An initiative of the autorickshaw drivers union Metro Mitra will soon be able to take ride orders through Whatsapp in a hassle-free manner. After coming up with a unique QR-based app-less booking metro, Metro Mitra has now introduced a Whatsapp-based booking system. Commuters can book a ride from their homes on Whatsapp. While most aggregator services spend a chunk of their revenue towards platform fees, Metro Mitra collects a ‘drive fund’ as expense for their needs.
“We have now started a Whatsapp-based booking method. Using the method, anyone can book a ride from Metro Mitra and make a UPI payment. In the Whatsapp chatbot, people can text ‘auto’ and using GPS location it would book rides for you. We haven’t publicised this method in a big way as we have a low number of auto riders enrolled. Due to this, customers would face difficulty booking,” said D Rudramurthy, general secretary of the Autorickshaw Drivers’ Union (ARDU).
Riders can just text ‘auto’ and the WhatsApp chatbot asks for the current location of the passenger. Once the current location is entered, it further provides a list of metro stations to select for the user. Users can also send the location of any place (apart from the metro station) by selecting the ‘others’ option. Further, the user is connected with a rider and an OTP is issued. Metro Mitra only charges Rs 10 above the ride fare while other aggregator services charge much higher fees in terms of platform maintenance and surge fee.
Not yet a hit
However, despite its good intentions to solve the last-mile connectivity issue of the city, the app has not taken off. Metro Mitra was started in September 2023 and has only been able to enroll 500 autorickshaw drivers. “We will soon be conducting drives among autorickshaw drivers and stands to enrol for the app,” he added.
Metro Mitra is a last-mile mobility solution, especially for commuters to and for metro stations. The project was launched with autorickshaw drivers in collaboration with Agnibhu Technologies, LatLong, and GiZ (Deutsche Gesellschaft für Internationale Zusammenarbeit).
