Vpark

Problem: Bangladesh is a country where traffic jams are very common. One of the main reason behind this is the lack of proper parking space. People keep their vehicles on different sides of the road making an obstacle for others and eventually leads to traffic jams.

Proposed Solution: Our app will let people host their garage for parking as well as use parking space in exchange of a fixed amount of money using an online platform which will dynamically allocate parking space.

Advantage: The advantages of our proposed solution are:

1) People will get access to safe and legal parking space

2) Severity of traffic jam will be reduced

3)Oppurtunity of earing money in exchange of hosting their free parking space in the garage while their vehicle is in use

The following statistics proves the severity of traffic jam in bangladesh: 

1)Because of severe Traffic in Dhaka, 5 million working hours are being wasted every day, according to the Accident Research Institute of Buet.

2) The traffic causes an annual loss in between Tk 20,000 crore and Tk 55,000 crore. 

3)Last year, World Bank analysis had said in the last 10 years, average traffic speed in Dhaka dropped from 21 kmph to 7 kmph, which was slightly above the average walking speed. 

Our solution can be impactful to reduce the severity of traffic jam by allocating legal parking space because of the following statistics:

1)100,000 driver partners and approximately 2,500 new partner sign-ups per week, Bangladesh is expected to contribute  25% of uber’s growth in 2019, said a press release. 

2)The total number of Internet Subscribers in Bangladesh has reached 80.829 million at the end of January 2018, according to BRTC.

3)As of February 2017, there are around 3,948,906 registered vehicles in Bangladesh. This is also indicates that there is parking facility inside the house of the owner.

All these indicates that the growth app users and private car owners is very fast which makes it a suitable country to implement our solution.

In order to understand this problem, we investigated the areas where the traffic jam is severe in dhaka. We derived that the problem is rooted in the planning of these cities. First insight is that, school, college, university, hospital office, shopping complexes, important residential areas are concentrated in the same area. The second insight is that solvent people mostly use their private car due to lack of comfortable mass transport.  As a result, while on rush hours people get to their respective place for their work or study ,they park on the road, due to lack of enough parking space. We talked with some public wanted to know if they have some proposals for solving this problem. Some of them replied to us that the government should construct massive parking places. From our study, this massive construction will take a decade for the government of Bangladesh. Then we talked about our proposed solution, most of them liked it because they are used to with riding sharing app, now why not parking place sharing app. They also helped us to find the pros and cons of this parking sharing based app solution.

We will provide a free online app which can be installed in android and IOS smartphones. After installing the app, the user will have to register his/her account by giving information like -Email, password, Username with password, car licence number and for security purpose he/she will have to enter NID card number/Passport number. Then after verifying his/her account the user can host his/her free garage space and can also park in other garages near his/her car’s location using the app. While hosting his/her garage space he/she will have to chose one from the two options- Motorcycle space/car space. To create the app, we will use Android and IOS using firebase development tools and web platform development tools.

Our parking space sharing app can get popularity in short time due to a new approach. Those who are already working on this problem in bangladesh  they still couldn't get that much popularity because of less users and some lacking in business model.We've tried the available app and we figured out some issues like-1) Accesibilty(less parking space and users), 2) Security issue(no way to ensure security) and 3) techniqal issues(cannot locate destination). To make our application popular we are planning to collaborate with flat developer or real estate firms like Amin Mohammad Group, Master Builder LTD, etc by giving share option. If we can collaborate with them we can easily get reached to those who own parking space in those flats or apartments. As there are huge amount of flats in bangladesh urban region specially dhaka and the amount is increasing per year, it can get a lot of host users for our app. In addition, there are huge open space and parking places in educational institutions and different commercial/non-commercial organizations, which remain unutilized after working/school/office hour (when the shopping hour starts in Bangladesh). Then this can make it more accessible for the users and a lot of parking space will be available. Moreover to ensure security the users wil have to enter informations like NID number/Passport number and car licence number. Once our app gets popular then we should be able to improve and fix different techniqal issues faster by getting huge amount of feedback. 

In Bangladesh government cannot ensure enough parking space due it's increasing demand. Although the flats and apartments has parking facility, still it is limited for the owner only. As a person do not require parking space for long 24 hours due to use the space is left empty a major part of the day. As a densely populated country we have to harness this empty space fully. So our app will be used to allocate the free parking space. As a result people will find safe and legal parking space. This will help them avoid illegal parking which will reduce traffic severity. Also the economic life of indivisuals will be benefited by hosting their free garage space at the same time. Thus parking facilities will be used to the fullest. This kind of success in transportation app industry is noticed from the impact of Uber, Pathao in Bangldesh. It has increased the use of vehicles playing a vital role in transportation. To investigate the problem more deeply we talked with some drivers who park cars on illegal spot.While we asked them about this they simply replied that there are no proper places. In fact, they themselves don’t like to park in illegal places and they also suffer from traffic jams.

The current number of people we are serving: As our app is in concept stage the current number of people we are serving is 0.

The number we'll be serving in one year: If we can raise enough fund then we are estimating to serve more than 10k in one year.

The number we'll be serving in five years: If we are able to serve 10k people in one year then time to time by continuous improvement we are estimating to serve over 100k by five years.

Goals within next year: 

1) Raise enough fund

2) Create the app

3) Soft launch/Beta testing

4) Improve our app

5) Get more host users by colloborating with flat developers and advertisement

6) Get into pilot stage

7) Successfully operate in Dhaka city

Goals within next five years:

1) Expand our company/scale-up by operating in other regions of Bangladesh beyond Dhaka like Chattogram, Cumilla, Khulna, Sylhet

2) Successfully establish the company in Bangladesh

3) Expand our company further by operating in other countries like India, Pakistan, China, Nepal, etc.

1) Our goals for next year cannot be accomplished without enough funding as we need to hire developers to create the app. Also we need money for advertisement and other purpose.

Other then this we don't have any barrier so far because in Bangldesh app based solutions are very common. So Bangladeshi people are digitally vere literate about using app based solutions.

To overcome the mentioned barriers we are participating in various startup competions like Tiger Challenge,Student to Startup,etc. Also we are increasing knowledge about tech business and tactics. We are trying use every single oppurtunities and resources available. 

Currently the number of members in our team is four:

1) Hasin Ishrak: Works at Japanese AI industry

2) Hasin Anjum: Student

3) Abrar Shahriar Khan: Student

4) Hasinul Islam: Businessman

(We will hire two more developers)

Among us Hasin Ishrak will see the technical and management aspect. Hasin Anjum is the team leader. Abrar Shahriar Khan is the vice leader and Hasinul Islam will see the finanacial aspect. 

One of our member Hasin Ishrak who works at AI industry in Japan. He has knowledge on Al Industry. Also he has a opened startup company. So he also has knowledge on startup and business also. Also Hasin Anjum(me) and Abrar Shahriar has knowledge on entreprenuership. We are learing about entreprenuership and tech business. Hasinul Islam is a businessman who has knowledge abount business and funding. So by hardworking and use available resources we beleive we can deliver the solution and bring a change in the parking trend in Bangladesh.

Key resource: 

• Funding
• Android and IOS app.
• Local car owners
• Real estate firms
• Open space, unutilized parking spaces of schools, colleges, commecial and non-commercial organizations.

Partners and key stockholders:

• Local car owners
• Business partners

Cost structure:

• Engineering staff
• Management staff
• Software platform

Key activities:

• Fund raising
• App Development
• piloting the model: beta testing or soft launching
• Fixing up the app problems: updating the app
• Promotional activities through sms, social media, posters, billboard, newspapers
• Identifying the potential parking spaces
• Promotional package offers to involve those space owners in space sharing
• Commercial launching

Type of intervention:

• Parking space sharing

Channels:

• IOS app
• Android app
• Web

Surplus:

•  Product and service development

Segments:

• Car owners
• General traffic

Customer:

• Car owner

Value proposition: 

• Reduce Traffic jam
• Eradication of illegal parking

Revenue:

• Service charge

First of all we have to raise enough funding through joining startup based competitions. Then we have to hire two/three developers to develop to create app. Then we have to develop the app. Then we beta test the app. After figuring issues in our development we will fix them. After the app is confirmed to be launches in wide range we will try to colloborate with flat developers to reach the local garage and car owners. By advertising and improving we will successfully launch our app in Dhaka city. From the users we will take a particular amount per day. Like this when we will raise enough money we will work to improve our app and lanuch it in other cities behind Dhaka. Like this we will operate our app in wide area of Bangladesh. Our profit will be increased the more we widen our operating area. 

We are applyting to tiger challenge because it will help us to overcome major barriers to deliver our solution. One of the main reason we are applying here is that it will take concept stage solutions. Another reason is that if our solution is selected we are not only getting funding but also supports like training and mentorship. It will help us to learn more about business and entreprenuership from the support of experts and leaders.