Ola has today announced the launch of a brand new feature on the Shuttle section of the Ola app, allowing you dear user, to suggest a “route for your commute” (that rhymes!). And yup, as you’d have already guessed, Ola is ultimately aiming to bring in crowdsourced route suggestions on the app.
Using this feature, users will be able to suggest routes that they want Ola Shuttle to service within Delhi NCR. These crowdsourced route suggestions will allow Ola to identify areas where there is a strong need for commute options for users and roll-out its Shuttle services accordingly. This feature is available on the Ola app under the Shuttle category and will help bring mobility access to a wider base of users across cities.
The move is pretty logical and smart — largely because, the more data you get from the customers themselves, the more credible and authentic your app sounds to the users. This might eventually get on to Ola’s recently launched Ola Share private car-pooling service as well.
Moreover, crowdsourced routes as a concept will not only help Ola identify and fill the void that the current transportation options are unable to address, but will also ensure shared mobility for users headed on the same route, leading to a lower carbon footprint. With the odd-even experiment in effect in the state of Delhi from January 1, this becomes even more important.
Sundeep Sahni, Vice President, New Initiatives at Ola said in a prepared statement,
The first of its kind crowdsourced routes feature on Ola Shuttle has been designed to serve users better, unlocking immense efficiencies for sustainable transportation.
Shared Mobility will have a long term impact on lowering pollution levels and on-road congestion, with a potential to serve more users than ever before.
As for stats, Ola Shuttle has pretty solid ones to boast off. They are impressive at the same time, because of the known fact of how complicated it is to run a private bus service in India. Ola Shuttle is equipped with facilities like 4G Wi-Fi, on-demand entertainment with PressPlay, real-time GPS tracking, reserved push-back seating and cashless payments through Ola Money.
Ola Shuttle service is already running on 100 routes across Delhi NCR and ferrying over 10,000 consumers daily with more than 500 shuttles on Ola platform in the region.
