Cape Town based UGOMYWAY has reached an important milestone in the wide-scale uptake of carpooling with the launch of UGOMYWAY for the Apple iPhone.
Congestion on the road network is not only an obstacle to economic growth but also a major contributor to climate change and ill health. The ever increasing use of private cars means we are all part of the problem. But now we can all be part of the solution.
UGOMYWAY is a newly launched ride-share and carpool mobile application, which will help to solve traffic congestion across Cape Town with rollout to other cities throughout South Africa to follow.
The launch was celebrated on Cape Talk on Tuesday 15th March. You can hear it here.
The app allows users to safely find drivers and passengers who commute to and from the same area to share their journeys and travel costs.
Developed in Cape Town by a small team, the app is a major leap forward over existing shared lists and web based lift-club offerings.
Routine journeys like home-to-work are defined and shared within the secure eco-system which then ranks other users who make similar journeys according to the best match.
In addition to cell phone verification, the app provides a secure chat platform to establish a dialogue without revealing personal details until trust has been established. User rating and measured ride share activities within the app add to this trust.
The potentially embarrassing issue of shared costs is avoided by stipulating a rate per kilometre. The app suggests R1 / km but the user can elect to increase or decrease this amount depending on other factors such as parking costs or toll fees. The rate per kilometre is then applied to the shared journey to arrive at a shared travel cost.
UGOMYWAY provides a ring-fence facility, which allows users to elect to only become visible and be seen by other members of an organisation, school, workplace or any other community. Once trust is established users may elect to consider matches outside of the ring-fence.
Importantly the app allows drivers and passengers to account for and to share costs. Using SnapScan to make secure payments, users can elect how frequently they would like to settle up, be it weekly or monthly.
A leaderboard facility puts visibility on car pool activity at the Organisation level, measuring road trips saved and the resulting reduction in CO2 emissions.
The app can be downloaded free on the Google Play for Android phones and on the App Store for iPhones with web and other platforms following shortly.
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