The union also noted that its association with Namma Yatri started in 2022, right from its ideation, pilot phase testing, launching and building vital early momentum through driver onboarding and customer acquisition. “With literally zero market spend, more than 20,000 drivers and 1,50,000 customers downloaded the app within three months of its launch due to the selfless community support.”
The pilot project was started at Jayanagar and the RV Road Metro Station. The aim of the ARDU is to get around 1,000 drivers for the Metro Mitra, but so far only 169 drivers have registered. The initial months of the pilot have been very slow, with only 10 rides per day.
The prepaid auto kiosks were set up at four metro stations in a bid to make last-mile connectivity smoother and affordable for commuters. Since January, across all the kiosks located under the 11 traffic police stations, a good number of commuters have used prepaid autos.
The initiative has been taken up by the Auto Rickshaw Drivers Union (ARDU), which was also involved in building Namma Yatri. The application allows metro passengers to book an auto ride along with the purchase of a metro ticket. This can be done either through the BMRCL’s application or Metro’s WhatsApp chatbot feature. The ONDC (Open Network for Digital Commerce) model is being used to run the application, which is set to go for trials beginning Monday.