Meru Cabs launches CarPool service

The company has tied up with mobile wallet Paytm for cashless payments.

Radio cab service provider Meru Cabs has entered the ride-sharing segment by launching CarPool for its customers across India. Integrated on to the Meru Cabs mobile app, CarPool offers the 'Personal Car' ride-sharing option for people travelling in the same direction or area.

Currently available on Android, a consumer (18 years and above) can register by furnishing his/her mobile number, e-mail address and Facebook profile. The Meru app team conducts an elementary verification of the ride owner with a driver's license and the passenger through their PAN / Adhaar card details. Once successfully registered, the user can look up other registered members travelling on his/her route and time, and connect with them to avail or offer a ride.

The company has tied up with mobile payment service Paytm for mobile wallet payment for the CarPool service within Meru Cabs app.

Also, Meru's ICE (In Case of Emergency) feature on the app allows passengers to share details of his/her location to the registered emergency contacts.

Siddhartha Pahwa, CEO, Meru Cabs, says, "The top 20 cities alone have over 12 million cars and the opportunity is to bring them on a popular and trusted platform like Meru. There is also a growing consciousness amongst people about the need to reduce congestion on roads, pollution/carbon foot print and stress associated with travel, especially on daily traffic-heavy routes. The CarPool initiative aims to encourage a simple act of reducing the one-person-per-vehicle issue through a communal effort of sharing a ride with another person headed in the same direction, while offering convenience and economy of travel."

Amit Lakhotia, vice president, Paytm, says, "It is a great initiative by Meru. This would help consumers to reduce their travel costs significantly, as well as reduce the stress involved in travel. For some, it would help in building new acquaintances as well. Sharing economy has been growing well across the globe, and we expect Indian consumers too to latch onto the same. Paytm, being the default choice of wallet for Indians, is glad to be a partner in providing seamless and secure payment flow."

Meru's CarPool competes with other players in ride-sharing services like BlaBlaCar, Ibibo Group's Ryde, Rocket Internet-backed Tripda and Ridingo (Bengaluru), among others.

Meru Cabs was launched in Mumbai (April 2007) in association with India Value Fund, a premier India-centric private equity fund. Meru launched its MeruGenie services in December 2013, which is now present across 13 cities in India. In January 2015, Meru launched Meru Eve - a cab service exclusively for and by women. It's an initiative to bring to lady passengers a safe and reliable way to travel. Now, Meru offers cab services across 24 cities in India.