Gaari Pakistan: A Truly Pakistani Ride-Hailing Service?

Ride-hailing apps and services have entered Pakistan in a huge way. Uber, Careem, and many more services continue to advertise their benefits for the Pakistani commuter, hoping to attract them as their preferred transport option.

There’s a new player in ride-hailing town, one that promises to be truly localized and customized for Pakistanis by the Pakistanis. Gaari Pakistan is hoping to make its mark as the quintessentially Pakistani-owned and operated ride hailing services come December 2^nd 2017. For its debut, the new ride hailing service has targeted Rawalpindi and Islamabad, with more cities to be added in the future.

Gaari Pakistan

Gaari Pakistan spoke to ProPakistani regarding its entry in the hotly-contested ride-hailing space in the country. Here’s how it aims to compete with the other services:

Gaari plans to revolutionize the industry by offering services and features not currently provided by similar platforms in the region while maintaining a strict adherence to our core values of safety, comfort, convenience, and top-tier back-end support.

Gaari Pakistan believes that international companies like Uber and Careem still has ways to go when it comes to understanding the culture, customs and requirements of the Pakistani customer. Be it with less-than-optimal worker treatment, driver management, and ensuring the passenger’s safety and dignity.

The company wants to be the preferred ride-hailing for students, young professionals and blue collar employees who want the best bang for their buck.

Gaari Pakistan aims to be the local bulwark against foreign ride-hailing services. According to their CEO Mr. Kashif Ijaz, an IT entrepreneur, there is a huge dearth of quality assurance when it comes to a comparatively analysis of all available ride hailing services in Pakistan currently. Their goal is however, to take the most common complaints by Pakistani customers into account, and debut with a strong alternative.

With that being said, let’s take a look at the services and rates offered by Gaari Pakistan when it launches in December.

Services and Features Offered

Gaari Pakistan comes with the following features right out of the gate:

• Easy Registration – Either use your social media account or email to register for your services fast.
• Address Pickup – Your car at your preferred address. Nothing more, nothing less.
• Ride Now – Running late? Get your car asap and reach your destination on time. No more waiting.
• Ride Schedule – Need a ride at a specified time? You can do that too!
• Corporate Services – Companies can also make use of Gaari Pakistan’s customized business plans.
• Available on iOS and Android – Your platform. Your app. No compromises.
• Available on the web too – For those who don’t want to use the app.
• Manual Dispatch –You can now book a ride without an internet connection or even without a smart phone, just contact our call center and share your location and our partner will be there.
• Wi-Fi enabled cars- All the executive vehicles are Wi-Fi enabled.
• ETA and Live Tracking – Know how long your ride is going to take.
• Gaari Paisa – Top up your credit with their in-app wallet feature. Supported by all credit cards. Also allows you to share credit with other Gaari PK users.

Now for the pricing details.

Budget, Exclusive and Exclusive Plus Pricing Plans

Currently the company offers three plans – Budget, Executive and Executive Plus.

Here are the cars that will be offered for each of the plans by Gaari Pakistan:

As to how routes will be calculated for each of the plans, here are Gaari Pakistan’s customized fares:

When asked about why their cancellation charges seem quite high compared to other services, a Gaari Pakistan rep confirmed the reasons for this decision.

‘Cancellation charges are a little high because the driver is given only 15 seconds to decide to accept or reject the ride, whereas the customer is given 3 minutes time to re-think and cancel. Considering now that during this time, our partner is almost halfway there to pick the customer up, as the average pickup time is normally 6 to 7 minutes.

As per the parameters we have defined. We need to compensate the drivers as well.

Similarly, the same is the penalty for the driver who cancels the ride after accepting the job. We believe in treating both the customers and partners equally.’

Waiting Charges

Waiting charges will be charged at Rs 3/min, starting from the time the partner arrives at the pickup location.

Ride Now and Ride Later Options

If you are looking to book a ride immediately, customers can use the ‘Ride Now’ option.

If they wish to schedule a ride after an hour or later, they can select the ‘Ride Later’ option. Please note that if a customer wishes to cancel a ride without incurring additional charges with ‘Ride Later’ option, they should do so 20 minutes before the scheduled pickup time.

Drivers’ Benefits

Since Gaari Pakistan’s stated aim is to ensure that partners (drivers) are also compensated fairly for their services, they have devised an attractive bonus system to entice them into using Gaari Pakistan for offering their services.

Here are some of the incentives they are offering their partners:

Gaari Pakistan launches on December 2^nd. If you want to check out their services or register as a partner with them, head here.