WhistleDrive: OFFERING TECHNOLOGY ENABLED EMPLOYEE TRANSPORTATION SERVICES TO CORPORATES
The growing number of corporates leads to an upsurge of working people, which in turn results in a great demand of vehicles in cities. Employees in various industries require quick, safe and secure transportation facilities from homes to offices and vice-versa. Emerging as an incredible startup, WhistleDrive promises to provide excellent vehicle services to the employees of corporates. The man behind the technology-driven organization is Rakesh Munnanooru.
Experimenting for about eight months, the WhistleDrive provided on demand driver services to private car owners in beginning. After an in-depth understanding of the market expectations later, they realized the need for a strong structure and adopted a process driven approach which helped them to expand five times just in three months. They realized the same technology can be applied for corporate employee transportation and piloted with a B2B client which turned out to be a behemoth success.
After acquiring a paramount experience, they understood that the DNA of B2C and B2B business is same, but it is the scale that creates a differentiating factor; whereupon, they started approaching new and diverse clients. The Company scaled significantly and landed four huge volume clients in February and raised Series-A funding of five crores from Colosseum Group in April 2018.
Afterward, things have changed phenomenally and worked in the company’s favor. They have achieved phenomenal growth in Hyderabad and also expanded to Bangalore and Chennai. In the present scenario, they have a fleet size of more than 700 vehicles across three cities and are transporting more than 12,000 employees every day through their cabs and bus shuttles.
The Company’s more focused audience is any corporation that wants to provide a hassle free, convenient and timely transportation to its employees, whilst ensuring cost efficiency, security and employee satisfaction. Clients benefit hugely from the cost optimization owing to efficient usage of resources and cabs backed by WhistleDrive technology.
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BPOs, Hospitality, Finance, etc. The majority of their clients are from IT and BPOs which is synonymous to the market demand as well. They are elated to serve clients such as ADP and L & T in multiple cities. They use their technology-enabled fleet services and have received extremely positive feedback.
They ensure Data transparency and Privacy which are the quintessential attributes of their business. The system is a secured cloud-based software and provides exemplary security of data, and they have pushed automation at every level of the transportation process, in this way, the Company ensures transparent and accurate billing of clients. With safety features like SOS in employees’ app and location tracking of cabs are enabled, they are able to show clients’ real-time alerts for instances like over speeding, delays, location disabled and SOS. This gives an eagle eye view of ground level activity and makes the entire data transparent, thereby giving a sense of security. Data privacy concern is on the top, they have ‘number-masking’ enabled for communication between employees and drivers. Their fleet on the ground is also fully secure, and onboarding of cabs is approved after a three-level verification process.
GREAT SYNCHRONIZATION WITH THE MARKET
“Companies thrive when they adapt and adopt”
Rakesh Munnanooru
Factually, the locks of closure tied on the gates of companies if they fail to adapt to the changes of the market.
WhistleDrive is a full-stack Technology and Operations company. It has already built use cases for Artificial Intelligence and Blockchain. These technologies form the backbone of the daily regime of operations.
AI in the WhistleDrive system enables deep automation of processes, prediction of delays, etc., and dynamic optimization based on real-time data. Blockchain although still in nascent stages can ensure huge transparency in terms of data which is a critical factor in the market they operate. By using Blockchain for data authentication, the entire network is involved in the transportation process which can contribute and validate data, and no longer be subjected to tampering.
Research and Development has helped the young company in identifying the transportation inefficiencies in untapped sectors like FMCG and intra-city logistics, and it has also helped them in finding out the solutions of the arising problems.
ENSURING GROWTH OF EMPLOYEES
The Company advances when its employees grow and excel; thereby, it’s the people who run the organization. This can be achieved by ensuring that the people in company are valued and respected. The maestro states, “An organization where an employee is respected, made to feel important, and where an employee can consistently improve both personally and professionally with the help of his team is a happy organization.”
The major focus of the company is on the individualistic improvement of the team members on the consistent basis, so that they can grow in direct proportion to WhistleDrive.
The Company supports ‘open office environment’, where there is a great coordination between various teams on a daily basis, and the core team lends its ears openly and empathetically to ideas from each individual in the team.
PERSONAL INSIGHTS
Undoubtedly, work is the pivotal as it occupies the major part of one’s life. However, it is quite indispensable to spend some ‘me time’, so that there can be a personal rejuvenation and relaxation. Therefore, apart from work, Rakesh loves to delve himself across the pages of books, as he is an avid reader. Additionally, at some point of time, he wants to explore storytelling through visual media and direct a TV series for Global Audience.
In an excursion to the entrepreneurial world, Rakesh navigates with the support of his mentor,
Shailu Tipparaju– the chairman of the Colosseum Group. Shailu states,” Live fully or why bother at all?” Thereby, Rakesh always remembers his statement.
It is quite cumbersome for an entrepreneur to balance the pendulum of work, fitness and social life. To strike the right balance, it takes an extreme effort and a fully ‘Zoned In’ approach. Rakesh says he struggled quite a bit during the starting days, but gradually, he got the hang of it, and now he is supremely engaged in his daily regime.
STUPENDOUS ACHIEVEMENTS AND GREAT FUTURE PLANS
‘WhistleDrive’ team feels immense pride for the scale which the company has achieved within two years.
Secondly, a fleet of more than 700 across three cities, which are serving 30+ clients across various domains and transporting over twelve thousand employees, is itself an achievement.
The list doesn’t impede here; other impeccable achievements of the ace organization are:
- Awarded as the ’10 Best Startups in 2018’ by Silicon India
- Selected for T Hub’s Lab 32 Program
- One of the finalists at HYSEA Summit 2018
The formidable Company is looking at expanding to Vizag and Pune by Q3, and to scale the current fleet size to more than fifteen hundred by the end of 2019.
In the long run, WhistleDrive’ is focused on building an eco-system of transportation solutions. Additionally, they are looking to solve inefficiencies in Intra City Logistics particularly in E-Commerce & FMCG channels.
