Humsafar, the diesel-on-demand start-up, has set out an aggressive plan to launch its services nationally over the next four months. From the nine states it operates in currently, Humsafar intends to target all Tier I cities in the country, before moving to Tier II and Tier III cities.
Mayank Agarwal, Co-Founder, Humsafar India said the company would first focus on the easy states, where there are no restrictions to internet connectivity, and where people are aware of using the service. Humsafar currently serves Punjab, Uttar Pradesh, Uttarakhand, Maharashtra, Assam, Kerala, Gujarat, Goa, and the Delhi NCR region including Noida, Faridabad, and Ghaziabad.
Earlier this year, the company expanded its range of on-demand diesel to smaller households with the ‘Safar20’ service. This was done through a collaboration with Bharat Petroleum (BPCL).
With the new initiative, the start-up is targeting nursing homes, independent homes, the agricultural industry, house generators and small parts stores that have a daily requirement of around 20 litre of diesel, hence the name ‘Safar20’. Customers opting for this service can order up to a maximum of 20 litre of diesel.
Humsafar is anticipating a daily demand of 57,000 to 60,000 kilolitre in Delhi/NCR alone. Speaking on this, Sanya Goel, Founder and Director, Humsafar India said, “Various establishments will stand to benefit from this on-demand service. It will not only be safer and more streamlined but also help in eliminating the risky practice of storing diesel on the premises.”
The company started its operations in 2016 as a customer attention loyalty programme, wherein they tracked the movements of their customers i.e. whether the customer is coming back for refuelling in regular patterns, any deviation or latency, if they have had any bad experience or any other updates. This was done to create a better experience at the retail outlet.
“The initial aim was to make the customers feel a little more wanted at the retail outlet. We wanted to start giving some sort of incentive,” Agarwal said.
Later, a push from the Indian government gave the company the opportunity to explore uncharted territory in the industry. In 2018, the government, along with state-owned oil companies, started doorstep delivery of fuel services. Although Humsafar was already into doorstep delivery for fuel service, this step by the GOI gave them momentum.
With the vision of making ‘last-mile connectivity’ efficient, convenient and safe, the company then developed the app called ‘Fuel Humsafar’, which made the whole process seamless.