reviews by car-owners and the travelers who have taken rides together. The platform verifies drivers and passengers in multiple ways i.e. via Facebook, phone number and email verification and runs checks to ensure their privacy and security. These ratings have helped build a trusted community of Tripda users. It calculates distance, fuel price and tolls, depending on the car, and it suggests a price for the trip costs. Holding frequent community meet-ups, the company interacts with its members to get their feed-back and inputs on how to further improve the service.
Currently Tripda’s strategic focus is on the busiest routes like Lahore-Islamabad with 200+ bookings per week on this route, along with the Karachi-Hyderabad route, which was launched recently and is showing 85 percent growth per week. Moreover, a large number of people are also using this application for other major highways including: Lahore-Faisalabad, Islamabad-Peshawar, Multan-Lahore, Islamabad-Rahim Yar Khan, etc., where the user-base is growing very rapidly.
Tripda is also establishing vibrant car-pooling communities at various universities in major cities like Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad. At present the service is mostly used by young working professionals and university students for their commute needs. It is believed that the rapid penetration of smartphones and 3G telecom technology in Pakistan and the world-class road infrastructure being created by China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), promise sharp growth and eco-friendly sophistication in the travel and transportation sector of the country.
