Didi Kuaidi, China's leading taxi-hailing app, unveils its carpooling feature for urban commuters. (Photo : Reuters)
Didi Kuaidi, China’s leading taxi-hailing mobile application formed by the merging of Didi Dache and Kuaidi Dache, has recently unveiled its carpooling feature named Shun Feng Che.
The new service of the taxi-hailing app will focus on commuters in the country's urban areas, starting in Beijing. By the end of this month, the new feature will also be rolled out in 26 key cities.
Didi Kuaidi's Shun Feng Che is geared at making carpooling easier for commuters. The feature will provide a more efficient carpooling service to its users by drawing on the treasure trove of the app's big data.
While car owners set up their default routes, passengers input the location where they want to get picked and dropped off. The app will then automatically find matches between vehicle owners and commuters.
"In less than two months, Shun Feng Che has recruited over 1 million car owners. From today, users are able to find someone to carpool with through the 'Shun Feng Che' function embedded in the Didi Dache app," Huang Jieli, Didi Shun Feng Che department's general manager, eagerly remarked.
Didi Kuaidi also announced that it will charge no fees or commissions for its carpooling feature. Shun Feng Che has a base fee of RMB 5 to 10, and an additional 1 yuan for every kilometer. The figure is half the price of a regular Beijing taxi.
Payments can be made via WeChat payment, the e-wallet service provided by the country's widely used instant messaging app. Payment via cash is not allowed.
Didi Kuaidi eyes to reach 100,000 Shun Feng Che orders within this month and a million by within this year.
The launching of carpooling services is regarded as a means by which traffic and pollution caused by too many cars traversing Chinese metropolitan streets can be cut down.
