Uber's explosive growth is partly fueled by meeting some underserved needs including getting people home from nightclubs in the wee hours of the morning. With a shortage of cabs in many cities at that time, a convenient ridesharing app becomes an appealing option.
In Seoul, however, a new nighttime vanpool service named Callbus is filling this need to get late-night partygoers home safely.
A collective taxi van service, Callbus picks up groups of passengers travelling in a similar direction. Using an app, riders select their location and how many are in their party. The app directs them to a nearby pickup location and provides the Callbus driver the fastest route to get everyone to their destination.
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Callbus has received strong opposition from taxi companies that don’t want the competition but, as Pop Up City reports, “[T]he Ministry of Land, Infrastructure and Transport has concluded that there is a need for an alternative service which taxis and buses cannot offer.”
As a ministry official said, “We see a rising demand for the Callbus service. The key here is to create an environment where the bus and taxi companies can co-exist.”
The Seoul Metropolitan Government, which actively supports and creates sharing initiatives and has established the megacity as a pioneer of the Sharing City movement, is working on revising related transportation laws to allow taxi companies to create vanpool services of their own.
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