Solving the problem of the Traffic Gridlock

Traffic in the United States is bad. How bad, you ask? Bad enough that it costs cities, companies, and folks like you and me over $300 billion annually. To add to this, commuters on average spend 42 hours stuck in rush hour traffic. That is a lot of lost productivity. The traffic gridlock is a familiar sight everyday across multiple cities in America, especially during rush hour. The biggest contributor to urban vehicle congestion is the single-occupant vehicle, with 76% of Americans driving alone to work.

I know what you are thinking: ‘Great, another article highlighting the problem, but offering no solution’. But we do have a solution, and it’s not a new concept, but one that we have innovated upon to make it relevant today. It’s called carpooling. WAIT! Before you roll your eyes and swiftly navigate away from this page, please bear with us for a couple of minutes, because we really believe that we’re on to something here. By reducing the number of single-occupant vehicles operating on America’s roadways by 5%, we, as a collective, can achieve 50% reduction in traffic congestion.

While we can’t take credit for coining the term, at SEET (www.getseet.com) we’re working to make carpooling a practical and an obvious choice. To achieve this, we’re implementing a massive customer discovery campaign. Our solution is truly informed by everyday folks such as you and us. As a matter of fact, our co-founders spoke to over 300 people to understand the quality of their commutes; Nikhil interviewed people on the streets and in office buildings, while Mohit moonlighted by driving for Uber and Lyft. The duo learned that there was a need for carpooling, but that people weren’t adopting it as a solution for one or more of the following reasons:

• They don’t understand the true cost of their commute
• They don’t want to be tied down to each other’s schedules
• They don’t want to deal with the hassles of trip scheduling, coordination, and other logistics involved with sharing a commute
• They want to know a little bit about each other before sharing a commute together

This is precisely why we created SEET — a social commuting app that enables you to flexibly carpool with people you’re comfortable with.

Before we tell you more about SEET, let’s talk about how we are different from Uber and Lyft. SEET’s users are everyday folks that want to participate in not-for-profit carpooling to save money and conveniently share their commutes with people they like and can trust. If you choose to drive with SEET, we’ll enable you to monetize an otherwise empty seat twice a day: once on your commute to work and then on your way back home. Additionally, our rides are at least 40% cheaper and we’re able to do away with surge pricing for our riders.

To make carpooling a practical choice, SEET is built around five key benefits:

Safety
To promote safety on the platform, we verify the digital identity of, and, run a sex offender check on all users. We also run driving record checks on those that want to drive.

Compatibility
As a user, you can see all the people you could potentially carpool with. You can see their profiles and even how you are connected with them across social media channels like Facebook and LinkedIn. With options for same-sex carpooling and excluding people from potential matches, SEET gives you full control over whom you want to carpool with.

Flexibility
Our goal is to enable on-demand carpooling. As such, users can simply schedule the morning commute the night before and the return trip late in the day as their plans unfold.

Golden Pricing
Our pricing model is designed to maintain an equitable arrangement; one that’s fair to both the rider and the driver. This means no surge pricing for riders. Ever. It also means that drivers get reimbursed for their commute costs such as gas, vehicle depreciation, wear and tear, insurance, and parking.

Convenience
Our mobile apps make scheduling, trip coordination, and payments effortless, thereby delivering a seamless experience.

In order to enable a high density of users that live and work near each other, in May this year, we will be beta testing our first route. That’s where you come in! We will be first operationalizing the route that has the highest demand. Now, if you think that you can benefit from using SEET, visit our website at www.getseet.com and please leave us your name and email. Thank you for reading and for being part of the SEET journey.