[Exclusive Interview] Find Out How India’s 1st Multi-Modal Public Transport App Is Empowering Passengers

Recently we interacted with Mr. Hiranmay Mallick, Co-founder & CEO at Tummoc, where we asked about him about this company, and how it’s helping passengers with public transport.

Here are the highlights of this interview

What is Tummoc all about? Reason behind naming it.

Tummoc is an app that helps people with their public transport commute. It does this by:

– Providing accurate information for all modes of public transport in a city. Information includes timings, fares, locations, etc. 

– Features that make public transport commutes easier. For e.g. ticketing, live-tracking, etc. 

– First and last-mile connectivity by partnering with MaaS providers and facilitators.

“Tummoc” is “commute” backwards (minus the ‘e’). We intend to reverse the trend of reduction of public transport use. The idea for Tummoc came up when we saw the widespread public transport infrastructure that wasn’t being utilized in various Indian cities. It’s that trend that we want to reverse. It’s a name we want to become a household name, and automatically associated with moving around in one’s city.

It is patented technology. Please explain the process involved

Tummoc’s patented technology is the ‘system and the process for multi-modal trip planning and first & last-mile connectivity. Patents need to be broken down into components such as software, algorithms, systems and hardware. The derivation of these components together makes the outcome that can be patented as a system. 

For us, the system that is patented is the way we plan multimodal trips for users travelling from point A to point B. There are 3 sub-components involved in delivering this multi-modal plan? 

1 – Ride suggestion engine, 

2-  Feedback engine, 

3-  Ride scoring algorithm. 

How does your product work?

When a first-time user searches for a multi-modal plan for a particular location, we check the scoring algorithm. We observe if there is any pattern or combination of modes that users prefer to take, and based on that history, the outcome is customized as per the need of every user or their choice of experience and that will differ from user to user. 

Ride suggestion has a subsystem availability of First & Last mile and that is the most important concept without which the planning of transit will become inefficient. There needs to be a simplified connection or availability of modes to reach public transport.

As a public transit app, one just can’t give the metro & bus ride suggestions only, a system should be there where users are enabled with first & last mile connectivity through which they can first reach the metro station and also the last mile where they should be dropped to their end destination. 

So we bridge that gap and we also predict the availability of the first & last mile in the areas that users are checking for rides, and then we suggest the mid mile i.e., the public transportation modes such as buses & metros. So it’s proper transit planning for commuters right from point A to point B. 

After the users have selected the suggestion engine, the single ticketing model comes on which we are currently working. Now for the single ticketing what happens is let’s say the first mile, mid mile and last mile will be booked under a single ticket that can be a QR  or any code based or ID-based ticket. Now users can purchase the end to end trip through that single ticketing concept because we are able to predict the first & the last mile and the availability of the bus or metro through the real-time tracking we are able to tell users that you can book an end to end journey from one single app. 

Once you book the ride, we track your ride on the basis of where you have tapped. So basically when you take the first mile, you tap for the first time so we know that your ride has started then you tap again which means you have got into a bus then again you tap out and we know that you are out of the bus and similarly for the last mile. Every leg of the journey is tracked when you tap in and tap out for the payment. We take care of the privacy concerns of each user. 

This will also help us in tracking the buses/metros. So when a user taps in, we know that this is the time that a user has tapped into a particular bus stop and then we can track you along the way and we can also derive the ETA of that bus/metro. That’s how tracking is done. Those data are also used for crowdsource data for us to push out to other users and once all the users start to give us this data. We don’t have to solely rely on the devices that are installed in the bus. So this is like a community app. Which give and take from the user and the company gives the users back. It is a community-driven application.

The third part is once the payment is done we generate a score for each ride depending on what the user has chosen. There is a ride scoring algorithm that will generate a score at the end of the ride depending upon what was the total time of the travel & total cost of the trip vs what was actual. Based on this the score is given on the suggestion of the route. Next time a user asks for a suggestion on the basis of that score we customize it according to different users. That’s how the whole patent thing works.

What makes it different from its competitors? Explain

We are a multi-modal public transport app, we have a patent for the same and that’s the biggest differentiator, also making it impossible for them to compete with us directly.

What made you enter this market?

We strive to make public transport commutes seamless across the country, and eventually across the globe. There are huge public transport networks around the world, and we see that as an opportunity. 

At the moment, we’re doing this solely for the common man, the people who use public transport every day because that’s the only choice that works for their price point. We want to make their lives easier, because they have enough to worry about as it is. 

In the longer run, we’d also like to address the other group of individuals who don’t rely on public transport in the first place. With them, cabs and private vehicles have become more common because the ease-of-access or the convenience associated with public transport isn’t as much as these modes.

Our goal is to do this not just for the sake of commuters, but also for the environment. Public transport is significantly more planet-friendly and reduces carbon emissions by a lot.

How do you overcome customers’ complaints?

We get customer queries on our Support Mail, WhatsApp and Calling Number. We try to speak with the customers who have major issues and solve the queries at the earliest by means of whatsapp and telephonic call. Some of them do come up with a few suggestions and feedback and we keep a note and try to bring the change in the upcoming releases. 

What are your future plans in the technology segment?

Our first & last mile connectivity feature is the most unique and how efficiently it’s been done for the users without them entering the manual details separately second time. 

We are also working on a feature in the app where users get an option to customize their rides with single QR. For example, a user can tell us that he needs a minimum walking distance for the first file, or ask for a suggestion where the first mile is not needed. And we give him all the options of reaching his closest public transportation mode without using the first mile. All this is a work in progress. We will soon be enabling such a feature in the app. 

We have gone live with four more cities in the last one month, and shall be going live with additional 15 new locations by the end of year 2022. We will also be launching our Mobile ticketing system at six new cities by the end of this year for various modes. Last month, we went live with BMTC mobile passes and POS offline ticketing which has been well taken by users and  are already performing well.