Late for a meeting? Grab a UberMOTO or PickMe Bike

Ever since taxi hailing apps such as PickMe and Uber arrived in Sri Lanka, taking the daily commute to work was made simple. Cheaper options such as UberZIP and UberTUK also came into the picture. PickMe too launched a number of budget friendly taxi options such as Budget Tuk and Buddy cars. The latest entrant by these two taxi hailing giants are bikes. Namely, these are UberMOTO and PickMe Bike.

What exactly are UberMOTO and PickMe Bike?

Well, as the name suggests, these are bikes that you can hail to get from Point A to Point B. If you have a Bike and you’re looking to earn some extra cash along your way to work, you can sign up fo reither of these services.

With UberMOTO, for example, you can book a bike at the push of a button via the Uber app, just as you would book a UberTUK or UberZIP. The rider would receive the driver and bike details of the driver along with the standard safety features of booking a taxi. These include GPS tracking and two-way feedback. You can also share trip details with your family and friends if you need.

All UberMOTO drivers will have a helmet for themselves as well as a helmet for the rider. Drivers and riders both will be required to wear a helmet as per the law in Sri Lanka. Once a trip is completed the rider can pay either via cash or credit/debit card, just like a normal ride.

PickMe Bike would also operate in more or less a similar fashion. Choose your start point and end point, select PickMe Bike and you will be one step closer to reaching your destination. Similarly you can pay for your ride either via cash, credit/debit card and even redeem some cash off the ride with PickMe points.

But how much do they cost? PickMe Bike charges Rs. 35 for the first kilometer and Rs. 25 for each additional kilometer, UberMOTO simply says that their fares would be as low as Rs. 25. At the time of writing this article, though, neither PickMe Bike nor UberMOTO were available for us to test out.

How will UberMOTO and PickMe Bike perform in Sri Lanka?

While these two services give commuters easier and more cost effective ways to travel, there are a few issues that I feel should be pointed out. For starters, people might not be comfortable riding on a bike. This is especially true for female commuters who are on their way to office from home or vice versa.

Further, despite helmets being given as a safety measure, there is always a chance that a bike can have an accident. For example, if a sudden rain were to occur, the bike can skid and injure both parties. Carelessness and reckless driving can also cause damage to the rider, driver and those around them as well.

Rider safety is the driver’s responsibility

Drivers also have a tendency to try and squeeze through gaps in traffic and at times shot blatent disregard for rules, by riding on the pavements and sidewalks. While this does make sure that you get to your destination on time, it would be a shame if the driver you’re with got a traffic violation.

However, if the drivers are given strict and proper training and taught to obey the rules of the road, then by all means, PickMe Bike and UberMOTO would be an efficient way to travel. I guess we’ll just have to wait and see until the services actually become available for us to use.

Have you used PickMe Bike or UberMOTO? What are your thoughts about it? We would love to hear from you.