Popular ride-sharing website Ridejoy now offers the Ridejoy app.
Recently there has been a flurry of ride-sharing programs with Ridejoy being one of the most popular. Basically, Ridejoy allows drivers to sell their seats in their car on trips over 15 miles. Those wishing to find a cheap ride can then search the database of 3,000 members and find the trip that suits their needs. The startup has been in operation since October of 2011 and with its increased popularity has released the Ridejoy app for the iPhone.
The Ridejoy app will be free to download and upgrades startup’s web experience by making it easier and faster to post rides, search for for rides by destination, review driver profiles and coordinate trips.
One of the other interesting features for the Ridejoy app is the ability to serve users with flexible matching, pairing users by route instead of city-to-city. Users can also automatically receive notifications when drivers and passengers are going to be taking the same route you are/will be traveling and provide things like photos, bios, etc.
Aside from this, a new feature called “Autopilot” automatically finds and confirms personalized ride matches for searchers.
Ridejoy’s major competitor in the ride-sharing market is Zimride, which features many of the same options like facebook connecting with drivers/passengers, testimonials and a number of safety features. They do not, however, verify driver’s license or passports, unlike Ridejoy. In fact, Ridejoy recently implemented driver’s license verification this past July to assuage any worries for potential passengers. Aside from the safety, Ridejoy is also relatively cheap.
General seats average around $35-40 though there is a cap at $0.50 a mile to prevent overcharging of passengers. According to Wang, most of the members of Ridejoy are more interested in meeting new people than turning a profit.
Now that Ridejoy has entered into the app realm, the amount of members is sure to grow. The site takes the best from a lot of community oriented sites like CouchSurfing and adds extra safety measures for their users. It’s a great way to get more people to make that trek across the US who otherwise wouldn’t. We’re guessing that it’ll become popular enough to expand to worldwide road trips.
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