I’ve been a great supporter of ridesharing, and I’ve been using Uber since the first day it got introduced in my city of residence, Mumbai. Not just did it not mean not waiting for a cab to be flagged on the road, it also meant cleaner air conditioned rides picking me up from my doorstep to take me where I wanted to go, at a better pricing than the cabs usually.
Now, Uber has been introducing their carpooling functionality in various parts of India recently. Here, you can share a car with someone else who is commuting on approximately the same route as you are, in exchange for a lesser price on your ride. Since I am usually commuting solo when on work, I really don’t mind that as long as I have some time on hand.
I was recently in Bangalore on a work trip, and I remembered that Uber had launched their UberPool functionality in Bangalore. I even got an email.
The UberPool functionality, is only available between 7 AM to 9 PM, perhaps because that is the time of day when roads are most cluttered and/or rides are hard to come by. I could select a pickup from anywhere in the city as per the map enclosed above, and take a drop to anywhere served by Uber within their city limits.
How UberPool Works?
With UberPool, Uber matches you real time to another rider heading in the same direction. You get up to two seats on the car, which means you can ride alone or along with a family member/friend/colleague. The other rider who gets matched gets the remaining two seats in the car. If there is no match, you are still paying the UberPool pricing, because, it is not your fault that someone else did not want to go in the same direction. Also, the intention of UberPool is not to go zig zag across the city picking up people. Rather, only riders who are on the same path as you are going to be matched.
How UberPool Prices?
UberPool is at least 35% cheaper than the cheapest Uber option (UberGo in India). This means you are getting half the car capacity for 65% of the price. Prices are frozen upfront basis the fare estimate that Uber computes, so even if you got stuck in a traffic jam, for instance, you are not going to be paying extra for it.
My own Experience
Since the airport was not in the zone where I could share a ride to the city, I forked out money for a full car to myself to drive me to M.G. Road. However, on my way back in the evening, I was done in good time and had enough time to reach the airport, so I pulled out my phone and launched the Uber App. As I looked for an UberGo, the app also gave me an option to take a Pool ride. So I decided to UberPool my way back to the airport, because I figured there will be a lot of people heading back to the airport and it is win win for everyone!
The ride pulled up at my door, and when we started the trip, I already knew the price I was going to be debited at the end of the trip. However, very sadly, no other rider (s) joined us on this trip, so it meant I got the whole cab to myself, and I only paid a lower price. Which means, Uber must have made the ride whole to their partner.
Bottomline: UberPool is a great way to share a ride when you have the time and the capacity in your car. It works well for you since you save money, works well for the driver since they earn 130% on the same ride, and works well for Uber because they are getting more commission. And it works well for the environment with one less car on the road. I’m waiting for UberPool to come to Mumbai as well.
Fat chance if you are reading this blog you already use Uber, but if you still considering signing up, you should use my signup link and get yourself your first ride free worth upto INR 250. Pro Tip: You could sign up from anywhere in the world for your local Uber currency with this link.
Have you tried out UberPool yet? What has been your experience?
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Uberpool is very bad.uber is making money with poor service to customers.And there is no customer care for any kind of issues.never resolves customers issues and closes with cock and bull stories…
Don’t prefer Uber
Very very bad experience with uber pool..very long route..never take pool while going to offc .. ola is far better than this..route selection of uber is pathetic..charges are even higher..today while selecting cab to offc i have seen ola and uber both, ola was charging 51 and uber charge was 69..i selected uber because there pickups are lesser than ola..but i felt helpless as it took 1 hour from uber to cover only 4 km as they have selected route of almost 12 kms..
Really a very bad experience with pool cab. There were two pick up. I started at 9.30am and thought would reach south campus, du in 1 hour as GPS showed the reaching time in 52 min. But I had bad experience with pick up. The first pick up was ok but second pick was many kilometers away which meant a big de- tour. It wasted almost 45 -50 min. For first 45 min cab was just taking the pick ups. If this is the way shared cab works one can never be on time. Uber thinks people have lot of time roaming around ….and when I pointed this to driver he said why did I take a shared cab.
This policy of clubbing commuter who have different destination and far apart pick up is too bad. Especially in morning hours when the traffic is heavy , roads are congested and one is in hurry to reach the work place, such a approach of Uber is highly insensitive. Thumbs down to Uber for this.
My experience with uber pool has been very bad and not just once but twice. They force you to go whichever way another rider wants to go. Even though it means another half an hour added to ur trip. The driver cannot do much as he automatically gets the pick up & can’t cancel it.
I am never going to use Uberpool again even though it means paying a little more.
Ajay – Thank you for sharing your experience about Uber Pool. I enjoyed reading your blog, until the last paragraph where you are using your Uber referral link so that you can earn free rides. While I understand that the person who signs up also gets free ride, I feel it is not correct for you to openly use your referral.
Nice to see that uber allows u two seats….ola in mumbai allows only one seat which makes it difficult if you have a companion
Mixed experience with Pool, here in the U.S. Sometimes it’s great to have the entire car to yourself, but the routing isn’t optimal. You’re bound to take a few diversions when picking up someone after you board.
I haven’t had the best of experiences while using the sharing option here in Gurgaon. On a couple of occasions, the driver received a second ride after we rode 3-4 kms. The boarding point of the 2nd person was such that we had to travel all the way back. In fact, on one occasion I even crossed my pick up point after travelling 3-4 kms in the opposite direction to pick up the 2nd guy. I felt it was not worth it. Will only use it if I have all the time in the world. They need to modify their algorithm to have pick up points on the way and not out of the way.
I had almost exactly the same experience riding with Ola Cabs in Mumbai. In Mumbai, they are first to launch the share ride option. It turned out to be cheaper even after considering the peak hour charges.