Pathao, Bangladesh's largest digital services platform, is relaunching its car ride-sharing service from Wednesday under an innovative new model that will enable users to find rides faster and at fair prices.
In the revamped Pathao Car model, the user can request a ride at a fare suggested by the app or can name their own fare, said a press release.
The request is then dispatched to multiple drivers at once.
If the user receives multiple offers, they can pick based on the driver's counter-offer price, estimated time of arrival (ETA), vehicle model and rating, or can offer a revised fare.
Similarly, a driver can choose from among several requests, accept the request that suits them best, or suggest their own price.
In the traditional ride-sharing model, a user's ride request is dispatched to a single driver by the app and the pricing of the ride is set using a pre-established algorithm.
This results in a lower likelihood of users and drivers being matched at mutually acceptable fares, leaving many requests unserved.
In this model, drivers would be able to maximize earnings by reducing their idle time while users would be able to find a ride faster by negotiating fares, in a win-win solution for all.
“We are excited to give control back to our users and drivers. We believe that technology should be more people-centric. It's time to change the status quo,” said Fahim Ahmed, managing director and CEO of Pathao.
