Indonesia is among the first in the region to benefit from two new features being introduced by a ride-hailing app.
As reported, Jakarta commuters are among the first to experience the two new integration features of the app with public transportation options.
New Features
Available to the people of Jakarta since earlier this month, the first integration is called the Trip Planner, which is marketed as Rute in Indonesia.
The second integration, a new marketplace for buses, is being trialled and will be rolled out in cities across Southeast Asia over the coming months.
Ride-hailing apps have indicated the importance of having multimodal transportation to the future.
Trip Planner allows users in Greater Jakarta to plan journeys across multiple modes of transport, including rail, bus, and car and motorbike ride-hailing.
Partnerships with public transport providers, including Jakarta’s recently launched MRT, were made in order to integrate real-time transport data into the Trip Planner.
Commuters are able to plan their schedules since they are informed of the length of time of their journey, including their estimated departure and arrival times.
Benefits
Hopefully, this integration will help address the chronic traffic congestion happening in Southeast Asian cities, considered to be a big problem that sucks the productivity in the region.
Both of the services in the offing are aimed at convincing people to leave their personal cars and motorbikes at home by making public transport more convenient for those using it regularly.
Quality of transport varies a lot, from city to city, and from mode to mode.
Although public transportation is more affordable than using ride-hailing apps, the trade-off is that they are unreliable and may be unsafe at times.
The amount of data coursing through the platform every day is huge, which they want to use in making the both their platform and their cities more efficient.
That will be possible if government and public agencies are going to be involved.
Aside from the new MRT, the app will display live schedules from the region’s commuter rail lines, airport rail link, and a rapid bus transit system.
Add to that information regarding the fixed timetables of more than 50 public routes.
Users may pre-book a seat with bus operators and track progress with the new bus marketplace feature. Commuters will be able to skip ticket booth queues and long waits for buses that are running late.
Moreover, this feature will allow passengers to search for a recommended route for their destination, pay for their ticket, and do seat reservation beforehand and proceed only to the bus top in time for its arrival.
Data gathered will also help operators in creating efficiencies because they will have better understanding of the users’ demand for their services.