Tag Archives: zimride

Heading to LA? There’s a route for that

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SF to LAWe launched Zimride with the vision of building a new form of transportation by creating a community marketplace for drivers to monetize the empty seats in their cars. Today we are excited to announce the launch of our new public platform focused on popular routes.

Over the last four years, we’ve successfully launched Zimride communities at over 100 universities and companies across 30 states in the U.S. In each of these communities we’ve built up an active base of users sharing rides, whether it has been students sharing rides home on the weekend or people carpooling to work every day. In all, Zimride users have logged over 100,000,000 miles traveled.

But Zimride still hasn’t been for everyone. Today that changes. We are launching our first promoted route dubbed “the Sunshine Route”: San Francisco to Los Angeles. Over the last couple weeks, we have jump-started the route with an incredible team of route builders, so users will have options from Day One. So far during our week of testing, more than 50 seats have been booked and we currently have an inventory of 100 seats available. Seats are selling fast, so if you want a ride to LA book one today before they sell out:

Find a Zimride to LA

And for everyone who is driving to LA, you’ll receive a $20 driver bonus payout along with the money you charge for your seats by posting your SF > LA ride in the month of August:

Be a Zimride driver

SF to LA is just our first route and we’ll be launching more within the next few months. Let us know what you think and what route you want to see us launch next. For users who are part of private networks, nothing changes. You will still have access to your organization’s network to share rides with others in your trusted community or organization. However, private networks will be seeing several interface and functionality improvements over the next few months.

We have a lot more exciting news in store in the coming weeks, so make sure to stay tuned!

American Road Trip (and commute) Reborn with Zimride

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Today marks the day 100 million miles have been traveled among users in the Zimride network. This massive milestone demonstrates the beginning of a reborn American road trip and commute. This comes at a time when AAA is reporting a decrease in July 4th travel due to high gas prices. Consumers are looking for easy ways to cut down their gas costs and sharing the ride is the simplest ways reduce this expense. Over the last 3 years, Zimride drivers and passengers have saved $50 million in vehicle operating expenses.

The 100 millionth mile was driven by Lauren Vargas, a student at UCSC on her way to Los Angeles. Zimride is awarding Lauren free gas money for the month of July. We notified Lauren today over the phone and she told us, “I’ve had 8 really great Zimride experiences getting paid more than $600 driving down to LA and back to school. In fact, the cost effectiveness made it possible for me to maintain a relationship in LA. Additionally, I re-connected with a friend from middle school and now hang out with him on a regular basis thanks to our Zimride!”

Today we are also excited to announce our 100th client network. Zimride networks now include all 10 schools in the University of California system, Stanford, Harvard, Facebook and Intuit. These milestones brings us one step closer to creating a nationwide marketplace for drivers to monetize the empty seats in their vehicles by selling them to passengers who are traveling along the same route. Check out the sweet infographic below that our designer Marc put together to celebrate the occasion.

Here are a few more details on the recent milestones:

  • 100 clients / networks
  • 100 million miles shared
  • $50 million in vehicle operating expenses
  • 26,706 carpools formed
    • 44% are commutes that result in an avg. of 200 daily round trips
    • 56% are long distance trips that average 175 miles each way
  • Zimride has also partnered with several artists including Jack Johnson, Dave Matthews Band and Sheryl Crow to provide ridesharing to their events

To join our team in creating a transportation revolution, check out our jobs page and drop us a line.

A variation of this post was also featured on TechCrunch Friday, July 1.

Zimride 100 Infographic

The Zimride Advantage

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This week’s BCS National Championship game concludes another year of college football bowls (don’t worry, this isn’t another BCS opinion entry).  There were upsets, heartbreaks, close-calls, and blowouts.  While the games can be hard to predict, hindsight can offer interesting statistics.  The advantage that no one saw coming: Zimride!

Schools that partner with Zimride finished the bowl season 6-1!  This year, bowl victories were celebrated at Stanford, USF,  San Diego St, UCF, UW and UNC (sorry Michigan, we can only do so much).  Two games pitted Zimride schools against each other, so they simply cancelled each other out – props to UMD and NC State on the wins.  Zimride can’t claim credit on any direct impact that we had on games, but it raises some interesting questions about fan support at neutral locations.

There’s no doubt that the home field advantage makes a difference.  Some credit the psychology of the experience for players, but when crowd noise forces the visiting team to take a timeout, it can change the outcome in a close game.  Zimride allows users to post rides to games and be matched up with other people going the same way.  As gas prices creep higher, many college students will be priced out of traveling to upcoming sporting events.  The costs of driving alone or purchasing a bus ticket simply outweigh the benefits of the trip.  When a student fills his empty seats on a trip they intended to take anyways, they incur no costs and are often paid gas money.  Rarely is there a price dispute, because the passenger is getting the deal of a lifetime compared to what they would pay on a crowded bus, making frequent stops along the way.

This is bigger than carpooling.  A recent post on Twitter said, “ Zimride is amazing. I got a ride to airport at 10x lower cost than cab with nicer car and fun chat. The world is getting better and better..”

We can’t promise that your team will win, but when you’re driving to a sporting event, consider taking other fans with you.  Zimride’s Event feature makes it even easier to organize fans going the same way – check out VCU’s basketball page.  A few extra voices in the crowd might be just what your team needs to create that home field advantage.

Zimride Users Share their Stories

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Recently, we reached out to over 600 Zimride users to get their stories about utilizing Zimride, and OH BOY! we get some real great ones!  We’ll share some of our favorites, and we start out with a fantastic story with quite the picture…

As you can probably guess from the photo above, this Zimrider drove through Wisconsin (I mean, where else are you going to find a cheesehead monster cow?!).  She tells her story best:

We carpooled to Eau Claire, WI, on the weekend of Sept 17 -19, and it was a fun weekend had by all!  Alyssa visited friends on the UW-Eau Claire campus and also her boyfriend at UW-Stout.  Joel visited friends on the Eau Claire campus.  And Jenny visited friends who live right near campus.  We drove over in Jenny’s Dad’s honda civic, and we listened to some great tunes in the car.  We even jammed out and sang along to some songs like Maroon 5.

On the ride home on Sunday, as we were leaving Eau Claire, we drove by Heckel’s restaurant.  In front of the restaurant we saw this great cow wearing a cheesehead and we had to get a picture.  As we drove home to Oshkosh, we listened to the Packer game in the car!

Using the ride board is a great way to make friends and save the environment!!

If you are a Zimrider (and we sure hope you are!) and you want to get some spotlight on our blog, send us your story and picture to community@zimride.com.  Happy Zimriding!

Zimride is a success at Opportunity Green Conference!

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We would like to thank our supporters, investors, Moms, Dads…

No, that’s not how our acceptance speech started off, but in all seriousness, we were honored to receive the 2010 Opportunity Green Innovative Green Startup Award! There were 25 finalists, and all were very cool, sustainable and interesting companies.  Saying that they were all tough competition would be an understatement.

Our very own Lisa Galindo, Account Executive, represented Zimride at the conference and gave a one-minute pitch about the company.  I spoke with her when she returned to the office, and she said that an amazing number of people approached her after the award ceremony, and that the support was electrifying.

You can see her quoted in this recent article saying, “We came to Opportunity Green to collaborate with other credible companies who are focused on sustainable business and solutions and we’re honored to receive this award to further our goal in informing the market that we have this great and impactful social network platform which large corporations and universities can use to really make a difference.”

If you want to check out what everyone is finding so interesting and innovative about Zimride, and maybe getting it for your organization, please contact us at community@zimride.com.

Brand New Zimride.com

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Welcome to the new Zimride.com! A lot has been happening here at Zimride Headquarters the last few weeks, this new site being one of them.

The new site allows rides to be posted from right here, and features a ride history on your profile page. The site is fully compatible with our facebook application, so you can use whichever you want and still have access to all the rides.

We’ve also added this blog. Keep your eyes tuned here for news from the carpool universe. However, we don’t want to jabber about ourselves all day. We would rather hear from you. Send us your ideas, stories from the road (adventures and misadventures), pictures, or anything else that piques your interest and we will forever anoint you a Zimride All-Star.

Most excitingly, over the next few weeks our COO John Zimmer is carpooling across the country on his way to Palo Alto. Carpool Across America ties together themes of rising gas prices, the power of social networks, and environmentally conscious business solutions from a young generation. By combining social carpooling (riding with friends) and fuel-efficient technology, we will showcase a viable solution to growing environmental and economic concerns. Stay tuned here for updates from the road!