A Local App Making Travel Easy

“It is very inconvenient for me to travel to my work place since train frequency from Egmore to Thiruvallur district is very low. Also, there are no fast trains that skip smaller stations”, he said. Travelling is still a daily struggle for Eeshaan Asaikar, who is living in Chennai for past two years.“

For many like Eeshaan, it is very easy to get lost in the big cities like Chennai and Bangalore. Situation of an outsider is often like of a deer caught in the headlights with no idea of a local language.

To save time and make travelling simpler, an ex-TCS employee, Dileep Kumar and Revanth Km came up with an app called ‘iCommute’; a transit app which provides real time information to its users by using spot/check-in for buses in Chennai and Bangalore. With 5000 active users at present, iCommute, a multi modal app provides information on all the modes of transports, including buses, suburban trains and metros to its android smart phone savvy commuters. Besides, its user community discusses on the transit issues of the city.

In Conversation with the Co-Founder of the iCommute

Q1. When did iCommute start and what was the idea behind it?

Revanth Km: iCommute started a year back. Dileep Kumar is the founder of the startup. Dileep used to work in Chennai for TCS. Dileep’s colleague used to board the same bus as Dileep’s but from a stop prior to his and used to inform him about the bus’s arrival. He then used to plan his travel accordingly which made things convenient for him. But when she quitted her job, Dileep had to wait at the bus stand for long hours due to erratic bus timings. After which he came up with the idea of iCommute to provide solution for this problem.

Q2. How does icommute work?

Revanth Km: We collate information through crowd sourced techniques, transit agencies, social media and provide real time updates to our users. It features includes:

Check-in/spot: Whenever a commuter notices a bus during his commute he just updates in ‘Spot’. Commuters can also share their journey by ‘Check-in’. Live Journey can also be shared with other users. Current location of the user is automatically retrieved through ‘Location Services’ of the app. Commuters receive alerts if their tagged bus is spotted.

Nearest stops: App helps locate nearest stops and buses plying from the stop.

Report/Newsfeed: Crowd sourced reports on new routes, diversions, traffic, breakdowns etc. are being provided. Users can also discuss issues related to their commute.

Offline: Routes, timings, distance, map view, fare can be accessed without internet.

Gathering multiple names for a stop and crowd sourced route fixes.

Augmented reality: We are currently beta testing AR feature which will ease navigation.

Q3. How do you engage with your audience?

Revanth Km: We engage with our audience through social media and app’s Newsfeed. In Newsfeed people ask queries on transit issues. We have an active users group, which also gathers to discuss city transit issues and how iCommute can help solve these. Besides, issues like areas where new small buses should be introduced, integration of different modes of public transportation, traffic, reduction in frequency of MTC buses in some areas etc, are also being discussed. Our community also acts as a moderator to validate the transit data points.

Q4. What challenges does iCommute face?

Revanth Km: Government is not making GPS feed public. GPS feed should be open to all the companies who build transit solutions.

Q5. What all issues do you think Chennai have in terms of transportation and how does iCommute is helping in solving them?

Revanth Km: Lack of real time GPS feed, less MTC services in some areas, lack of small buses in all areas, integration of different modes of transportation, traffic, multi modal journey etc. are few of the problems that are related to travel in Chennai.

iCommute solves the real time bus location issue through check-in/spot option in the app. We conduct surveys on various issues and share the information with MTC authorities. We provide real time updates on traffic, new routes, bus breakdowns so that the user can plan his commute better. We help users to navigate from place A to B using the app.

Q6. What has been the response of the MTC authorities?

Revanth Km: They are happy that we are working in this domain which would bring more people to public transportation. From our experience, we have understood that we need to provide more specific information to them to make them act faster. So we will start conducting some surveys on public transportation. We will be conducting a survey ( https://goo.gl/forms/QNTU2rxxTGc4rvX02. ) to find the need of small bus services in different localities. The results will be shared with the media and the MTC officials. This will be helpful for MTC officials to understand where people need the small bus services.

Q7. How safe is your App in terms of privacy when commuters post their check in location?

Revanth Km: It’s 100% safe because we are not showing the identity of the user. When a commuter checks in, it just shows the MTC bus number in the app.

Q8. iCommute caters its services in Chennai and Bangalore where common language is Tamil and Kannada respectively. Aren’t you missing out on the major chunk of population as the app is in English?

Revanth Km: Integrating the local languages is also in the pipeline.

Q9. Does iCommute plan to extend its reach to Apple and Windows users?          

Revanth Km: Yes, within 6-months, the app will be available across all smart phones.

Q 10. How safe is your App in terms of privacy when commuters post their check in location?

Revanth Km: Its 100% safe because we are not showing the identity of the user. When a commuter check-in, it just shows the MTC bus number in the app.

Image courtesy: iCommute

Karrthik Ramjee, Chennai based Reflexologist, who is the top user of the app, shares his experience.