[hserus]

Originally Posted by madhavgpai

A friend has started offering rides and has some points on his account. He intends to only use these points on the same app and not redeem it to Paytm or any other cash/fuel wallets. He has never redeemed any points. He is in the clear. right?

As long as an RTO or Cop doing a sting operation doesn't book his car for a bangalore to chennai ride.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by hserus

As long as an RTO or Cop doing a sting operation doesn't book his car for a bangalore to chennai ride.

Quickride has a fail-safe option for this; you need to choose an option by which only 'verified' users can request a ride with you.

How they 'verify' users is by shooting an e-mail to the quickride user's company mail ID during the initial registration process, where they would confirm their identity.

Now, if a desi IT employee's help is roped in by a RTO or cop in order to catch Quickride users, that's something.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by locusjag

Quickride has a fail-safe option for this; you need to choose an option by which only 'verified' users can request a ride with you.

How they 'verify' users is by shooting an e-mail to the quickride user's company mail ID during the initial registration process, where they would confirm their identity.

Now, if a desi IT employee's help is roped in by a RTO or cop in order to catch Quickride users, that's something.

How do you know if some fellow wearing a shirt and trousers rather than a khaki uniform in a passport photo is a cop? Not all of them wear Veerappan style huge moustaches these days, many in the 80s and 90s used to.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by hserus

As long as an RTO or Cop doing a sting operation doesn't book his car for a bangalore to chennai ride.

Curious to know the implication of this situation:

I am travelling from Bangalore to Chennai. I post a ride on Quickride and an RTO officer offers to join. I meet him at the pickup point, he sits in my car and we head to Chennai. I drop him. No cash exchange takes place. No receipt given from my side or officially on my behalf about anything even close to a ride. If he tries to confront me in the journey, I can always tell him to get out, after all if not with my consent he is a trespasser into my car. On what grounds can he charge me? Only on the basis that I have signed up on an app? Anyone can sign up with my details and offer a ride.

Most of my earlier rides on QR have been extremely discreet, except for a phone call before pickup. There is not much communication apart from a few people only who discuss about general affairs. We dont negotiate on a price for the journey, neither ask them if they have paid money nothing. In that case, it is baseless to catch someone on the basis of an app and charge them.

What happened in case of BlaBlaCar is different. The person was caught red handed because he accepted money either directly or through some means of E Transfer. In case of QuickRide, the money is paid to Quickride.

What I feel is that this is a proper loophole which can be turned towards either side based on how smart each party is. In the case of Quickride, there is no solid evidence to prove either guilty/not guilty, which is the same reason the Traffic police are ok with this. A smart person can turn the situation completely against the RTO When there is no direct money exchange at hand.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Curious to know the implication of this situation:

I am travelling from Bangalore to Chennai. I post a ride on Quickride and an RTO officer offers to join..

If any payment was made in advance via the app he has a record of that. So please don't think you are immune because he doesn't give you rupee notes or a paytm transfer with one hand and holds out another to pull your RC and DL.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by hserus

If any payment was made in advance via the app he has a record of that. So please don't think you are immune because he doesn't give you rupee notes or a paytm transfer with one hand and holds out another to pull your RC and DL.

Payment is made to the App, not to me. Also, the payment is not made for a ride. He buys points and redeems X points for a ride. Now? All I am asking is to show record of payment to me. If I redeem points to a fuel card, it is still in the name of Quickride, not mine. Paytm accounts it as cashback, not transfer or so. Hence, like I mentioned earlier, there is a nice loophole which is being exploited.

[hserus]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Payment is made to the App, not to me. Also, the payment is not made for a ride. He buys points and redeems X points for a ride. Now?

The app being an intermediary and redeeming your rupees for some fiat currency in which it pays you makes no difference. Shorn of all those intermediate steps .. you pay, you book a ride, the driver is paid.

Whether they give you points or "churan label" fake money sold in toy shops doesn't matter. The language used is "a motor vehicle which carries a passenger or passengers for hire or reward".

If the app rewards you with points it still doesn't matter. You are in for it and you can of course argue to the contrary before a magistrate in challenging the seizure of your vehicle, possible cancellation of your license etc.

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by hserus

The language used is "a motor vehicle which carries a passenger or passengers for hire or reward".

This is the issue. They can in no way prove it by showing a random app on a phone and tell that the money has reached me. That is the same reason the traffic police or RTO in Bangalore are keeping quiet about QuickRide. Else this would have been an easy target and IIRC there were thousands of registered users. I stopped using QR after switching to train as commute and now not in Bangalore for a good deal of time.

[locusjag]

Originally Posted by hserus

How do you know if some fellow wearing a shirt and trousers rather than a khaki uniform in a passport photo is a cop? Not all of them wear Veerappan style huge moustaches these days, many in the 80s and 90s used to.

No sir, I think you misunderstood what I was saying.

What I'm saying is - when I signed up with Quickride, I had am option to verify myself. I chose it, by providing my official email ID. So Quickride sent me a verification mail to my authentic work mail ID ("xxx.yyy@cognizant.com"). I clicked that link, so Quickride (and other app users) know that I am a Cognizant employee. So I stand 'verified', with a green mark along my profile pic in the app.

What are the chances that a verified app user working in a white collar firm would have been recruited by an RTO or a cop to catch the Quickride app users? If you were a ride-giver, you would be that much more safe by only giving rides to verified users.

This is what I was trying to say. That if any Quickride user wants to flummox potential RTOs and cops on the prowl - you know that they are going to register as unverified app users. Why even offer rides to unverified users?

[madhavgpai]

Quick ride App pushed this tweet into my notification.


Amitabh Kant
@amitabhk87

Spreading Carpool Culture:Innovative Startup @QuickRidein is transforming the way employees daily commute to office. It connects commuters on same route on real time basis. In Bengaluru it does carpooling for IT companies & has done 5.8 lakh + users with 4.6 mln + shared rides.

6:48 PM · Oct 30, 2018

The numbers are interesting.

[RSUDARSANAN]

Originally Posted by audioholic

Curious to know the implication of this situation:

I am travelling from Bangalore to Chennai. I post a ride on Quickride and an RTO officer offers to join. I meet him at the pickup point, he sits in my car and we head to Chennai. I drop him.

Once the RTO officer sits in your car, the car is as good as seized and you head to his office (forget Chennai) for completion of penal procedures

[audioholic]

Originally Posted by RSUDARSANAN

Once the RTO officer sits in your car, the car is as good as seized and you head to his office (forget Chennai) for completion of penal procedures

Yes thats indeed how it will happen. But he has to prove it though. Or at least that's how it should technically go.

[abhi182]

Without getting into the legality of pooling apps (not Uber/Ola), I have a more fundamental question.
If I were a cab driver doing it for a living, I would accept random strangers getting in my car as an occupational hazard
If however I am carpooling incidentally (reduce my carbon footprint / reduce commute bills) , how do I justify the inherent risks that come with it?

Letting out a house on say airbnb is one thing because the max risk you take is financial damage (limited) to an asset so the reward outweighs the risk
Sharing a confined personal space with strangers, that too for limited reward (a few hundred saved) but extremely elevated risk (physical harm to self maybe?) is something I am unable to comprehend.

Would be very interested in hearing the POV of someone who does use these apps both as a consumer and a provider..

Sorry if this is OT - maybe I am too old to understand this but in a recent conversation with my BIL (who was extolling the virtues of blabla and was contemplating listing his drive), I advised him strongly against it.. although I wonder if there is something I am missing here?

[Altocumulus]

Originally Posted by abhi182

Without getting into the legality of pooling apps (not Uber/Ola), I have a more fundamental question.
If I were a cab driver doing it for a living, I would accept random strangers getting in my car as an occupational hazard
If however I am carpooling incidentally (reduce my carbon footprint / reduce commute bills) , how do I justify the inherent risks that come with it?

Letting out a house on say airbnb is one thing because the max risk you take is financial damage (limited) to an asset so the reward outweighs the risk
Sharing a confined personal space with strangers, that too for limited reward (a few hundred saved) but extremely elevated risk (physical harm to self maybe?) is something I am unable to comprehend.

Would be very interested in hearing the POV of someone who does use these apps both as a consumer and a provider..

Sorry if this is OT - maybe I am too old to understand this but in a recent conversation with my BIL (who was extolling the virtues of blabla and was contemplating listing his drive), I advised him strongly against it.. although I wonder if there is something I am missing here?

Why are you discounting Uber/Ola ? With Ola and Uber share rides you don't even know the name of the person whom you are sitting next nor where he intends to go.

Whereas ride sharing apps like Quick Ride verifies your official mailing address (which is verified and personal emails not allowed), has your name and organization, and also a history of your past rides, like if you are a regular, what drivers have rated, how many rides you have taken in the past as passenger, etc. It's upto the driver if he wants to accept or invite you to his car. I think it's safer than a shared cab ride. Also as a passenger I believe, not confirmed since I haven't been a passenger, you would see from beforehand who will be in the car with you and also similar stats of the driver.

Just today a friend of mine shared his Stats who offers rides in his Duster in Bangalore. 520 Rides Shared, 10562km Distance Shared, 205 New Friends Made, 44489 INR Amount Saved and 2456 KG of CO2 reduced.

[shankar.balan]

Private car insurance policies clearly state that the insurance is invalid if one indulges in racing, speed trials, carrying goods other than personal effects and most importantly if one plies the car for hire with passengers. On a somber note, in case something bad happens then the car, the driver and the passengers if any, cannot even take recourse to the law in terms of any insurance claims that they may need to do.
This is a potentially dangerous thing, though it is a commendable thought, to create this app led car pooling green initiative!