Since March,
the evening drive home from the office for Mr Mohamed Sulaiman
Osman has become less lonely.
After signing
up with a carpool matching service, the 53-year-old principal
engineer now has the company of passengers. They are often people
who work nearby and hitch a ride with him to get to Jurong West,
where he lives.
His passengers
pay him a few dollars to defray the cost, such as for petrol. But
for Mr Sulaiman, it is about meeting new people.
"We ask each
other 'how was your day?' and talk about general topics, from the
traffic to makan (food) places," said Mr Sulaiman, who has given
lifts to more than 120 people.
The carpooling
practice appears to be increasingly popular, going by the growth of
services such as Ryde and GrabHitch, which help link up drivers and
passengers.
NO COMPROMISE ON SAFETY
Trust is a
critical factor. We have a comprehensive system of ratings and
reviews so members know who they are getting into a car
with.
MR TERENCE ZOU, Ryde's founder and
chief executive.
DRIVEN BY LOWER FARES
Rising cost of
living also makes people more cost-conscious and therefore more
(are) prepared to put up with a stranger sharing the same
cab.
NATIONAL UNIVERSITY OF SINGAPORE
SOCIOLOGIST TAN ERN SER
Ryde's fares
start from $4 for a 3km ride, and vary based on the distance
travelled. GrabHitch's fares are capped at $16.
Uber and Grab
have also introduced options to allow commuters to share their
private-hire car rides with strangers heading in the same
direction, in return for a discount for the passengers.
Uber launched
UberPool in July and Grab rolled out GrabShare earlier this
month.
Uber's
Singapore general manager Warren Tseng said: "Initially, there was
certainly a bit of scepticism from the general public - whether
Singaporeans would really be open to sharing their rides with
others."
But UberPool
became a hit.
About one in
three Uber rides in Singapore is now carpooled while the global
average is lower, about one in five.
So why has
carpooling succeeded now when earlier attempts, such as the 1997
Share-A-Cab scheme, flopped?
Mr Terence
Zou, Ryde's founder and chief executive, attributes this to the
rise of the sharing economy, and a growing acceptance among
Singaporeans of cutting costs on car ownership and travel.
He said Ryde's
membership has increased fivefold in the last year, but declined to
reveal numbers.
Mr Lim Kell
Jay, head of Grab Singapore, said the number of GrabHitch users saw
a "healthy month-on-month growth between 11/2 and three times" in
the last six months though he also did not reveal figures.
Mr Moh Hon
Meng, who started ShareTransport.sg in 2012, said new laws, which
took effect in March last year, have created greater clarity on
carpooling.
Among the
rules, drivers can offer up to two rides a day, and can also accept
monetary compensation, though it should not be for profit.
Mr Moh said
websites and apps have also made it easy for drivers and passengers
to find each other.
"Passengers
can now view the driver's profile, see what car he has and the time
he drives out, with just a tap of the app," he added.
ShareTransport.sg, which has more than 330 drivers and 7,000
passengers, is one of several carpooling websites here. Others
include Carpool King and carpool.sg.
"Trust is a
critical factor. We have a comprehensive system of ratings and
reviews so members know who they are getting into a car with," said
Mr Zou.
Mr Lim said
carpooling "enables the current pool of registered vehicles in
Singapore to serve more people, without introducing more vehicles
on the road".
But not all
commuters are sold on sharing a ride all the time.
Ms Jen Pelaez,
28, a software developer, said: "Because the journey can be 10 to
30 minutes longer, I won't use UberPool when I go to the office or
when I'm in a rush.
"But during
the weekends, yes, because I can save on the fares."
Mr Tseng,
however, said Uber matches passengers so they should experience no
more than 10 to 15 minutes of additional time for their trips. But
passengers save quite a bit.
Uber has said
carpooled rides are up to 25 per cent cheaper while GrabCar said
they are up to 30 per cent less.
National
University of Singapore sociologist Tan Ern Ser said Share-A-Cab
likely did not pan out because it required commuters to be
"pro-active". Under the scheme, information panels were put up at
selected taxi stands, where commuters could indicate their
destination and seek out others heading the same way.
"Rising cost
of living also makes people more cost-conscious and therefore more
(are) prepared to put up with a stranger sharing the same cab."
But carpooling
is not always a smooth ride.
Mr Sulaiman
recounts one occasion when he could not locate a passenger.
"She said she
would be standing by the side of the road but I could not find her.
I asked her to walk to a nearby carpark and she was not very happy.
But it's a one-off incident," said Mr Sulaiman who uses the Ryde
app.