HopSkipDrive Announces SmartPooling Product Reduced 160,000 Pounds of CO2; Company Launches New Sustainability Reporting Feature

LOS ANGELES , April 30 /Businesswire/ - HopSkipDrive reported today that in the eight months since launching its product SmartPooling, school districts saved 160,000 pounds of CO2 as a result of reducing single occupancy rides and matching students together for transportation. School districts using this feature were able to more efficiently leverage supplemental school transportation options to smartly operate their systems. These districts then had more avenues to utilize their buses effectively and on dense routes, ultimately reducing inefficient supplemental rides by 280,000 miles.

Also announced by HopSkipDrive, a technology company solving complex transportation challenges where there is a heightened need for safety, equity, and care, is a new feature providing school districts with visibility into the sustainability impact of HopSkipDrive rides. With Green Vehicle Awareness, districts will gain insight into the number, and percentage, of HopSkipDrive rides and miles completed in hybrid or electric vehicles from within RideIQ, HopSkipDrive’s ride management system.

“Given more than a third of vehicle miles currently traveled on the HopSkipDrive platform are in clean vehicles (electric, hybrid, or fuel cell), and HopSkipDrive platform vehicles are 4.7 times more fuel efficient than a diesel bus, product features like SmartPooling and Green Vehicle Awareness demonstrate that the school transportation sector can quickly be a real driver of climate goals and wins,” said Joanna McFarland, CEO and co-founder of HopSkipDrive.

These two developments build on HopSkipDrive's work to advance clean youth transportation. In February, the company announced the impacts of its RouteWise AI product, which leverages AI-powered machine learning software that analyzes a school district’s complete transportation landscape to deliver customized routing options, scenario plans, and recommendations to meet each district’s unique goals.

By improving route efficiency and increasing utilization of bus routes, as well as supplementing buses with small vehicles, a Colorado district reduced transportation carbon emissions by 31 percent.

“We are incredibly proud of the results we’ve seen through our technology and our CareDriver network, but we know the work is never done,” McFarland continued. “We are committed to ensuring that by 2030, at least 50 percent of vehicle miles traveled nationally on our platform will be completed in clean vehicles. It’s clear multi-modal transportation options can offer school district officials an avenue to adhere to sustainability guidance and build a way to take advantage of all choices.”

More About SmartPooling

Available on HopSkipDrive’s RideIQ ride management system, SmartPooling is a comprehensive pooling offering which includes automatically matching new Riders with existing HopSkipDrive rides to reduce the cost and carbon footprint of every ride.

Once a new ride is built, RideIQ can effortlessly search the client’s existing rides to determine which ones can be combined simply by clicking a button, showing potential ride options for the client to choose from. Each suggestion provides important information about the pooling option, including the number of Riders, the adjusted pickup or drop-off time, and cost savings.

SmartPooling is powered by HopSkipDrive’s Student Centered Pricing option, in which clients pay a base fare per student plus a per-mile fee. Pricing remains consistent for single Rider trips, and districts begin saving with two riders in the vehicle. When three riders or more are pooled in a ride, HopSkipDrive applies a “full car discount,” reducing the overall cost as well as the emissions.

This helps school districts select the best ride for their students, and supports the shared goals of reducing transportation cost and climate impact.

More About Green Vehicle Awareness

Green Vehicle Awareness is a new product feature within RideIQ, allowing districts – many of whom are faced with new state sustainability reporting requirements - to easily and quickly see how many HopSkipDrive rides utilize environmentally friendly vehicles and the total mileage completed in those rides. As part of RideIQ’s Reports capability, HopSkipDrive clients can view the number of, and the percentage of, rides and miles driven by a green vehicle, in a selected period. Green Vehicle Awareness will be available in the coming weeks.

About HopSkipDrive

HopSkipDrive is a technology company that solves complex transportation challenges where there is a heightened need for safety, equity, and care. HopSkipDrive’s marketplace arranges care-centered transportation across 13 states and Washington, DC, supplementing other transportation options by connecting kids, older adults, or anyone needing extra support, to highly-vetted caregivers on wheels, such as grandparents, babysitters, and nurses. HopSkipDrive also builds software and offers advisory services that solve the biggest transportation challenges facing schools and school districts around the country, including budget cuts, bus driver shortages, and reaching climate goals. HopSkipDrive currently partners with school districts, government agencies, and nonprofits, including supporting more than 10,000 schools. More than three million rides over 61 million miles have been completed through HopSkipDrive since the company was founded in 2014 by three working mothers.

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