In the bustling urban landscape of Pakistan, where transportation challenges often impede daily life, BusCaro has emerged as a beacon of change. This Pakistan-based company is revolutionizing the way people commute, with a special emphasis on providing safer transportation options, particularly for women. In a society where safety concerns have been a significant barrier to mobility, BusCaro’s innovative approach is making waves and reshaping the transportation narrative.
It ensures rider safety with features like driver background checks, vehicle inspections and tracking. BusCaro also has an emergency response team and a 24/7 customer support team, and a live-tracking feature that lets riders share their locations with friends and family. Another feature, created specifically for women, lets them used a masked name instead of their real name to show to their drivers. The startup is currently working on building a panic/SOS button in the app that will connected passengers directly with BusCaro and its safety partner, security agency Mohafiz.
Since its launch in 2022, BusCaro has expanded operations into Karachi, Lahore and Islamabad and now has over 300 vehicles, owned by private operators, and does over 20,000 bookings per day. The startup says it is on track to become profitable by early 2024 and recently hit $2.5 million in revenue.
Community Engagement and Awareness:
BusCaro actively engages with local communities to raise awareness about the importance of safe transportation and to address any reservations or cultural nuances. By fostering open dialogues and understanding the specific needs of different communities, BusCaro aims to create an inclusive transportation model that serves the diverse population of Pakistan.
Future Expansion and Impact:
As BusCaro continues to make strides in providing safer transportation options, especially for women, the company’s impact is poised to expand. The success of its women-only services and the integration of technology for safety are likely to set benchmarks for the broader transportation industry, encouraging other players to adopt similar measures.
She adds that BusCaro’s advantages include aggregating demand, while stabilizing and optimizing for supply payout, which helps transporters’ cash flows. It is also able to offer customers competitive prices because it uses buses and minivans, which result in lower costs per fixed seat and saves on fuel.
Many commuters in Pakistan spend about 20% to 50% of their income on commute and transport, with women spending more as they look for safer options. BusCaro’s target customers are people who earn less or who can’t afford to spend that much of their monthly income on transportation.
Another audience for BusCaro are office workers who are tired of driving their own vehicles to work because of rising fuel prices and lack of parking spaces. Other users include students, especially girls, whose parents want to them to use a safe commuting option.
“With BusCaro, they feel safe because of the measures we have in place including back checking our captains, vehicle inspections and track your ride feature in our application, which enables both the user and anyone they wish to share it with to track the ride,” says Shazhad.
BusCaro founder Maha Shahzad
BusCaro competes against several categories of ride-hailing platforms and public transportation. Shazhad says Careem is expensive even for its existing user base, but BusCaro is a third of the cost. There are other ride-hailing companies in Pakistan like In-Driver which are slightly cheaper and reliable, but they don’t have security measures, which BusCaro does.
BusCaro is also up against public transport, but Shazhad describes that as “insufficient” and “extremely unsafe.” She adds that most riders use it because of affordability constraints and they would be willing to find other alternatives if it was available to them. Other public transport options include government-funded buses in Karachi, but Shazhad says there are not enough vehicles to fill demand, and most cover limited routes.
Finally, BusCaro is up against private players, but they don’t have the same tools as BusCaro to aggregate demand and optimize supply playouts.
Shazhad said BusCaro is currently “laser focused on growing our current business with adding more accounts to our portfolio now.” It plans to expand its B2B2C partnerships and add more B2C partnerships. BusCaro also plans to work with the public sector on things like transportation subsidies, carbon emissions reduction, SaaS and government transportation contracts. BusCaro is currently looking at adding electronic vehicles for the next year, to lower its costs as fuel prices increase.
Source : https://techcrunch.com/2023/11/22/pakistan-based-buscaro-is-providing-safer-transportation-options-especially-for-women/
