Beat the Fuel price hike by Online Carpooling
The recent Petrol/Diesel price hike is hitting hard on Indian commuters, India’s first carpooling website has become a big hit with them. Indimoto.com which was launched this April is helping hundeds of commuters in forming carpools across the country. Most of the Ads on are being posted by commuters from high traffic cities such as Delhi, Mumbai, Chennai, Kolkata and banglore. The Carpools are indeed a good alternative to private transport. By forming capools commuters can share a vehicle and travel together, thereby saving fuel and vehicle maintanance costs. A car owner who drove alone to work can share his/her car with one - three people travelling on the same route and easily resuce the fuel expense by 50-75% with everyone sharing the fuel costs.
On Indiamoto commuters can post their own carpool ads in the carpool section or search for the ads listed according to city, area abd pin code thereby getting sharp and accurate results for free 
.There is also a privacy option where users can hide their personal information and manage responses to their carpool ads via the online mailbox itself.
Carpools also contribute greatly to the environmental preservation since lesser vehicle on the road means less air pollution and traffic congestion.
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Guess what ? Its not the only one . Jyoti Kalra from Mumbai Environmental Social Organization (www.mesn.org, a registered NGO) highlighted me of their new intiative called KOOLPOOL, an organized and secure Car-pooling via SMS, is an attempt at facilitating car-pooling in Mumbai and other large metro cities of the country.
Our efforts have been appreciated by many key people, including PCRA and Ministry of Urban Development, and large number of corporates are keen to be a part of this social initiative. Informal car-pooling must be taking place even now. But our sms based system
allows all the members to share the database and hence one doesn’t have to restrict oneself only to your neighbors or office colleagues. It is an ambitious concept but it can certainly work as the oil prices and congestion on urban roads are increasing at an alarming rate.
June 8th, 2006 at 3:43 pm
“Carpools also contribute greatly to the environmental preservation since lesser vehicle on the road means less air pollution and traffic congestion.”
Very nice. However, I just wish that India would invest more on alternative energy sources.
June 9th, 2006 at 6:37 pm
Carpools are certainly a step in the right direction. Actually it had existed since long, but this is the first time I came across an online option for the same. By the way, there is a far greater number of commuters who use bike for their daily travelling. I think we can explore the concept of ‘bikepooling’ too, considering the popularity of two wheelers in India. Razib is right in saying that we should consider ‘Alternate Sources of Energy’, as not only our country rich in them, but we desperately need it too !
June 18th, 2006 at 8:52 am
looking for carpool options from decent people from South Delhi to Guraon and back with office timings of 0900 Hrs to 1830/1900 Hrs. Advertiser having own Accent Car
Please contact at Mobile 9811763999 or 0124-4006790.
July 14th, 2006 at 9:18 am
Hi Everyone!
Thanks Sreejith for writing a feature on Indimoto.com in your blog. We are glad that you have like the concept and also glad to see the favorable comment on this post from your reader. I would like to reinstate that we are very committed to the carpool movement and shall be promoting it in a big way via Indimoto.com. We have in just 3 months helped make over 300 carpools across India’s major cities. Since this is a free service its majorly word of mouth publicity which can grow peoples awareness about carpooling and its many benefits.
Thanks & Regards
Anil
Indimoto.com
July 23rd, 2006 at 11:59 pm
Thanx for the info. Indeed carpool is the only way to commute smartly. I visited both the sites and registered with them. Waiting for the replies now. Though both the sites offer carpol service but Koolpool really is a novel and unique concept. I found it really interesting and hope that they launch soon.
July 24th, 2006 at 10:36 am
Great news!! I was looking out for someone to pool with. A part of my salary goes in filling fuel in car only. Both the sites offer great services.. Kudos to them!! And as Aura said in the comment above.. Would really like to meet the person or persons who have invented Koolpool..great concept!!
July 27th, 2006 at 11:39 am
Hi,
Its great to see this enthusiasm about carpools picking up in the country. I have been carpooling since march and incidently found my carpool buddy through indimoto.com. My take on these two site indimoto and koolpool, well indimoto is a whole lot flexible giving us the opportunity to pool with anyone we feel like across India and its FREE. Koolpool is a good concept but it will be interesting to see how they get out of Mumbai to cover all India with this SMS model. And since its a paid tool i dont think many people would use it. All in all its too complicated. Anyways its the thought that counts.
Rgds
Gautan
August 1st, 2006 at 3:15 pm
Hey Friends,
Thanks for your valuable comments.
Gautam.. I went through the Indimoto website.
Indeed they have made a good effort. And its nice to see that they have fans like you
But I would like to inform all that Koolpool is not an incidental activity. MESN is an NGO and is totally focused on solving transportation problems of Mumbai. Koolpool is not a commercial venture. It is a social initiative taken by few people who share the passion of doing something for the city. We already are being encouraged to start it in Delhi, Banglore and Pune. But we prefer to make it successful in one city first and then move on to others.
Lot of thought is there behind this project. It gives real time database of the members traveling on your route at the same time. We are also making an effort to encourage ride givers to leave their cars behind by offering free 10 rides for every 20 rides they give. This would directly help in solving our objective i.e. to reduce number of vehicles on road.
Difference between paid and free is that we take responsibility of our members while other sites don’t. The charges are added for security purposes also. Koolpool works on prepaid basis, which is fair for both ride givers and ride seekers and saves one the headache and embarrassment of negotiation.
And at the end of the day, life is not all about money. It’s also about the thought that you are doing something for your nation and for your city… as you said “it is the thought that counts†J
Cheers!!
Jyoti Kalra
Project Coordinator
Koolpool
9320905547
March 4th, 2007 at 12:48 pm
its been a great approach towards this type of implementation.But i dont think it will be in get in its full raise .