HopSkipDrive Announces SmartPooling Product Reduced 160,000 Pounds of CO2; Company Launches New Sustainability Reporting Feature for School Districts
April 30 2024 - 10:00AM
Business Wire
Latest developments underscore HopSkipDrive's
commitment to advancing sustainable school transportation
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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