PickupPal makes carpooling an online, financial thing
In the middle of January, a new website aimed at getting people to car-share was launched over at PickupPal.com. The website's CTO, Eric Dewhirst, describes its carpooling model this way:
PickupPal is like eBay for transportation - you say where you want to go and people bid on taking you there. We launched January 15th and are founders-funded and currently closing a Friends and Family round. Our revenue model is based on 7% commission if we hook you up with someone who is going your way and needs a ride.
Eric says that because people are motivated by money, "carpooling and ride sharing is attractive to the masses when getting paid is involved." And, even though there is a little green footprint signifying carbon reduction on the bottom of the PickupPal site, Eric says that his organization downplays the CO2 reduction angle so they "don't scare away the masses." The idea behind the site is to simply get more people into fewer cars; that'll reduce carbon emissions whether the participants know what they're doing or not. If you've tried PickupPal, let us know your experience -- positive or negative -- in the comments.
[Source: PickupPal]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 1)
rgseidl 1:18PM (2/15/2008)
Hmmm, the name is rather unfortunate. The whole setup sounds pretty seamy to me: "No officer, honestly, he's just paying me for the *transportation* service!"
If you want to encourage carpooling by paying drivers to give others rides, you need an organization in-between that screens applicants and maintains fixed rates per mile (based on shortest possible distance as per the organization's satnav system). Members would be encouraged to report poor drivers and inappropriate behavior. Those that want to be offered rides would need to maintain an account with pre-paid miles. The organization would make its money off annual membership fees plus the differential between the rates.
And call it RideShare, Carpoolers, Green Tarmac or something, not PickupPal.
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Eric Dewhirst 2:46PM (2/15/2008)
@ rgseidl
We do have a rating system integrated - both drivers and passengers are rated on many variables like eBay. The membership fee and pre-paying – we thought of that but man that is a hassle. I don’t like to pay for membership fees or pre-pay anything so I would never ask you to either. Our approach is if we do our job and find you someone to ride with then we get a small commission – if we do not then well we get nothing – makes us work harder. We also have a refer a friend program where if you are a registered member of PickupPal and you refer a friend and they sign up – well you and your friend get a $5 credit to use against our 7% commission. Invite a ton a friends and get them to sign up and you don’t owe us anything. As for the name - you gotta name it something - I don't think it is a seedy name - possibly a bit cheeky but hey let's have some fun! But thanks for taking the time to comment ;-).
Cheers – Eric
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Wise Golden 3:06PM (2/15/2008)
#1 -- It's a great idea that you are suggesting. I would take it one step further and make it a free service provided by the Government, but administered by a private company.
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Wildgoosechase73 4:50PM (2/15/2008)
Interesting, but as soon as you are paid to transport somebody then that is livery, and you would need commercial car insurance and likely a chauffer's liscence.
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Eric Dewhirst 11:44PM (2/15/2008)
@ Wildgoosechase73
We care to differ - you are allowed to carpool and recoup your costs - you are not however allowed to make a profit. It is up to you to justify what your costs are and what profit is. It costs me over 8k per year for my vehicle, (gas, insurance, leasing, maintenance) - I would like to recoup my costs. Good comment though - thanks for posting.
Cheers - Eric
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Melbourne Pooler 12:57AM (4/02/2008)
The owners of PickupPal obviously see their site as fulfilling a service currently not catered for. I'm afraid that after visiting the site, I'm immediately reminded of frustrating sites such as schoolfriendsreunited.com. For those that are unaware of this site, payment blocks at every stage made the site infuriating to use. The site administrators attempted to carefully protect their revenue streams. In doing so, all email addresses and other contact details within user profiles were monitored and deleted. To contact somebody, a membership fee was needed. The end result was that users stayed away in droves and the revenue model has now been reviewed and changed to a free model.
Despite PickupPal being ten minutes old, they are already up to the same tricks. The forums moderators make it clear that members are unable to use the forum to look for rides, or advertise rides. "That's our livelihood thank you very much. Please register as a user and pay us our 7%!"
This is where the problem lies. A central resource to aide car pooling could be a sustainable idea. However, PickupPal will not be the preferred site of potential poolers. This should ultimately be a government or not-for-profit initiative. If local or state governments do not offer this service in the near future, then a copycat "free provider" inevitably will. (Perhaps revenue will be based on advertising?)
Despite what the sites creators may think, PickupPal will simply not prosper under a paid user model.
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