Commute Easy

Lets pool in - Traffic Police, Radio One and Commute Easy come together..

2010-09-17T15:12:00.001-07:00

Alright!
Saying that we haven't been regular in updating this blog would be an understatement. But it isnt late to make amends.. is it ? :)

So the good things is a LOT has happened on Commute Easy since our last update. So you can rest assured that the friendly neighborhood initiative that you lent support to has grown ino something substantial.

We partnered with the Bangalore traffic Police which has turned out to be fabulous relationship. The Traffic Police in addition to being extremely proactive in spreading awareness on CommuteEasy has also awarded us the seal of credibility.They have helped set up over 15 hoardings across Bangalore.
Partnership with Radio One : This partnership gave CommuteEasy a booster shot in the arm and took our user base from 5,000 to 15,000 in one year.
Launch of Lets Pool in campaign in association with Radio One and Traffic Police

what else did we do?

Press Conference for launch of Lets pool in campaign with clebrity guests Robin Uthappa, Anu Prabhakar and Charu Sharma.

Rahul Dravid, Prasad Bidappa et al coming on board as ambassadors of Lets Pool in campaign.

Custom carpool solutions: During this period, we struck upon the exciting idea of building community specific carpool solutions.. A classic example of how a simple tweak to an existing solution can make a huge difference.. I think this topic merits a post of its own.. So will sign off on this post here..

CE Newsletter- 05/06/08 (World Environment day)

2008-06-06T21:06:00.000-07:00

Hi guys,
How you doing?

Any guesses as to which website benefits most from rising fuel prices??
Haha.. yup!! Commute Easy has seen a sudden increase in the number of pools formed and new registrations over the last few days. So there are several new joinees on your route. This is a good time to give it another go if you arent pooling yet.

We are also implementing a taxi-pooling system for airport in association with the traffic police and the cab providers. So watch out for it the next time you need to travel to BIAL.

Ok now digressing a little from carpooling,

We noticed that most of us find ourselves short of interesting weekend break options, despite several actually being available.
We are in the process of launching a website which will try to solve just that.

We have tried to make this an extremely short and interesting survey and promise you it wouldn't take more than 2-3 minutes of your time, but it'll go a long way in building out a better solution which caters to your preferences.
Here is the link to the survey.
http://www.esurveyspro.com/Survey.aspx?id=c5bc9508-d2cb-4fc9-9d4d-b34a92eb33b2.

If its not too much trouble, do forward it to your friends as well.
Thanks for your continual support and feedback.
We look forward to receiving and incorporating more of your suggestions :)
Environmentally yours,
CE Team

CE UPdate: 28/08/2007

2007-08-27T23:59:00.000-07:00

We realize its been a while since our last update.
So in case you were wondering if there is anything at all happening at your friendly neighborhood carpooling portal..

The answer is Lots!!

But we plan to make it interesting and give you the details of these as and when we go live with these features,

A sneak peek on whats coming your way..

1.For all of you, who complain about the time rigidity with pooling, you will love our new 'flexi pooling' concept. :)

2.Based on the suggestions of some users, we are in the process of implementing 'event pooling' for specific events.

3.And there are very interesting partnerships we are entering with the Bangalore Traffic Police and the highly innovative team at "Map Unity" (details coming soon).

But for now all we want to say is.. "AVOID HONKING!!!!!" :)

Yup!! We tried this experiment in our carpool while driving down to work today.

The test was to see "How far we could get without using the horn and without compromising on speed" .

We were blown by the results. We did 12.5 kms without a single honk !!

You will be stunned if you actually count the number of times you really need to honk during your entire journey.
If you dont trust us give it a shot today and report the results here -> commuteeasy.blogspot.com/

So convert as many people as possible into non-honkers and have a less ear jarring drive. It can make a difference.

Keep your suggestions/feedback coming in. We love it and do our best to react to it.

Environmentally yours,
CE Team

CE Newsletter- 28/03/2007

2007-03-29T12:25:00.000-07:00

Ok. So whats new at Commute Easy?

1. People suggested that we send them a weekly list of new people joining their route so they wouldnt have to come back to the site every week to check this.
We will be doing that on a weekly basis starting April 1st. However for now we will send you a complete list of all your route sharers.You should find this pretty useful.

2. Another suggestion was to provide users an option to share their contact details(phone no/email Address)
This makes the process of contacting each other quicker.
By default your contact details will not be shared with others.However if you wish to make either of these visible,you can specify your preference in 'Edit Profile'

Now the exciting part..

Theres a new feature we are providing to promote pooling amongst corporates.
This will facilitate pooling amongst the employees of the same organisation.
It will be really valuable if you could speak to your HR about this. Please click here for details.

Partnerships:

We have tied up with 'Activ Mobs' to set up an sms facility that would increase the flexibility with pooling.
Click here for more details on this. This is quite interesting.

Promoting CE:

To promote Commute Easy,we have made some posters and bumper stickers which you can put up at your workplace/residential complex/car etc.Make sure you pick yours.This will really help in reaching out to more people.
You can check them out here.

More importantly, What really counts is that there have been a remarkable number of pools started through CommuteEasy over the last couple of months.
So its working:)

Thanks for all the support.
Environmentally yours,
CE Team :)

Commute easy is a free service and we wish to continue improving this based on your feedback/suggestions.So please keep them coming in :). YOU can post your comments at commuteeasy.blogspot.com or mail us at admin@commuteeasy.com

Kudos To BMTC

2007-02-07T11:45:00.001-08:00

We all know that the public transport system in Bangalore has always left a lot to be desired.

However over the last few months BMTC has made incredible progress and is coming up with smart and innovative ideas to provide greater value to commuters.

The BMTC's initiative of plying Volvo buses has taken off remarkably well.

The buses are super comfortable.The routes covered and the frequency are poised to increase in the coming months.
For more info on the covered routes and times, click here.

Click here to have a look at BMTC's upcoming plans.

You could get complete information on all BMTC bus routes/timings here

Do express your views/suggestions. We will 'try' to put forth feasible solutions to the concerned officials :)

Yey!!! FLEXI pooling is here : SMS based pooling

2007-02-07T10:46:00.000-08:00

One of the biggest complaints we hear about pooling is lack of flexibility.
To counter that we have come up with a novel solution.

We want to try this on a pilot basis on the Koramangala- Madivala - Electronic City route and so we are specifically sending this mail to you.

Ok Now for the 'Big' Idea :) BTW, This idea is valid for both poolers and non -poolers

how it will work..

Case 1
: You dont want to take your transport because:

You wake up one fine day and dont feel like driving yourself.
You would get late at work and and the company will provide transport late night.
You want to have a couple of beers with friends at
night and dont believe in drinking and driving. So dont want to take your own transport :)

All you need to do is :

Step 1:

You send a message to 9844622848 with the
following details

[CEPILOT] [ACCEPT RIDE] [Time range you want to start] [Your name][Preferred Mode Of transport][Your Contact No]

Eg: If i was looking for a ride, I would send a mesasge ,

"Cepilot Accept 9 - 9.45 AM Vipul Car 98803xxxxxx"

This message would be received by all members on
this route.They would also reveive your mobile no on which they can contact u.

Step2: Anyone starting at that
time with a slot free on the car/bike can call you and you can decide to
pool for that day if suitable.

Step 3: It is suggested that you
split the travel cost/other expenses at a mutually decided rate.

"CEPILOT SLEEP" to 9844622848 and you will not receive any further messages.

To rejoin simply message
"CEPILOT IN" to the same number

There are some other suggestions about verifying credentials of poolers which we will inform you about soon.

We will not misuse your phone nos .Thats not our style :)

As before this will be a free service :)

Let me know if you have any other interesting feasible ideas.
Looking fwd to your response guys.

Note: We are providing this service by tying up with 'Activ Mobs' which is a very interesting group messaging service. To know more about this and for FAQ's check out inactiv.com

Thanks and Regards
CE TEAM

CE Newsletter - 28/11/2006

2006-11-30T23:51:00.000-08:00

For non-members/ members quoting faulty ids / people who mark CE mail as spam :) etc

How you doing? This is a sliiiightly long mail. But am sure it will be
worth your while :)

Its been a while since we provided updates on commute easy, so here
goes..

Lets start with some cool news for our poolers:
Radio Mirchi is planning to promote commute easy in a big way through
'bengaluru habba'. They want to put guys who have started pooling on
air. So please send us a mail at ipool@commuteeasy.com with your phone
no and some pooling details and we will forward it to them.

Some big positives over the last month:

1.There have been a large number of people who have started actively
pooling using this site which of course is the purpose:) .It gives us a
lot of encouragement that it is actually happening to such a degree and
at this pace!

2.The number of registered users has gone up to about 2400 now which
again proves Bangaloreans commitment to making Bangalore better and
their openness to pooling.

3.There has been some nice media publicity we have landed with. Commute
Easy was featured in Times of India, Praja Vani, Times Now, Radio
channels (92.7 and 94.3) , blogs etc.
We would like to extend a big, warm thank you to all our members who
have taken it upon themselves to spread the buzz and doing a fab job at
it.

4.There have been offers by corporates to provide special discounts to
commute easy users on various products and services. We are working
these out and will let you know at the earliest.

5.We are coming up with some cool Commute easy merchandise which we will
give away to out poolers:).So do report your pools if you are in one!

Not so good: :(

1.Our plans to provide cheap transport through city taxis took a beating
when the city taxis hiked up the rate to 12Rs/Km.Prior to this we were
close to getting this at 8Rs/km. However we have spoken to the president
of city taxis in Bangalore and he has agreed to try this out on a trial
basis at 12rs/km. It would still come down to about 3Rs/km/head with 4
guys pooling. So if you are interested do let us know at
rental@commuteeasy.com

The following locations have been added:
www.commuteeasy.com/newLocations.jsp .You can update your profile if you
pass by any of these places.

As always we look forward to your suggestions. Mail them directly at
admin@commuteeasy.com or post it on our blog commuteeasy.blogspot.com

Environmentally yours,
CE Team :)

Whats new at commute easy

2006-10-24T23:20:00.000-07:00

We have added a few new features to add value to your experience of using the site.

Some of these are features that users requested for and some are which we thought would be useful. Please give us your honest take on these or let us know if you would like something added.

1. Specify your preferred sharing mode : You can specify if you are interested in offering a ride,accepting one ,or alternating between the two.

2. Cost calculator to calculate your travel costs : We are also looking at taking into account the effect on environment .

3. Benefits to the employer by using this service : This is the section where we try to convince your employer to shell out a portin of your expenses and for good measure too :)

4. Using Car rental/taxis for pooling : We personally feel this is the best form of pooling and we are quite sure you will agree with us on reading this section.

5. FAQ: Here we try to answer some queries which people usually have while visiting the site. Feel free to ask any other questions which you have and we will add them to this list.

Lets pool...

2006-09-01T08:30:00.000-07:00

I look forward to reading your comments/suggestions.
Happy pooling folks!