Opinion Deals on wheels

Now,an employee-driven dynamic carpooling initiative is about to be launched by the Bangalore-headquartered technology firm,Wipro. The idea appears to be born as much out of Wipro employees’ commuting frustrations as out of the loftier goal of trying to make a difference.

Of course,the employee effort ties in very nicely into the philosophy of Wipro chairman Azim Premji,corporate India’s own Mr. Green. Premji prefers to trek the wilderness in his spare time,walks to work (though it must be said that he lives right next door to the huge Wipro headquarters in Bangalore’s Sarjapur Road and has a conveniently-built private entrance),and will not serve guests bottled water.

So,it is quite befitting that Wipro add yet another advance in traffic management in a city where buses are tracked by GPS,police use Blackberry handsets to book offenders,lane discipline is enforced by surveillance cameras and traffic lights are controlled by a remote,automated system. Wipro’s new dynamic carpooling scheme,called eShareRide,is an advance on the earlier,more conventional carpooling system. “As a tech company,we felt compelled to use technology to come up with something sophisticated and active,” says Ram Ramakrishnan,Wipro’s vice president for facilities management.

The new system has gone through a pilot phase and will launch next month. In its new avatar,the system works like this: car owners (the system calls them champions) and riders companywide in Bangalore register on the system. Neither is bound by geography,schedule or route. When the rider decides to travel,he queries the system,providing location,destination and time. The pick-up points are well-known city landmarks.

The system matches his request with car owners who are willing to offer a ride at that particular time,calibrates the location,route and distance,and matches it with the most suitable one. Both parties are intimated ahead of the ride,by a text message or through a simple application downloadable on any smart phone. Employees show their company IDs at the pick-up location.

The pilot,that involved a 100 employees,demonstrated that the dynamic carpooling system works seamlessly even when employees look for a ride at an odd hour,or even between the various Wipro offices. “This will not be a static community,” says Sachin Mulay,head of Eco-Energy Marketing and Brand Communications at Wipro.

The system frees users from a rigorous carpooling routine. It will suit those who travel out-of-town frequently and can only be occasional users. It will also work for those who log into the system several times a week,as they flit between offices. “The system has an element of spontaneity as well as trust — all those offering and getting rides will belong to the Wipro community,” explains Mulay.

Wipro has 30,000 employees in Bangalore,and one of the early users of the new carpooling system is Arvindan Raghavan,who heads a mission quality team for telecom. Raghavan signed on as a champion. “I’m passionate about a green world and that’s my biggest motivation,” he says. What better than using technology to help reduce the number of vehicles on Bangalore’s roads,he asks.

As an incentive,carpooling champions will be eligible for a rare bonus — car stickers that will entitle them to exclusive parking space within the crowded parking lots of the company campuses.

Wipro’s carpooling initiative highlights the changing mindset among technology workers. In Bangalore,Wipro staffers are cycling to work from the city to the suburban campus. In Pune,employees are trying to bring the disappearing sparrow back to the campus. In Hyderabad,employees are saving a lake. As the green motto trickles down,Premji will be a happy man.