Carpooling – also known as ride-sharing, car-sharing and lift-sharing – is a World War II practice from the United States that has become widely popular across the globe.
While carpooling has been around for a while, the number of websites and mobile apps offering ways to search for and book ride-sharing options have risen in the past couple of years.
The latest in the market is the TwoGo app by SAP. Available as an app as well as on a website, it’s an interesting consumer-focused move from an otherwise enterprise-centric corporation.
Learn how TwoGo works here
Several corporations register with carpool services for the benefit of their employees. At present, there are dozens of carpooling apps on Android and iOS.
Why Carpooling?
- A Green Practice
Carpooling is highly fuel-efficient – fuel-wise, 85 million gallons are saved yearly by carpooling – and co-workers sharing a ride eliminates the need of a parking space for every employee, thus leading to a more efficient utilization of land.
This also directly translates to a lesser carbon footprint for the organization, promoting growing through sustainable practices.
- Conducive to Employee Productivity
While carpooling has been known to be fuel and cost-efficient, it also provides opportunities for increasing employee productivity through better internal communication.
Co-workers who carpool together get that much more time to get acquainted with each other. This communication outside of the workplace can lead to them being more receptive to each other, which can result in a better exchange of ideas while working as a team.
Read here why carpooling is good for the environment
With a huge existing customer base of corporates who can register to the app, SAP’s foray into the consumer-centric app market looks like a beneficial move for the company.
Click here to read about an interesting carpool campaign from Beijing
This post is a part of our People’s Insights brief for January-February 2015 - Inspiring Innovations