Chalo App: Know all about the new generation mobility technology App

Did you heard of the Chalo App before? Probably not. Would you then believe that Chalo has 20,000 city buses on its platform across 25 cities, staffs 800+ people, issues 70 lakh tickets a day and reports a GMV of $250 million? If that left you surprised, Chalo App has clearly done a great job of building in stealth mode. Chalo is solving a real-world problem that affects 200 million Indians everyday and on the way, creating India’s largest mobility company.

How Large Is The Problem?

Transport is the 2nd spend category for an average Indian household accounting for 20% of all expenses; only food is more. Bus tickets account for 60% of $60 billion annually of this expenditure i.e. 10x of taxis. However, each bus commuter spends the equivalent of 8 days a year waiting for a bus and bus operators have losses running into hundreds of millions of dollars annually.

What is Chalo?

Chalo is a free Mobile App that revolutionises public transport and helps people plan their daily commute. The App benefits lots of bus travellers by reducing their commuting time by as much as 40 minutes each day and helping them save money by finding the cheapest trip options to their destination. The Chalo App empowers commuters to-

• Know the live arrival time of their bus, so they can leave for  theti bus stop/stand accordingly.
• Track the live GPS position of their bus on a map.
• Find the cheapest and fastest trip options, including all the bus route options to their destination.
• Plan their trip door-to-dorr using a multi-model trip planner.
• Locate bus stop closest to them.

What Does Chalo Solve?

Chalo aims to make travel better for everyone. Today they do so by improving the experience of taking city buses - 30 minutes less waiting, 50% lower ticket transaction cost. This kick starts a virtuous circle, where happier commuters means more rides which in turn means more revenue for our bus operator partners, which means better services for commuters. Their most important Key Perfirmance Indicators (KPI) is the revenue uplift achieved – they are currently tracking at 20% uplift, enabling some operators to be profitable for maybe the first time in this business.

How They Do It?

Chalo works in partnership with bus operators to deploy its proprietary technology stack. By deploying an end-to-end solution from the hardware on the bus to the software on the cloud and mobile application for the commuter Chalo is able to power a unique experience. Over time Chalo has understood the value of expanding our scope of work as well as  leveraging the power of the data generated by its platform to help operators with operations such as route optimization, crew management and revenue maximization. Their operations are wise, deep and intensive – buses run 24/7 and that means so do they; Chalo processes 75 million unique data points daily; they count among their staff, experienced software developers, operations and supply chain experts, transit specialists and also GPS technicians and bus conductors. We told you it was complicated!

What’s In Store for 2020?

Chalo loves buses and believe that they run better on technology, than fuel. Chalo is going to a lot more of what it currently do, including launching their services in some of India’s largest cities. But they are also on the verge of some new initiatives to get to their aim – as you are reading this, they are launching a Chalo transit card for seamless multi-modal payments and working with cities to add more buses, especially electric buses to cities. By March 2020, they aim to be on 35,000 buses and facilitate 1 billion annual transactions.

Cities Where Chalo Service Availabe?

Chalo service is currently available in 16  cities of India. Names of the cities are; Agra, Bhopal, Guwahati, Indore, Jabalpur, Jaipur, Kanpur, Kochi, Kolkata, Lucknow, Mangaluru, Mathura, Meerut, Patna, Prayagraj, and Ujjain.

Still More?

The benefits of providing a great mobility solution goes beyond time and money. A bus can take 30 cars of the road, reduce tonnes of emissions, improve safety, increase household savings and lead to a significant improvement in quality of life. The opportunity to build a company comes rarely, the opportunity to build a company that can so dramatically impact the lives of millions, comes once in several lifetimes. To know more about the Chalo, please visit their official website.