Over-engineering Is A Real Thing!
Here’s the thing about geeks, they would do something at times just because they can do it. And it is not always a bad idea if you can do cool stuff like delivering pizza on command line! But, we’re not talking about the good-unnecessary things here. We’re talking about the dark underbelly of over-engineering - ZipGo!
The service lets you book a seat in an air-conditioned mini-bus for daily commute in Bangalore, on-demand. Sounds good. I’ve taken their service and it is just great - no hassles, no rush, you can track your ride, there is no annoying music playing, just you and your favorite book while you zip through the infamous traffic of the city.
But, let’s see what they are competing with - EVERY OTHER TRANSPORT MECHANISM ON THE ROAD! So, while I have to book a seat on a particular bus and wait for it (or worse, miss it because I reached a few seconds late), I can see a million government buses, other private operators, and other ZipGo buses go past me! The startup has, well, just started so you can imagine that they are not running full capacity; on most days when I’ve taken their service I have been the only commuter for most parts of the journey.
Let me propose a twist to the ZipGo service to tell you what I mean -> Presenting HipGo - Commute ‘really’ smarter!
Here’s what HipGo provides:
We have air-conditioned mini-buses on the roads for you - no noise from outside or inside, just comfort.
You have an option of reserving a seat in advance - ticket charges would be automatically deducted from your HipGo wallet; we even give you discounts if you do that! [so far this is all ZipGo]
You can track all buses in a particular route that are on the go and board anyone of them!
Payment is made from the HipGo wallet - just scan the QR code on the back of your seat and the driver would know that the payment went through fine.
The seat availability information on a particular bus is displayed on the windshield in a corner - strictly one person per seat (in a place as populated as India, this is a value add comfort service!)
Bring in a few IoT niceness to the seats and you get to charge not just per-ride but per-kilometer of travel.