Hi #SmartCommunity friends! In this episode I have a fascinating conversation with Monalisha Thakur, the co-founder and CMO at Tummoc. Tummoc is India’s first multi-modal transport app that provides accurate real-time public transport information, easy ticketing options and last-mile connectivity. 

In this episode, Monalisha tells us about her varied background in music and sales, and the problems she encountered commuting on public transport over the years that got her thinking about digitisation solutions. We talk about what Smart Community means to Monalisha and why everybody should have access to convenience and time-saving transport options, not just the wealthy. 

Monalisha tells us about the journey of starting Tummoc, how the multimodal single ticket system works for users and the huge feat behind the digitisation of a whole transit network. We finish our chat discussing the emerging trend of making public transit users aware of the sustainability impacts they’re making by green commuting and what’s next for Tummoc. As always, we hope you enjoyed listening to this episode as much as we enjoyed making it.

Listen here: 

What we cover in this episode:

• About Monalisha’s varied background in music and sales
• The problems she encountered commuting on public transport that started her thinking about digitisation solutions 
• What a Smart Community means to Monalisha 
• Why everybody should have access to convenient and time-saving transport options, not just the wealthy
• About the journey of starting Tummoc
• How the multimodal single ticket system works for users
• The huge feat behind the digitisation of a whole transit network
• The emerging trend of making public transit users aware of the sustainability impacts they’re making by green commuting
• What’s next for Tummoc 

Quotes:

“When it comes to the tech of commuting or the way people transport it is pretty much the same [as] it was 20 years back, when I was a kid. Now there is nothing that has changed except that we have AC and non AC buses! So digitisation was a big problem.”

“For the 75 to 80 million users of India, who use public transport on a daily basis, they have to pick a choice: either they can save money, or they can save time. So a third option of convenience was never there for them.”

“The whole idea here is to give the user options and offers. E.g. we have five options for you to basically choose along with your walk as well, so that you basically are able to cover your first mile and the last one [too].”

“It’s called multimodal single ticketing. What we’re trying to do is to make a journey multimodal from point A to point B in the form of a single ticket. So that means that you don’t really have to have the hassle to jump from one app to another app, or to book rides and tickets like in three phases, like first mile, middle mile, last mile. You just take one single ticket.”

“Coming from the Indian perspective of the mass consumers and the mass users of the public transport, I think there has been a missing link of how to make them understand the importance of [green commuting]… Because I think until a person understands that this is the impact of a small act of taking public transport, the more motivated he will be to use that.”

Connect:

Connect with Monalisha on LinkedIn or Twitter @mthakur69

Find out more about Tummoc at https://www.tummoc.com

Connect with me via email: hello@mysmart.community 

Connect with My Smart Community via LinkedIn or Twitter and watch on YouTube

The Smart Community Podcast is produced by Perk Digital.