City Group (the company behind CityBus) have introduced a new service called CityVan which is a carpool service. CityVan allows you to select your pick up and drop off locations and then find a carpool option that is available. If there isn’t one available, then you could propose a trip and when enough people want a similar journey then you’ve got yourself a carpool. All the vehicles and drivers belong to City Group so it’s basically a door to door mini-bus service.
Prices vary depending on pick up and drop off locations but just to give you an idea:
Pick up point: Salmiya
Drop off point: Kuwait City
Single Trip: KD1
Return Trip: KD1.5
Weekly Package: KD7
Monthly Package: KD20
Quarterly Package: KD57
So if you go with a quarterly package your return trip will cost you just 650 fils. The service is priced somewhere in the middle between a regular bus ride and a cab service. CityVan just launched so there are not much pools available at the moment but once people start proposing times then pools will start coming together. I love what City Group have been doing recently, first with their airport express busses and now this. If you’re interested to find out more about this service check out the CityVan website [Here]
Thanks Muntasar
20 replies on “New Carpool Service in Kuwait”
The ad makes it look like its got an app with gps tracking (uber style). This could be a pretty cool option (especially with the gas price hikes and the stupid traffic coming in September). I’d love to go to work and be able to play on my laptop and not worry about driving.
HOWEVER a GPS tracking app is an absolute must, otherwise there will be waiting outdoors which is absolutely completely unacceptable.
People should propose a No Man’s Sky pool to Rihab for today. Better yet it should be a thing for every new game release.
Hahaha! I see that the game is getting to ya 🙂 gonna pick up a copy soon from the store!
On a different note, I waiting for the day when they all start something like Uber to give a good competition to these local cab who charge whatever they feel like
I didn’t get the game, that was my brother, No Mans Sky isn’t my kind of game.
Uber btw won’t have an effect since it will most likely be more expensive than regular cabs. Exhibit A: Careem
Mark posted about an app called Q8 taxi which is very similar to uber without the driver profiles and online payment. I don’t think uber would work since hitchhiking is illegal in Kuwait.
What does uber have to do with hitchhiking. There seems to be a lot of misinformation about uber. Uber uses taxis that are already available in the country. Only in a few cities like LA for example, non cab drivers can be uber drivers but in majority of the cities like Beirut, Saudi and Dubai for example in our region, uber uses cabs. So it’s not illegal.
Q8 Taxi sucks and isn’t anything like uber, I’ve tried to use it a few times and drivers keep canceling pickups and shit. A better example is Careem, Careem is how uber would work in Kuwait.
But a lot of Uber drivers in the States are not cab drivers. A couple of my friends are in on it over there to make an extra buck.
Economists coined a term for “Uber” and “Air BnB”, they call it a “sharing economy”.
Just like Uber, Air BnBs can either be established businesses that already exist or just an extra bedroom in someone’s house.
It works either way.
As I said there seems to be a lot of misinformation.
The Uber service you’re talking about where a random joe could be your driver is called Uber X and it isn’t available everywhere because of different country laws. So it’s available in the US but it isn’t available for example in London. Uber X also isn’t available anywhere in the Middle East.
The Uber you will find in most cities around the world is Uber Black which is Uber’s original service. Uber Black is a taxi with a driver that has a taxi license. So in Dubai, Uber Black are the regular Lexus cabs. In Lebanon they are the regular street cabs. In Kuwait they would be the same cars Careem uses.
Ohhhhhh, didn’t know that.
Thank you for the clarification.
Just checked it.. I think there must be some changes.. I know it it is too early to find carpools now since it is a new project, but it is almost impossible to find a carpool if the user enters a 1)pickup location 2) drop location 3)time
There should be “suggested carpools” so someone can find what might suit him..
Good idea, huge potential but needs to show and offer options for the user based on his location.
Why impossible? There are for example thousands of people living in Salmiya that for example work in Kuwait City and most jobs all start at the same time. So the chances of finding a pool to get to work in the city from Salmiya is gonna be super high
Kuwait need safe and affordable transportation for people who don’t own cars. Taxi are too expensive to be used daily.
I, too, applaud City Group. The new airport bus was, by in large, a fantastic experience. It beats haggling for an over-priced cab ride. Keep it up! Power in numbers.
This would be great for carpooling to work in the morning
when start fahaheel to shuwaki area
Mehbuolla to khatan.5.15 am
I kept seeing those CityVans zipping past me on my daily commute to the city. So out of curiosity I checked out the website earlier and had my, “HSTIA!” moment.
What’s HSTIA? HOLY SHIT THIS IS AWESOME!
So I proposed a pool where I know lots of people who work in the city would like to be picked up from (Sector 10 aka, man6eqa il3ashra aka United States of South Kuwait aka my hood) and dropped off at a common location in the financial sector, then we can hoof it to our respective buildings. Cool, innit?
So yeah, I’d like to ditch my car and walk. I actually park about 7 minute walk from my workplace (rain or shine, I timed it) and make that extra effort.
So bottom line, anyone interested in making this work? I’m the sleepy passenger, I promise I won’t bother you. 😀
I am looking for round trip from Mangaf to shuwaikh industrial2 timings morning 7am and return 5.15 pm…can anyone please suggest available transportation and mention the price for monthly package.
I’m looking for riggeai to maidan hawally.
I’m looking for hawally to aswaq qurain please