I drive on my commute to work. I wouldn’t mind offering a free ride to people who are going the same direction as I am. The public transportation system is not very good where I live, so I would guess a lot people would be interested. Is there some kind website or app where I can write where and when I’m going, so people who are going the same direction and time can connect with me? There would be no payment involved at all. It would be a rewarding social thing do as a driver and if a lot of people started doing it, I would go as a rider once in a while as well.
Lol, this was Uber’s first draft when they were a startup. That’s why they’re still described as a ridesharing app to this day.
Thats crazy! I was thinking that the service should be free to avoid money being the primary reason drivers use it but did know Uber’s first version was similar to this.
It was the core of the whole “drivers aren’t employees, so they don’t get labor protections” shtick. They’re just doing a gig or a rideshare, they aren’t taxi drivers. In some countries and jurisdictions those apps are actually banned because transporting other people for profit is protected work with regulations on minimum training and special licenses, Uber was just being facetious.
Dang. I used to use Scoop which was a great way to find people headed your way and would even help the passenger digitally spot the driver a few dollars for gas. My city even subsidized it and would add a few dollars for the driver every trip.
Unfortunately, this was back in 2019, and they’ve since pivoted to some kind of workplace productivity app.
Edit: oh, looks like it still supports the commute feature. https://takescoop.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/206379157-How-do-I-get-the-Scoop-for-Commute-app-
Thanks for sharing! I will look into this
I had some problems with it when I used it, but I think I wasn’t the target audience. My typical commute is like 20 minutes (with no traffic), so I’d often get paired with people who weren’t really along my path. Also, I remember some nonsense about the pairing process where people could cancel up to like 10 minutes after you had to leave.
After a few months, they said I didn’t live far enough away from the target area, so they locked me out. If you’ve got a longer commute, you might have better results.
I feel like this service would yield the most literal illustration of the free rider problem ever.
Not tried it myself, there’s https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.comuto
kangaride is the closest that I know of, buts it’s focused predominantly for longer trips between cities from what I understand.
Maybe post a piece of paper at or near your workplace. It’s a local problem with, maybe, local solutions.