www.karm.ly
Incentivize generous behavior through meaningful rewards...
  • Home
  • How it works
    • For users
    • For merchants
    • For charities
  • Contact
  • About
    • Karma Coins
  • Karma Ride
    • How it works
    • Sign up Karma Ride

Hitchhiking 2.0

5/16/2015

1 Comment

 

Carpooling is good for long distances, but most of the waste is in the city with single-drivers cars jamming the traffic...

Picture
Every morning I take a bus which is always full as an egg, while outside cars are always empty with one or two people. Apart from the awful experience in a filled bus, the problem is that the same bus is slowed down by the traffic flow, which is made mostly by the above single-occupied cars. Not to talk about increased pollution and risk of accidents.

Is there any solution for this problem?

Many have tried, but nobody has provided a viable solution so far. UBER is intended to be a ride-sharing solution, but it is after all, a new taxi company that is dumping rides fares. I like the Uber idea, but drivers are no longer occasional ones, they are "hired" by the company. See also how UBER is advertised to prospective drivers: "you can earn up to $$$ per night!". This is not in the spirit of sharing economy.

I believe that sharing economy is about sharing UNUSED resources and get rewarded for that sharing. Yes, in a sense, unemployed people can share their time and be rewarded for that... but this I call a JOB!

Anyway, apart from philosophical questions about what is the sharing economy, if you look at UBER prices, they are not so different than taxi fares. They are cheaper, but still taxi fares.

My idea is to let drivers that are already driving alone to share their free seats along their trip. They will be rewarded for that, but not as a taxi fares. Additionally, they should be motivated in sharing for NOT WASTING the free seats and CONTRIBUTE to reduce C02 pollution. 

Picture
Let's look at this scenario:

Suppose that John has to commute to work, or even better, his work is to visit people in different locations hardly accessible through public transportations. While traveling from his home to the next motorway entrance, he might stop and get hitchhikers along the way. 

In other words, there are people who cannot avoid using the car. Those people might provide rides to those people who can avoid taking their car (e.g. they just need a lift, occasionally, or they are not in a hurry). 

For these situations, the matching has to happen "serendipitously". The driver passes by and stops at someone asking for a ride, like for hitchhikers. 

You might have stumbled upon a hitchhiker. If you hesitated stopping or you did not stop, maybe the reason was that you were afraid of getting a criminal or a dangerous person in your car. What if you could be sure that people you get in your car are safe? Would you be more keen to stop at hitchhikers?

My two main hypotheses are:

1. Drivers would share rides to people they are know to be safe (e.g. registered in a website with their identity disclosed).
2. Drivers are motivated in ride sharing not for monetary compensation, but for helping occasional drivers and contribute to reducing overall CO2 footprint.

There is an additional hypothesis which is:

3. Drivers might be keener to share a ride to people who have done a good action, e.g. they have donated some money to a charity or a for-good cause.

If these 3 hypotheses are valid, then the Karm.ly model is applicable. Drivers can accept payments are Karma points that hitchhikers have earned through their donations.
1 Comment

    Karmly

    ...where good action meet good deals!

    Archives

    May 2015
    December 2014
    January 2014
    October 2013
    September 2013
    August 2013
    July 2013

    Categories

    All
    Carpooling
    Complementary Currency
    Crowdfunding
    Csr
    Deals
    Donation Drivers
    Hitchhiking
    Impact Points
    Incentives
    Karmly
    Loyalty Programs
    Rewards
    Ride Sharing
    Sharing Economy
    Trends
    Virtual Currency
    WIR

    RSS Feed

Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.