'Learning from mistakes': Women's Shuttle pledges more affordable rides
Women's Shuttle is a private transportation service exclusively for women. Its premium package is launching on 1 Nov.
"Women's Shuttle", a private transport service that is exclusively designed for women commuters, has become quite the talk of the town.
It all started a week ago.
What started out as an announcement that social media hopped on to laud and appreciate, soon turned into criticism galore. The service's social media made a big announcement, with what seemed like a lot of hopes for more support and well wishes — the vibe of an initial excitement it had been well accustomed to since its inception.
As soon as the words "Tk500" for a round trip for each commuter registered from the service was posted online, Women's Shuttle met with a frenzied backlash with netizens expressing major concerns about the pricing and the service's sustainability, especially aimed at accommodating "struggling women".
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Almost every profile on social media had at least one status or shared post from the service's social media page by 12 October, where they seemed to question the startup's motto, as well as the entrepreneur behind the whole project. The spotlight was on — can an average service holder based in Dhaka afford a transportation service that costs up to Tk13,000 per month, when their monthly salary is around Tk40,000? Ergo, only a small demographic of women can afford this while the masses may refer to this as safety at a price, especially considering the city's rising costs of living.
"We learned from our mistakes. After announcing the launch of the premium service, we learned that the demand [for women's transport] is actually quite high and we need to expand and find more affordable solutions to help provide this service to the masses. This is actually not a demand. This is a necessity," Founder of Women's Shuttle Tasnia Atique told The Business Standard in a conversation on 14 October.
The social media spark then got her mulling over what could be done to incorporate a newer pricing structure.
"We would be happy if more initiatives as such are brought into the market to help make commutation easier for women and people from all across the city. We urge people's support. This is not a luxury but a necessity."
A few days prior, the page announced its launch on 1 November. In the first stage, Women's Shuttle Premium would offer its service across four major routes — in the order of popularity and seats reserved — Mirpur, Uttara, Mohammadpur and Bashundhara. This service was a venture that Tasnia had been thinking of bringing to the fore for a long time now. Recalling her own tumultuous travels during her university days, she experienced the hassle, high costs and lack of security in travelling.
"I started entrepreneurship when I was 18. This is my latest project. However, I had planned to start very small, within my own community. When we opened a page, that's when we saw that there is such a need for the masses. Then we realised we needed to think further and so we started collecting the database," Tasnia said.
Within the first 24 hours, 1,500 people had registered for the rides.
"When the pricing was announced, followed by widespread criticism, yet our database kept increasing," she added.
These vehicles will feature enhanced safety measures such as female security personnel, IP surveillance cameras, fire extinguishers, and sanitary napkins to ensure a comfortable and secure environment for women commuters.
"We want to provide an AC service to help cope with the troubles of commuting during extreme heat. Just today [14 September], we had a pregnant woman register with us. Her priority was an AC ride. We assured her of all our facilities offered. Though the charge may seem a bit high, we offer comfort and security," Tasnia said.
Unlike popular ride-sharing platforms and their unpredictable fare structure, the shuttle will run on a fixed daily fare through a minimum 20-day subscription, offering round-trip options.
In the first wave, the service is being launched with up to 500 commuters. There will be 39 small, medium and semi-large private vehicles, all air-conditioned.
A new promise: First premium, next up deluxe
With the launch just days away, Women's Shuttle promises to ease Dhaka women's daily-life experiences of insecurity in public places and public transport.
With its premium service, the biggest challenge that Tasnia found was reducing the fare, as she promised security and comfort would be her top priority.
"When we target the mass, we would like to incorporate women of all walks of life, be it students, office- goers etc."
The initiative that started from "crowd funding", is now pledging to cater to the masses.
Harnessing positivity from all the negative comments about the pricing model and such, Tasnia has decided to expand her horizons and accommodate more women commuters.
Through a service called Women's Shuttle Deluxe, Tasnia aims to set the fare at Tk100-150, which is Tk300 for a round trip, Tk200 reduced from the premium package. That too, tentatively by 1 January.
With this exclusive announcement to TBS and now the service's social media, she aims to build a higher customer base, with at least 2,000-3,000 females on board.
"We are working on it and putting our heart and soul into trying to fit this within our budget as well as expand to cover more locations/routes. At present, the plan to have up to 500 people on board was achievable. But the next extension comes with its own challenges but nothing is impossible.
"When we work with local investors, we can reach a huge target of accommodating 50k people or more. Which would be much larger than this crowdfunded venture."
'Is it like Shuttle but pink?'
When people first encountered the very name of this venture, they raised questions about its resemblance to the already existing "Shuttle" service. In fact, they alleged plagiarism.
In response to which, Tasnia said, "Our model is completely different. We are focusing on women. Our model is a dedicated service. We won't be switching clients. When you know there is a dedicated and fixed vehicle waiting to pick you up and drop you off, there is a sense of psychological security.
"I remember riding school buses. This is what I wanted to do, bring those days back. But that too was like public transport. But this is exclusively for you."
Social media critics had their enthusiasm waning, nonetheless. One Facebook user wrote in the comments, "Thanks, I'd rather take Uber or CNG or bike! Don't wanna spend 15k a month just because it's pink." Another wrote, "Imagine paying Tk1.5 lakh per year just to ride a bus because some cash grabbing entrepreneur said it's safe and pink."
They seemed to even call the service out on its choice of colour. But Tasnia had her own beliefs behind this choice.
"Pink symbolises women," she said, "Just as the pink ribbon represents the courage to fight breast cancer."
'Not a luxury but a necessity'
Commutation in the city is a hassle far too intense for women. With new services such as Women's Shuttle, some may find themselves hopeful. But the pricing highlights the issue of ensuring safety through affordability, access and sustainably.
To address this everyday challenge, Tasnia said, "We would be happy if more initiatives as such are brought into the market to help make commutation easier for women and people from all across the city. We urge people's support. This is not a luxury but a necessity."
Regarding the mixed responses towards her service that is, in fact, yet to launch, she said, "We are taking both positive and negative criticism into account. Through every venture, people have the opportunity to learn from their mistakes and we can only try to make ourselves better.
"So, we are learning and correcting anything that was an error in hindsight. We are committed to focusing on our work and finding ways to improve so that we can resolve this long standing issue of women's safety in their travels," said the entrepreneur.
