Uber to promote car pooling services

In line with its recent “SwitchToPOOL” campaign, online cab-hailing firm Uber’s focus in 2017 will be on popularising UberPOOL — a service that enables people going the same way at the same time to share their journey, the company said on Thursday.

The company has also rolled out updates to promote UberPOOL aimed at ‘getting more people in fewer cars’ to address increasing congestion and pollution in Indian cities.

The new updates address some of the common feedback from riders and driver-partners and are designed to further enhance the Uber experience.

“Since the launch of ‘UberPOOL’ in India, riders have taken more than a million trips and we are continuously working towards making the next million even more effortless, so we can get more people into fewer cars and help cities cut down on congestion and pollution over time,” said Amit Jain, President (India and South Asia) Uber.

During the 21-day “SwitchToPOOL” campaign, UberPOOL helped India save 5.5 million kms of vehicle travelled, 6.1 lakh Kgs of CO2 emission, and 2.6 lakh litres of fuel, the company claimed.

“Today, more than 31 per cent of rides in Delhi are on UberPOOL and over 20 per cent of the rides in the remaining five UberPOOL cities — Bengaluru, Hyderabad, Kolkata, Mumbai and Chennai,” he added.

“Our latest driver app update includes the technology to inform drivers about their wait time before they get their next ride so he is ready when it is time to pick up the rider,” the company added. IANS