Life in a MetroRide: New App Promises Seamless Public Transport Accessibility Solutions

MetroRide is a first and last-mile ride hailing service that connects you from the metro stations to high request destinations. It operates through an AI-powered cloud-based application to provide 100 percent green travel solutions to its customers. In an exclusive Interview with Sakshi Post, Girish Nagpal (CEO) and Kaaman Agarwal (CTO) from MetroRide tell Mohammed Rayees Ur Rahim about how their AI Engine VIKI will take care of the First and Last Mile end-to-end travel needs of the customers. 

First off, how is your MetroRide mobility platform shaping up in the places where it’s been launched? How has been the response so far?

MetroRide is an AI-powered urban mobility solution aimed at making daily commute cheaper & seamless. We connect daily commuters to high-frequency hubs like metro stations, Bus stations etc to make their end-to-end journey seamless. 

With MetroRide we have seen great growth so far. We have been growing consistently having served appx 3 Lakh customers. 

Did you face any challenges as people seem to be fed up with similar hail and ride services due to the irresponsible behavior of the driver partners?

Before launching our solution we have done extensive research and spoken to numerous stakeholders including customers, ride-hailing companies and drivers. Based on our findings we came out with a unique model where everyone wins. Our association with drivers is very different than other apps. We only take drivers who are exclusive to us. Since our offering to customers is so strong wrt price & wait times, 83% of our customers are repeat customers. Using our tech platform, we have a very predictable forecast of who takes our rides from where and when, and hence we are able to ensure a minimum earning to the drivers every day. Our drivers drive on designated routes and can’t deny or cancel any rides which is a big concern in most app-based cabs.

First and Last mile connectivity is indeed an issue in India. Did you do any research to get a sense of the percentage of people who needed F & L mile connectivity ride?

Yes, we did primary research with hundreds of daily commuters plus gained access to may research reports. 70% of potential Bangalore Metro users cited poor first- and last-mile connectivity as a reason for not using it, according to a WRI survey. As per our internal study, the 2 biggest requirements of a daily commuter are: Affordability and minimal wait times.

You say, it’s an AI-driven electric mobility platform. Do your algorithms keep syncing with the metro trains' arrival and departure times? 

Our AI Engine VIKI (Virtual Interactive Kinetic Intelligence) is the central nervous system of all our processes. We employ our AI algorithm to determine the best routes, the best stops etc. Our objective is to be able to do more rides in a day at a cheaper price, only then we’ll be able to meet our economics. We are integrating with Metro now to ensure that we are able to deliver a seamless experience to our customers. Not just information about train arrival and departure but the customers will be able to book an end-to-end journey through the MetroRide app.

What are your plans to convince people to opt for greener commute solutions offered by MetroRide?

We believe that we as a socially conscious enterprise have to drive this change. For end customers, they need a cheaper and faster solution & then if it is cleaner they would love to adopt. We provide our customers with a value proposition they can’t ignore. Our average cost per ride is Rs. 18 with 2.01 minute average wait time which none of the mobility players even comes close to. We have QR scanners on every auto to provide a seamless & cashless experience. 

As the First and Last mile connectivity suggests the origin or destination of a rider won’t be long enough, why do you think people would wait for 5 minutes ( minimal wait time per your website (https://metroride.in/) when they could walk for such short distances?

We guarantee a wait time of ”no more than 5 minutes” so that’s the upper limit & our average has been 2:01 minutes.  As per few research reports people tend to walk if the destination is within 600-700metres. First & Last mile typically means appx 5 KM journey so no one would be able to walk for that long while commuting for work or college. 

Does your app have fixed pick-up and drop-off points for the rider or the riders ( considering he/she has mobility issues) who could set their location while booking a ride?

MetroRide offers both fixed point as well end-to-end rides for such cases. Customers can choose the offering they want to opt for.

How can a user know what are the high-frequency destinations being served in the city in the app besides metro station service? 

It is pretty simple, just open the app and based on your current location the app will guide you to the closest MetroRide stop. Alternatively, you can choose a landmark to find a nearby service. 

Does the app support all the UPI Payments including the cash option? Because, given the cheaper and affordable First and Last mile ride, the customers may not want to spend time over digital payment and just hand over the cash and catch the metro?

Most of our customers are repeat customers and they buy our subscription using the MetroRide wallet. So there is no issue of exact change & customers can book rides in 2 clicks. 

As per the Central Government, there are 40 crore people who are in need of mobility solutions by the year 2030, so you have a lot of transportation space to cover in India. What are your plans to fill this space?

MetroRide’s vision is to become the most preferred commute partner for the daily commuters across the Urban mobility space. We make public transport accessible and hence solve a much bigger issue of traffic congestion & air pollution. Being a strong technology-focused player, we scale up using AI, cloud & our microservices architecture.