CarGo

CarGo

About this app

Car-Go is a carpooling platform. This platform has been designed initially for the students of NUST. The idea primarily revolves around sharing rides to and from NUST on a daily basis. Our idea focuses on two divisions of students and faculty members, those who own vehicles and are open to sharing and those who are looking for the convenience of riding a personal car without owning one.

Our carpooling initiative emerged out of a necessity. Traffic congestion is one of our country's most perturbing challenges and is also one of the forerunners as a source of pollution. Up until a year ago, these were the only two problems facing travelers and residents alike. But this past year has seen a new detrimental impact on the transportation sector caused by burgeoning inflation and skyrocketing fuel prices.

Although the impact has been sustained equally by all sectors, one sector has been especially hard hit, and that is the student body that travels to and from universities every day. Since many students do not have stable incomes or jobs thereof and cannot afford the proliferating rates of transport vehicles such as vans and ride-booking services like Uber and Kareem; this has landed them in a state of confusion and anxiety. In addition, third-party services like Swivel and the likes have also shut down businesses, rendering students out of stable transportation facilities. In a survey we conducted, 87% of respondents, which included students and faculty, said that they would be willing to sign up to a ride-sharing platform exclusive to the community of NUST.

As a result, students have now started to join WhatsApp and Facebook carpool groups, but these are both unreliable and unsafe due to a lack of verification systems and checks for accountability. This applies especially to the female student body that cannot rely on strangers for accommodation, leaving the metro bus service as their only option, which in turn presents problems of its own. Metro stations are situated next to the highway and their drop-off locations are often too far from the desired destination. This leaves women in vulnerable positions who must now walk long distances often alone and at night. Unfortunately, like many women, this has also been a lived reality for us.

Hence Car-Go is one stop solution for all the issues stated above with special focus on the security and economy of a reliable transportation platform.