Ola Share was launched in 2015, and since then has come a long way to counter uberPOOL, its biggest competitor. The company introduced a lot of other services, but kept the Share service pretty much the same.
Now making a small dent in the cab sharing industry, Ola has introduced ‘Share Express’ that aims to reduce the costs on the most common routes by 30%. There are over 100 such routes in Bengaluru, Mumbai, Jaipur Delhi and NCR that will come under Share Express.
“With the introduction of ‘Share Express’, we aim to decongest the busiest routes in our busiest cities, while ensuring a quicker commute for our users,” said Raghuvesh Sarup, CMO and Head of Categories at Ola.
This service will come with fixed routes, usually the ones that are taken by a lot of people. For example, routes between the New Delhi Railway Station and DLF Cyber City Gurgaon will be fixed by the company and any customer who wishes to book a ride can immediately hop into one.
You don’t have to wait for any new icons really, but the next time you are on a very popular route, you will be notified of it and probably save money on the same route. When you check the fare, you should click on Share Express to join other passengers on the same route.
This also turns out to be cheaper for Ola because they can have designated drivers at these locations, saving time and effort. The pick-up and drop points will be almost fixed, so you may have to walk around a little bit to reach your arrival location and destination.
This also means you experience quicker Share rides on the most popular routes across your city, without going out of the way to pick-up co-passengers. For example, a Share Express ride from ITO to India Gate in New Delhi can now cost you just Rs 30.
How to Book Share Express
Will it be able to take on uberPOOL?
At this moment, uberPOOL is a more reliable service, and is often preferred by travellers because the algorithms run by the company are stronger. You get pool matches are more aligned to your route on uberPOOL.
With Share Express, Ola has taken on the sharing problem faced by everyone these days, and has optimised it for passengers on the most common routes. Not only with the Ola driver and passengers save time and money, they will also be able to maximize the rides between these routes.
Considering you’re already saving another 30%, why not see if you have Share Express on that route to save some extra Rupees. This will definitely be a big boost over uberPOOL that doesn’t offer such incentives on its platform.
Source: Ola
