[quickdraw]

A little background, I've been using Uber ever since it launched in the country and have always been really happy with the service and efficiency. When UBER started they were offering rides in luxury cars and me along with a lot of friends had a blast traveling around in mercs and paying peanuts.

Delhi to Noida in an E Class

Also, UBER is undergoing strong resistance across the world from Taxi Unions and have been engaged in litagation for reform of Taxi laws in almost every region they operate in. But its always best for us as customers. As UBER is significantly cheaper. For example the trip below would have costed way over 3x as much in a regular cab.

I've always admired that UBER has always been trying to solve problems with Technology, it's made things so convenient that in a lot of places people don't need cars anymore and rely on UBER+Transit.

Uber App on my Moto 360

Needless to say after countless interactions with UBER drivers across the world, I always yearned to be one and was disappointed that they were only allowing commercially licensed drivers (not so hard) with cars registered as TAXI's with Yellow plates (impossible for me). I sadly gave up on my dream to do this until the promise came in the form of a grey and hazy Delhi pollution outbreak.

Uber announced their Uber Pool platform where you could share your UBER with others, and even gave a chance to private vehicle owners to sign up on the platform! Details here.

I was obviously very excited and quickly decided to sign up and enrolled in the driver program. I have to mention the entire process was very smooth and completely online. I just went, uploaded all the documentation they requested and waited for their approval. I did have to tweet to them a few times to get my account verified.

Signup experience:

• Go to partners.uber.com and sign up as a driver.
• Upload all necessary documentation they require. (ID Proof, Car Registation, Car Insurance
• Additional documents they requested was PASSPORT
• You can sign up multiple vehicles, you will need to submit ownership proof and insurance for all of them.
• Go to vault.uber.com and update bank details.
• Voila! The account has been verified.
• Download UBER Partners APP on iOS/Android and you're ready to go!

Some of the key points to remember for Uber POOL Delhi currently are.

• Low requests incoming because of not many people wanting to pool.
• App interface is a little clunky, and I somehow feel its not working correctly.
• Carpooling option is available only between 7AM – 9PM
• Carpool trips can be requested from and to most parts of Central, South & West Delhi, Gurgaon and some parts of NOIDA.
• You cannot have a friend or anyone else in the car, its against their policy.
• The payouts you get as a driver are paltry and not a good incentive to signup

All the details and information about UBER Pool can be found here - https://newsroom.uber.com/new-delhi/poolpro/ currently, it is only available in New Delhi and NCR***

[quickdraw]

I just got my account activated today and am excited to ferry people around anywhere they want to go (as long as its in Noida) because I have sometime on my hands. Hopefully it should be a fun experience and I don't encounter anyone nasty as I don't want to get her dirty.

Dad in my F30 328i

[quickdraw]

Alright, here we go. I was quite excited and looking forward to this for a while. But their APP for drivers has quite a broken UI/UX. I guess they are working on it and developing it as the use case gets known, I personally didn't like that any tap on the screen instantly accepts a ride request and when a ride request comes in the map cannot be panned around. Here is a short video explaination on how the app works.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FBPtNuyH1wE

Yesterday, after I was done with work and was headed towards Delhi I fired up the app when I got downstairs into my car. And found a rider who was very near my office (~600mts) he/she has a 4.9 rating (Yes, even drivers get to rate you and its not just a one way thing. So be nice to your UBER driver!) I decided to accept the request and proceeded towards the pin.

I got a call from Jaspreet that I am in-fact his driver, he explained where he was standing and I informed him that I should be there soon. Thanks to the evening rush it was quite a struggle for me to park the car and Jaspreet got into the car and kept his bag in the back. First thing he mentioned was that he thought there was something wrong with his UBER app since he had selected a UBER Go car and saw that a BMW is coming to pick him up.

I explained the situation to him about why I've signed up and how he is my first ride, we both had a hearty laugh and chatted while going at good pace on DND and being stuck in South Delhi traffic for a bit. He told me about his job and what is going on in his life, it was a wonderful and genuine chat and I thoroughly enjoyed it. He must have been in his early 20's and I'm in my late 20's :(

I snapped this picture where I dropped him after telling him about this post that I intend to do, plus Uber Delhi team on Twitter had also requested me for a picture when I complete my first trip.

Jaspreet really seemed to enjoy the linear acceleration of the 8 Speed ZF in Sport mode.

[quickdraw]

Oh now for the fun part, getting paid! Ka-ching! He he. Althought I knew that the earnings from sharing the car would be quite negligable in case of the BMW, I intend to register my EcoSport (Which I won, yes. LINK - which should be much more cost economical and thankfully because of Delhi's dreaded Odd/Even thing coming along. I am lucky to own both an ODD/EVEN numbered car.

Ka-CHING!

Since I've only done one trip till now I can share some data which should help in understanding the model that UBER is following right now, but you need to keep in mind that your earnings might be very different depending on a lot of factors. Some tips to get higher earning would be to only accept a Uber X request (you can see the request types when they come in) and during a surge (you can see those orange regions in the earlier screenshot? The redder a region the higher the surge).

Lets do some rough calculation here, for the sake of simplicity I will ignore the payout sheet I've shared later, because this is an exercise of finding people on your regular route to pool with, and not a money earning exercise. Its aimed at removing or reducing the friction or taboo that comes in while discussing money and pooling. I remember when I lived on Carter road and two sisters used to pool with me to Tardeo (one of them was a colleague) they used to get me coffee and yummy breakfast everyday!

Distance - 11.78km
Toll - 30
App Payout - Rs 247
My cost - Rs 99

• Calculated using a milage of 7km/lt and Petrol cost of Rs 59
• Excluding complicating it by adding running costs for car, since that you need to incur in any case.

This is what will come to my bank account

I will be sharing more data as I keep doing trips, as you can see there is no single linear formula to this, and things will keep getting better as more people get on the platform. And remember this is not a money making exercise by any means. The money is just supposed to offset your costs. I look at it as solving a real world problem with technology which I absolutely love! And meeting some awesome people in the process. I've already had so many people on Twitter reach out to me and countless people calling me and telling me that they have lot of respect for what I'm doing.

There is also another aspect which I got to realise once I started, Taboo. For some reason people who drive cars are drivers and always treated as lower caste in Indian society, regardless of what we say and do but majority of people in the country still participate in this system on a conscious or sub-conscious level. For some reason I got vibes from lot of people what I was doing was wrong, and its degrading work. I also got mixed emotions from lots of people ranging from shocked/surprised to angry! I hope this post encourages a people to sign up and carpool with strangers and answers some of the questions people might have had. I intend to update this as often as I can and will be answering any questions people might have. But if you have questions about the platform its always best to reach out to Uber directly, they are quite responsive on twitter and over email.

Oh, and I do understand this might seem like a giant AD to some, I was initially intending to write this on medium.com but thought to share it on T-BHP because its given me so much help, and I hope to contribute in any-way I can (that includes finishing up my F30 buying and initial report). Also Disclaimer: I don't work for or related in any way to Uber or BMW. I've not been paid or compensated in any way for this. I'm doing this all out of my own sillyness.

You can follow me on Facebook & Twitter

[ajmat]

Moved out and going live

Thanks for sharing, This sounds interesting, let us know how it goes in the long term!

[tanwaramit]

Wow, I envy that chap who got a ride in your car.

Its amazing to see your experience. I had been thinking of similar lines of using carpool via Uber during Odd/Even rule.

I think I will give it a shot, cheaper than regular taxi and pooling will help reduce carbon footprint.

One good thing is that you got an office goer, what would happen if one gets someone like a person going to airport with family and luggage (and behold, expecting you to carry their luggage to and fro the car). Not that its bad, but not really a carpool.

As I travel to Dwarka via airport, I might encounter such requests.

Also, a question, once your trip is over, you need to swipe to end the trip where you dropped the person ? How many people can a car owner carry with him ?

[heydj]

Originally Posted by quickdraw

There is also another aspect which I got to realise once I started, Taboo. For some reason people who drive cars are drivers and always treated as lower caste in Indian society, regardless of what we say and do but majority of people in the country still participate in this system on a conscious or sub-conscious level.

Unfortunately in India we judge people by the work they do. I admire you for doing this.

Look forward to catching a ride with you in Noida. Cheers!

[akshaymahajan]

Respect.

The first thing I did after reading this was to try and sign up! But I cant register a Hyundai Santro Xing if its older than a 2012 model.

I dont know if I like this logic or not. On one side, its good in terms of reliability and probability of having a good condition car increases, but then at the same time I cannot use my super clean and reliable Santro.

Also, if someone has any insights to how UberPool allows private cars to sign up. Arent private cars not supposed to make money or something to the tune of that?

EDIT: Not sure how the age system works as for a Dzire, I can register a 2005 car as well.

[quickdraw]

Originally Posted by akshaymahajan

Also, if someone has any insights to how UberPool allows private cars to sign up. Arent private cars not supposed to make money or something to the tune of that?

EDIT: Not sure how the age system works as for a Dzire, I can register a 2005 car as well.

I think there must be some issue with the date you've entered, why don't you get in touch with them, they should be able to help you out.

Originally Posted by heydj

Unfortunately in India we judge people by the work they do. I admire you for doing this.

Look forward to catching a ride with you in Noida. Cheers!

Thank you, appreciate it. Keep following me on twitter/fb I keep putting it up when I'll be driving UberPool.

Originally Posted by tanwaramit

Also, a question, once your trip is over, you need to swipe to end the trip where you dropped the person ? How many people can a car owner carry with him ?

My apologies that I forgot to add the link to the details of Uber Pool, you can find it at this link -

I will add it to the main post as-well.

[Rajeevraj]

Thanks for the detailed update. Was planning to ask you how it went after seeing your posts in the Uber thread on your plans.

Still a little confused on the legality. As per rules,if I am not wrong, private cars cannot act as a taxi. At the same time car pooling is encouraged and sharing costs is perfectly natural.

Uber seems to be exploiting a grey area between the two. Technically it is pooling and Uber is compensating the cost. But at the same time, the driver makes a profit also.

[starter]

Would the RTO oppose this?
Should you not have a yellow board?

[tazmaan]

Congratulations and kudos for doing what your heart says and not what people think you should do!

This reminds me of my 1 year plus stint as a Taxi driver in Melbourne while studying to pay off my tuition and other needs! I could have done other jobs but driving is a passion and I enjoyed every bit of it.

I wish you good luck and I will be following this thread closely.

Note from Mod: Here's a link to Tazmaan's thread about his cab driving experience : Myself, Studies, Cabs and Caffeine

[Mortis]

While this is an interesting situation, you have unfortunately highlighted the biggest problem faced by commuters.

Originally Posted by quickdraw

I just got my account activated today and am excited to ferry people around anywhere they want to go (as long as its in Noida)

[Altocumulus]

I am eagerly waiting for this to come to Kolkata. I would be the first one to sign up. I really don't care what people have to say about this.

[anubshar]

very nice initiative. If this idea takes off then pollution levels can surely drop.The pic you posted in your earlier post, is BIC F1 circuit visible in the background?