CarMate
Objective:
The main goal of the projectisto developaproductwhichhelpsemployeesworking inthe same
companyto carpool.
Market Analysis:
Studying on the market and other carpooling applications, the consumers were facing certain
problems andthere wereshortcomingswithalreadyexistingcarpool applications.The followingwerethe
findings from the market.
Safetywasa major concernfor the consumerswhocarpool.Especiallyladieswho works
late in office are hesitant to carpool because of the partners in carpool crowd are of
mixed gender. They are looking for carpool which will have only lady partners.
The employees don’t know the number of available pooling cars for them to decide
whether to come by their own car or carpool as a rider.
The waiting time for the partners along the ride, makes both car owners and riders
uneasy because they are wasting their valuable time.
The change in route of the rides is another concern, i. e when the rider comes to office
inone car, anddue to emergency, anindividual wantstogotodifferentplace orthe shift
is extended and the rider wants to travel at a different time.
The people were not aware of the amount they saved by carpooling because no
application provided a dashboard to see their savings.
Reviewandrating of both car ownersand ridersare not available,soit was difficultfor
the consumers to choose the ride partners or car owners.
Scope:
The scope is to buildaproduct whichhandles the above shortcomings.
Idea of the Product:
Basedon the above marketanalysis,Iassume the consumerislookingforcarpool whichis safer,
especiallythe female employees.Andthere isa needfor a car poolingproductwhichofferslesswaiting
time for the partnersand comfort in choosinga differentroute andtime due to emergencyorchange in
shifttimings.The carpoolingusersare inneedfora more detailedviewof the amounttheyare savingby
pooling.
In order to solve the market need, the product should be designed like,
The product should have a genderfilter to choose on the car owners and ride partners.
The ridersand car ownerswill be ratedandreviewedbyanyuserwhotravelswiththem,
to arrive at a consolidated score for each individual. The user can choose the rider/car
owner based on their rating.
The rider will be rated and reviewed based on the punctuality and social
behavior.
While the car owner will be rated and reviewed on driving, punctuality and
car conditions.
The product shouldfeature adashboardwhich showsthe availabilityof the cars pooling
and the seats available for the selected travel path of the user. This makes the user to
decide whether to travel as ride partner or car owner.
The product should get info on the average amount spent on travelling by own and
compare that with the amount saved by carpooling in the dashboard.
Pricing:
The productis goingto workon Request-Acceptance basis i.e.,the rideror car ownerswill place
a requestwhichgoes ina commonpool for the travelerstochoose.The ride partner can requestanycar
owner for a pick-up from his place, the request can be approved or rejected by the car owner.
As the product works on Request-Acceptance basis, Demand based pricing strategy is decided on the
pricing methodology.The rider and car owners will be priceddifferently based on the km travelled. i.e.,
the car owner pays say Rs. 1 / KM, whereas the ride partner will pay Rs. 1.2 /KM.
The average amount is calculated based on the travel KM and suggested to user by the product
automatically. The User can further increase or decrease the price based on the demand of rides.
For example:A riderwant to travel to office andthere is verylessavailabilityof seatsinthe route,if the
average price is increased by the user, then the rider has a greater probability of acceptance by a car
owner.
Core Components:
The integral part of the product are the users,whichiscategorizedintotwoas
The Car Owner.
The Rider.
User Cases:
All the Use casesof the productsinvolveseitherthe car ownerorthe rider.
List of User Cases:
1. Asa rider/carownerthe person shouldchoose pickup/boardingpointsalongthe route of
travel.
2. As a car owner the person should be able to accept or reject the riders request.
3. As a lady rider/car owner the person should have filter to search only lady partners.
4. As a rider/carownerthe personmustbe able toincrease or decrease the price of the ride
to up to the demand.
5. The rider should receive a text notification to inform on the pick-up time.
6. The rider should be able to share the ride details to their contacts for safety.
7. The car owner should be able to call/message the ride partners for communication.
8. The app should have a SOS functionality for emergency calling.
9. The rider should be able to pay cash through payment portals like paytm / tez for easy
settlement.
10. The car owner should be forced to rate and review the ride partners of the ride on
punctuality and behavior for consolidated rating for the rider.
11. The rider should be forced to rate the car owner on punctuality, driving and car overall
rating for consolidated rating of car owner.
12. The car owner/rider should be verified by the company he works and by government id
proof.
13. The car owner/rider should be shown the amount saved after each pool ride.
14. The appshouldhave the dashboardwhichshowsdetailedreportonsavedamountovera
period.
15. The car ownershouldbe shownthe availabilityof the seatsin carpool before he submits
the pool request.
User Flow with Wireframes:
The below are the ways the core components interact with the product. The interaction of car
owner and rider is explained in detail for each process.
Step1: Thispage will be thelandingpageforthe product.The userneedstosign-upgivingrequireddetails
to use the product. The alreadyregistereduserscan loginto the application.Thiswill be a one-time set-
up process.
Step 2: The app provides optionto login withFacebookcredentials and fetch requirement detailsfrom
them. The other option is by signing up by mail id.
Step 3: The user enters the email and password for the login to the product.
Step 4: When the user goes to next step, the system requestfor certain detailslike Names, Gender and
Company. The usermustalsoneedtoenterthe employee idwhichwillbe verifiedfromthecompanyside.
This is done to verify the identity of the user with the company.
Step 5: Once the user signs-up, the app asks for mobile no and ask the user to verify it.
Step 6: This will be default landing page of the app for all logged in users.The dashboard will show the
total amount that was saved during the selected period. The dashboard will be kind of interactive with
charts,andtable values. Additionally, the dashboardwill showthe noof available seatsinthe carspooling
ina selectedroute onthe currenttime.Thiswill make usertodecide whethertotake the car to office or
carpool.
The ‘Offer a ride’ button is for the car owner who wishes for carpooling his own car to office.
The ’Search for ride’ is for riders who want to pool as partner in carpool.
Step 7: When a user chooses ‘Search for ride’ button it redirects to this page. The user enters the Start
and destination along with the boarding points. The boarding points is matched withpick points of the
car owner and the cars that are travelling through those points are listed below.
The rider can choose any car owners in which they want to travel. The rider clicks on the user from the
listand see the ratingsand reviewof the selectedcarowner.The average price for the ride basedonthe
travel distance is setasdefault,butthe usercanincrease ordecreasetheprice andrequestthecarowner.
When the car owner accepts the user request, ride seat in the car is confirmed and user will be notified
via text message.
Step 8: The user must enter the car details like make, model and registration no of the car. This
information is got during registration phase of the app and stored for every ride the car owner offers.
Step 9: The car owner gives the start and destination of the travel and choosesthe pick-up pointsfrom
where the owner can pick the ride partners and submit the offer which so to the searching pool.
Whenthe requestcomesfromriders,the carownerscansee the rider’sratingsandreviewandcandecide
whether to or not to accept the request.
Step 10: Whenthe riderboards the car the drive route is shownon the map and the ridercan track the
path of the travel. The rider can also share the ride details to the different contacts in rider phone.
The SOSfunctionalityisbuiltinthe appand it callsnational emergencynumberwhenpressed.Thisisfor
the emergency situation when some mishap happens during the travel.
Step 11: When the rider completes the ride, the user is forced to rate the car owner on punctuality,
behavior and car conditions. All the ratings will be considered to arrive at a consolidated rating score.
When rating is done the rider can pay for the ride through payment portals like Paytm or Tez.
Step 12: Whenthe car ownerreceivesthe moneythroughpaymentportals,the userisforcedtorate the
ride partner on punctuality and behavior. All the ratings are considered to arrive a consolidated rating
score for the rider.