Corporate Carpools
Many companies, universities and organizations support closed carpools as a member benefit. By limiting the carpool to a closed group, lack of trust is usually not an issue anymore – and communication between participants is intended. In case many carpoolers share one campus or building, the probability to find a matching ride is much higher in this circular setting than in a plain field setting. Smaller companies might even team up with other companies close-by in order to reach the critical mass for a sufficient ride matching probability.
Expected Benefits
Benefits for the employees
- Reduced commuting costs
- Networking
- Perks related to the carpool, such as priority parking
- Reduced stress by not driving on their own
Benefits for the company/organization
- Higher employee satisfaction
- Networking among different departments
- Reduced carbon footprint for Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR)
- Improved image as a environment-friendly company
- ISO 14401 certification friendly
- Reduced need for parking space
The following post gives an overview about some carpooling systems available for these corporate carpools.
Functionality
When organizations set up a carpool, they need to select a system matching their specific needs. Just implementing any kind of matching software and hoping that it will be used won’t be sufficient. To reach a sufficient matching probability, a “critical mass” (or more precisely a “critical density”) needs to be active right from the start. Otherwise participants will test it, not find a ride – and be lost for the system. Promising carpooling systems offer both: the technical platform and implementation and operations support. Let’s have a look at some of the known systems on the market:
| Function | Faxi | Flinc | iCarpool | Liftshare | Open Carpool | SAP TwoGo | Bosch SPLT | Waze Carpool | Wunder | Zimride |
| Implementation support | On demand | No | Promotion material and professional services | On demand | Project plan and promotion material | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | |
| 24/7 customer care | No | Yes | ||||||||
| Dynamic real-time ride matching | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Real-time vehicle tracking | Yes | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |||||
| Configurable detour limitation | Yes | No | ||||||||
| Customizable routes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Recurring rides | No | No | Yes | Yes | No | |||||
| Round trip | Yes | Yes | ||||||||
| Parking allocation | Yes | |||||||||
| Integration of public transport | No | Yes | Yes, static | No | ||||||
| Backup mobility service | No | No | No | No | ||||||
| In-built rewards program | No | No | ||||||||
| Payment | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ||||||
| Driver and passenger verification | Yes | No | Yes | |||||||
| Closed community | No | Yes | Yes | No, just filters | ||||||
| Blacklist | No | No | ||||||||
| Driver and passenger rating | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | ||||||
| Reporting and Analytics | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | Yes | Yes | ||||
| Multi location and time zones | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Multi-language support | Yes | Yes | Yes | |||||||
| Multi-client capability | No | Yes | No | |||||||
| White label or co-branding | No | Yes | Yes | No | Yes | |||||
| Software as a Service (SaaS) | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | Yes | |
| Single Sign On (SSO) | No | No | No | |||||||
| Integration in car navigation | Yes | No | ||||||||
| Interfaces (Web, App, Calendar, API) | App only | Web, app | App only | Web, Outlook calendar | Web, app, intranet | App | App only | App only | ||
| Emergency notification system | No | No | No | Yes | ||||||
| Integrated social media or chat | Yes | No | No | Yes | ||||||
| Comment | Currently not offering corporate carpools but carpooling for events | Managed carpool service in some US cities | Stong in the UK and Ireland | Open Source MVP and not a commercial product, no longer available | Strong in Germany | Open carpool system from Google’s sister company which allows to filter for co-workers only. Available only in Brasil, Israel and the US yet. | The Hamburg-based service is strong in India and the Philippines | The Enterprise company provides a managed service at many US universities | ||
| URL | https://faxi.co.uk/corp/ | https://flinc.org/ | http://www.icarpool.com/ | http://business.liftshare.com/ | https://web.opencarpool.org/ | https://www.twogo.com | http://splt.io/ | https://www.waze.com/de/carpool | https://www.wunder.org/carpool | https://zimride.com/ |
This information is supplied without liability and subject to change.
Added 2019-04-23: http://b2ride.org/
Added 2019-06-08: https://www.hitchhike.ch
A pretty comprehensive list of carpooling systems in Germany is available at this Twitter Moment from @MetaMitfahrPort.
Conclusion
The market for carpool systems is developing quickly and pure software offers might in future be offered via specialized consultancy companies. So please provide feedback and further insights on the systems, share your experience and watch this space!