Bike Taxi Aggregator Rapido Distributes Free Helmets — Is It A Waste Of Marketing Budgets?

Bangalore based bike taxi aggregator Rapido kick-started a traffic and road safety awareness campaign at the city of Vijayawada on Wednesday. The awareness campaign was supported by the Vijayawada City Police, and it involved distributing helmets to two-wheeler riders.

DCP Shankar Reddy who was the chief guest at the event, advised the public to always wear helmets while riding two-wheelers. The DCP spoke with riders and also distributed free helmets to them.

Rapido's Vijayawada City Manager, Mr MV Prasad said, "The main motive behind the campaign is to make people aware of the importance of abiding by the traffic rules and wearing helmets while riding two-wheelers."

"In order to ensure use of helmets, Rapido has also started an initiative in which commuters will be provided free rides if they are not given helmets during the ride," he added.

Rapido is a Bangalore based bike taxi aggregator. The company was founded in 2015 by three IIT alumni – Aravind Sanka, Pavan Guntupalli and SR Rishikesh. Rapido claims it has over 15,000 registered riders with an average of 30,000 rides being served per day.

The Rapido app allows the user to book a ride, after which a rider (called "Captain") arrives at the location. The fare includes a base fare of Rs15 in addition to Rs 3 for every kilometer of the ride. The "Captains" need to register through the Rapido-Captain app and get validated by submitting required documents. They can use motorcycles, scooters or e-bikes but the vehicle cannot be older than 2010.

Thoughts About The Helmet Distribution Based Awareness Campaign By Rapido

This is possibly the best marketing campaign a company can run in a country that cares for road safety. Road safety is largely neglected by the Indian two wheeler rider, and done so for ridiculous reasons. The top two reason we've heard are — 'it ruins my hair-do', and 'it reduces visibility'.

Unfortunately in high traffic density cities like Mumbai the local cops are busy directing traffic and do not have the time to enforce the helmet rules on an every day basis. Cities like Pune are in a worse place because the cops have the time but are largely indifferent to the helmet rules.

What Rapido did is commendable, but will people use the helmets? Or do they become another show-piece in the living room?