Booking a ride in someone else's car
April 9, 2012 | Length: 00:03:06
Taking a trip but don't want to drive by yourself? Ride-sharing startup Zimride enables drivers to sell empty seats in their cars. Passengers can buy rides with people already driving to where they want to go. SmartPlanet looks at how the company uses Facebook to connect drivers and passengers together.
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Making a profit has problems in the UK
Another system would be a system that works from your mobile phone via GPS and the web. If you want a lift then just enter the details on your phone and when a suitable matching car approaches, it will receive an alarm to say that there is someone nearby who wants a lift. This would be ideal for smaller journeys.
There is a way round this - using taxis and private hire vehicles
To get round the insurance problem, use taxis or limousines. It is eminently doable. My company proved it in real conditions in 2006 and 2008.
its a grand idea...
Illegal in the UK
Lets be honest, if its about saving money and reduction of CO2 its not in the governments interests as they charge 628% tax compounded on Petrol. In some places abroad a litre of petrol is from 2 to 3pence per litre to 18 pence per litre - Quatar, Saudi, Venezuala etc.
The British government could solve the congestion and CO2 situation overnight by giving tax incentives to companies for staff to home work. nearly 2/3rds of traffic in and out of London congesting motorways are commuters doing a job that could just as easily be done from home - and we do have that technology, just requires incentive and a restructuring of management task managment. The cost saving to companies alone would be huge as office space is very expensive in London especially, so is the cost of commuting - but no the government want their slice.
By ride sharing (car sharing is something else in USA ie car pooling) the government would lose out on tax as people would be more fuel efficient - so they passed the law not allowing people to give lifts for profit.
I used to do a ride share for 5 people in my 8 seater vehicle that ran on LPG for a journey of 150 miles per day, but they were not allowed to contribute legally. So only other method is to alternate cars, which is impracticle as that means backtracking on route to pick people up. Nope I think the government/energy companies have it sown up having convinced us its for our benefit as usual.
UK Valid insurance
The road tax 5% goes towards the roads, yet they are talking about tolling the roads to cover road costs!
I suggest they do away with road tax and put the insurance on the windscreen in the same place.
The tax on petrol/diesel and LPG is way high enough to cover the costs of the roads and much more.
In South Africa pre ANC the government had a 3rd party fund covering all qualified car drivers not banned. The tax on the fuel paid for this fund. It was the choice of the vehicle owner if they wanted to buy comprehensive insurance to cover the car from vandalism, fire, theft and vehicle damage costs.
It would be easy to put such a fund in place here as well, but they don't want to do that - they want you to pay tax on overly inflated car insurances always required. They spend a fortune on police in car linked cameras for checking number plates and punishing motorists, instead they should take away big brother, stop punishing motorists and invest in a similar fund. We the people pay enough tax and its being used against us rather than to help us.
When ever money is involved the big brothers get involved.
Obviously the government is going to view this as a livery business with the appropriate regulations, license fees and taxes. They have to get their cut of the action.
Then you have the insurance companies denying a claim for an accident once they find out that a paying customer was in the vehicle. Once the first few lawsuits from that misunderstanding of coverage are resolved you would see increasing premiums, or a government mandate that you have commercial livery insurance to cover potential losses if an accident happens when a passenger is in the vehicle.
I see ugly written all over this idea.
I think you are reading into this too much
The passenger has paid Zimride, so the passenger is just a passenger and the driver's insurance pays in the event of an accident, or
The passenger has paid Zimride, so Zimride is the responsible party in the event of an accident.
Not sure about California law.
I suspect CA has a loophole to encourage ride sharing.
If they follow past history they will leave it that way until popular or until a serious incident happens. Then they will begin taxing and regulating it.
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Transcript
Music
>> Sumi Das: Kate Wong packed her bags and is about to hit the road. The San Francisco social worker is driving to the Los Angeles area to visit her friends, but first, she's picking up a passenger.
>> Kate Wong: You said you're waiting on Fillmore and Geary, right?
>> Sumi Das: College student, Spring Chow assumed spelling bought a seat in Kate's car for today's trip.
>> Kate Wong: Seat belt's on the right.
>> Sumi Das: Kate sold the space using an online ride-sharing service called Zimride.
>> John Zimmer: For the passenger, it's just like booking a bus ticket or a plane ticket, but you're actually booking a seat in someone else's car.
>> Sumi Das: John Zimmer is Zimride's cofounder. John quit his job at an investment bank to work at the startup full-time. He says something he learned in a college class inspired him to make the move.
>> John Zimmer: The fact is, eighty percent of the seats on our highways are empty today, and this is a huge opportunity to create efficiency to save a lot of money to reduce our environmental footprint...
>> Sumi Das: Zimride launched on two college campuses in 2007. Today, it's on more than one hundred, but it's also moved off campus. Anyone can offer or share a ride.
>> John Zimmer: We have an inaudible that takes into account both the distance, the amount of detour that you would have to drive to pick up someone as well as your time in common. And what it does, it gives it a score, and it ranks those in order of your best match on top similar to how Google does a page rank for search results...
>> Sumi Das: San Francisco to Los Angeles is the website's most popular route. People book rides by logging in with their Facebook accounts. Kate accepted Spring's offer to buy a seat after seeing her Facebook profile.
>> John Zimmer: You can see what school they went to, where they work, and this is, you know, the number one most important thing for our users is being able to establish trust and make informed decisions before sharing rides.
>> Sumi Das: John says Zimride is different from car sharing startups like Relay Rides and Wheels where people borrow vehicles and often drive short distances.
>> John Zimmer: Zimride's trips are...and ride sharing is typically fifty to five hundred mile travel, and you're selling the seats in your car as a driver, or you're a passenger getting a ride with someone already going that way.
>> Sumi Das: The three hundred and eighty mile drive to Los Angeles cost Kate about sixty dollars for gas each way. She charged Spring thirty-five dollars for a one-way ride, but Kate was concerned about more than money.
>> Kate Wong: Well driving by myself, I'll be really really tired since it's a seven-hour drive, and with a passenger I feel like they could keep me awake and keep me stimulated.
>> Sumi Das: The site has arranged more than fifty thousand rides so far. In many cases, John says drivers and passengers become friends.
>> John Zimmer: The number one reason people use Zimride the first time is to save or make money. The number one reason people use Zimride the second time is because of the amazing social experience they had the first time.
>> Sumi Das: With traffic like this, Kate and Spring will have plenty of opportunity. For SmartPlanet, I'm Sumi Daz. Music