Is it always possible to be sustainable when commuting to work? Even if you don’t own an electric vehicle, or you can’t take public transportation, or cannot simply bike to work because it is too far from where you live, the answer is still yes! That is what carpooling is for. Carpooling means sharing the drive – and the stress – with other people; these people will then share with you the cost of fuel and perhaps they will also be nice and make your daily drive go faster. Talking about carpooling one of the most innovative companies from the San Francisco Bay area is Scoop.
Scoop is innovative because it eases the way carpooling is organized, it helps you connect with drivers from your same company, it supports the highest standards of driving safety by allowing users to rate their drivers, and its algorithm enables the app to suggest the best route to reach and drop off every single commuter.
To learn more about Scoop and find out when, perhaps, it will be available in other areas of the world, today we speak with the CEO and Co-founder of Scoop CEO Rob Sadow.
How did Scoop get started?
Rob Sadow: I co-founded Scoop with my brother, Jon. We grew up in Atlanta, where our high school was 25 miles away from where we lived. By the time I was 16, I was driving 250 miles per week with Jon to and from school.
You can imagine what that does to your energy and stress level every single day. We knew what it was like to sit in traffic each day and experience the stress of whether or not you’ll get where you need to be on time.
Years later, both of us were living in an area with extremely dense commuting corridors: the San Francisco Bay Area. We realized that there was a unique opportunity to help make commuting faster, more convenient, and more enjoyable for co-workers and neighbors everywhere by making carpooling an easy option for everyone. We founded Scoop in 2015 and haven’t looked back since.
In the Photo: The Scoop App. Photo Credit: Scoop
Can you explain to our readers how Scoop works?
Rob Sadow: Scoop is a technology company that’s making carpooling work at scale. Our mission is to bring commuters together in carpools they love by partnering with their employers across the country.
We’re focused on the commute, taking what can be the worst part of the day and turning that into meaningful time that adds value and energy to your day. Scoop is free to download for iOS and Android devices. From there, commuters can:
- Schedule a carpool with ease: Carpoolers can schedule separate morning and evening trips to fit their work schedule, and choose to ride or drive to meet their daily needs. Carpoolers split the cost of the commute, so everyone saves.
- Commute with by trusted connections:Scoop conducts vehicle history checks on every Driver and connects commuters with neighbors who often work at their company. Full feedback in the app fosters a community-driven approach to safety.
- Never waste time thanks to smart routes:Scoop’s algorithm identifies the most efficient door-to-door trip based on the fastest route, nearby carpoolers, carpool lanes, and more.
What are the advantages of using Scoop? How could it improve traffic condition – and pollution – in our cities?
Rob Sadow: There are a variety of advantages – we’ve heard everything from Scoop carpoolers meeting coworkers they might never have met during their regular workday, to folks who have been able to get rid of their household’s second car, to something as simple and powerful as getting home earlier to have dinner with their family or being able to put their children to bed.
The overarching theme is that commuters now feel that they’re spending valuable time with neighbors or co-workers – and generally have a more productive and enjoyable commute – rather than feeling as though they’ve wasted their valuable time commuting alone in their vehicle.
From an environmental perspective, the impact is substantial. We’ve taken more than 1 million cars off of the road to date, which equates to saving over 16 million pounds of CO2. That’s like planting 300,000 trees to help our planet.
We’re thrilled by this progress, but know there’s a much bigger impact we can make. We’re actively working to expand the markets where Scoop is available to bring carpooling to more commuters everywhere, and we’re exploring partnerships with cities and counties to help change commuting behavior across entire regions to help lessen congestion in and around major metro areas.
In the Photo: Scoop Co-founders Jon and Rob Sadow. Photo Credit: Scoop
In the Photo: Scoop Co-founders Jon and Rob Sadow. Photo Credit: Where is Scoop available now? Are you planning to expand also to other cities within the US and around the world?
Rob Sadow: Scoop is currently available in the San Francisco Bay Area, the greater Seattle area, Reno, and Portland; our goal is to make carpooling an option for commuters everywhere. We’re currently focused on expanding our partnerships with enterprises and bringing Scoop to new markets across the United States.
How important is sustainability for you? How could Scoop help with that?
Rob Sadow: Sustainability is definitely important to us – it’s actually one of our core values as a company. In fact, it’s often one of our enterprise customers goals: they’re dedicated to reducing their workforce’s SOV rates and partner with us to do so.
The truth is that, with busy schedules, families, and various commitments, it’s sometimes hard for all of us to feel like we’re giving back to the planet in our day-to-day lives. Even when we’re able to take steps to help our world, it can often feel like they aren’t big enough steps to make a difference.
One of the things I’m most proud of at Scoop is this: when my brother and I started the company, we set out to change that by giving every commuter a chance to impact the world, every single day. Our goal is to help make carpooling the obvious choice for commuters everywhere not only because it’s easy, but because it’s the right choice for them and for our planet. When we do that, the impact will be incredible.
In the Photo: Scoop rating system. . Photo Credit: Scoop
Where do you think you will be in the next couple of years?
Rob Sadow: We’re incredibly excited by the growth we’ve seen so far, but we know there’s still a long way to go. In five years, it’s my hope that we’ll have partnered with thousand of enterprises to help make carpooling an easy choice for their workforce, expanded across the the world, and are helping make commutes faster, more convenient, and more enjoyable everywhere.
