BIF-3 Storyteller in Action: Meet Transportation Entrepreneur Robin Chase

Posted by Chris Flanagan on May 7, 2007

Can you actually revamp transportation - the very foundation of how we get from point a to point b? Meet BIF-3 storyteller Robin Chase. Last week, Chase found herself on the cover of the Boston Globe with her latest venture: GoLoco.org. Her goal – to create a service that helps people quickly arrange to share rides between friends, neighbors, and colleagues. In other words, change the very perception of carpooling from something we “should do” into we “want to do.”

GoLoco went live on Earth Day, April 24th. Says Chase: “GoLoco: It means go loco – go crazy, go free-spirited. Go location to location with local transportation. Go low cost. Go low carbon dioxide.”

Cynics might call this lofty, liberal hooha. But here’s the catch – Chase is a proven social entrepreneur. The founder of Zipcar, she's already changed the way many of us drive. (Zipcar is the world’s largest car-sharing company – they make it almost as easy to rent a car as “get cash from the ATM.”).

GoLoco relies on social networking techniques. Drivers set up profiles of themselves, they list their friends and trusted network, then they post and search for trips.

From the Boston Globe article,

Trips are listed, along with the expected amount of carbon emissions, and the cost of the drive -- calculated in much the way businesses use to reimburse employees for mileage. If everyone agrees to the trip, details such as pick up time are negotiated, and the trip costs are electronically transferred from passengers to the driver.

Here’s how GoLoco’s financial model works. A round trip from Somerville, MA to Concord, MA is 28 miles, for a calculated total cost of $13.63 using GoLoco's formula. The cost is split evenly across the carpool. If there are five passengers, everyone pays a fifth to the driver through GoLoco accounts -- online accounts that transfer money each time someone gets a ride, to avoid awkward interactions in the car. GoLoco adds a 10 percent transaction fee, or about 27 cents per passenger in this case, which Chase says is enough to support the business, because there are few operating costs for the technology company.

Adding to the model is the strong environmental play. The trip from Somerville to Concord also saved 27 pounds of carbon dioxide. Chase believes this will be a primary motivation for many carpoolers.

This is a great example of a social cause that pays for itself on multiple levels. Carpooling has never quite caught on. Will it finally come of age? Don’t miss Robin Chase share her story at our upcoming BIF-3 Collaborative Innovation Summit on October 10th and 11th, 2007 in Providence, Rhode Island.

RELATED LINKS:

• Read the Boston Globe article
• Learn more about how you can participate in this year's BIF-3 Summit