"Meter podu!"

Screen shot of MeterPodu website.

Anantha and Mayur hope to put an end to fleecing by auto drivers. Their website helps users find auto fares for the southern metros of Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad.

When Anantha Subramanian returned to Chennai in 2010 after a stint in the U.S, he was tired of being mercilessly fleeced by the autorickshaw drivers. Not only did the drivers refuse to use meter or government recommended rates, they were also rude and demanding, especially to non-locals.

Promising idea

During a casual conversation with his friend, Mayur Narasimhan, a U.S.-based software engineer, they came up with the idea of a website that would help people find the right fares for autorickshaws. What started off as a promising idea evolved into a full-fledged concept three months later when Mayur sketched out the details on a paper napkin while travelling on a train. Fast forward to 2011: After endless hours of poring over the technical aspects, the backend infrastructure was in place and all it lacked was a user interface.

Mayur and Anantha met again in 2012 and finalised the website design and registered in
http://www.meterpodu.in/ to help users find auto fares for the southern metros of Chennai, Bangalore and Hyderabad. A beta version of the site was launched on February 11.

‘‘Our main objective is to help people not familiar with distances and recent migrants with language problems. The initial response has been overwhelming and a lot of credit goes to social media networks like Twitter and Facebook,” says Mayur.

Within the first two days the website received more than 1500 hits and soon people requested an extension of the service to include Coimbatore and Mysore. The site owners already have plans to design a mobile application for Android phones.

The site works on a crowd sourcing model where anyone can receive fare details as well as contribute them. “For a given route the site will provide the average fare based on contribution from users and, in cases, where the historical fare is not available the site gives an estimate based on the distance and the running rate in that city,” explains Mayur.

The works

You need to select the starting and end points on the city map embedded on the website to get the fare details. Being avid social media users, the Meterpodu founders have extended an option to send and receive journey rates on twitter. For instance, if you want the fare to go from T.Nagar to Mylapore send “@meterpodu get+auto+CHN+T.Nagar+Mylapore” and to contribute fare for the same route send “@meterpodu add+auto+CHN+T.Nagar+Mylapore+70”.

The site does not require registrations to check fares but you will need to login with your Twitter or Facebook account to contribute fares. Thanks to these entrepreneurial minds who put their skills to use in solving real life problems, the next time you bargain with the auto driver you will know exactly what the fare should be.