Adapted from an article originally included in the Jefferies Mobility Technology newsletter on November 4
Millennials are redefining how we live as they move increasingly toward shared models for where we reside, how we work, and ways we get around. While shared mobility isn’t a new trend, it has so far been largely focused on the adult work commute. However, in recent years, we see that families need solutions too.
The magnitude of the child transportation problem and its impact on society affects millions of families and communities. In the United States alone, more than 57,000 schools do not operate buses. As a result, more than 32 million US school children have to be driven to school every day by their parents, leading to traffic, emissions, and an estimated $90 billion in lost productivity for the parents driving. Schools are also feeling this pressure as smart cities work toward being sustainable, but school drop-off and pickup areas are increasingly congested as fewer districts are able to provide busing. The result: An increasing demand for shared model child transportation.
How GoKid Works for Parents
To meet the growing need for better children’s transportation, GoKid built a mobile application that enables parents to share carpooling responsibilities with other families they know and trust, drastically reducing traffic congestion. GoKid does not hire drivers but works on an invitation-based voluntary system in which parents or caregivers are the drivers. GoKid is already in use in over 25 countries with more than 250,000 rides scheduled in our app. However, individual customers are only the tip of the iceberg. GoKid is addressing the larger school market with hundreds and thousands of families at a time.
Some convincing numbers why our shared mobility solution works: On average, parents save a minimum of 60% in transportation costs and up to two hours per day – in some instances this grows to over 90%. For schools, the ability to offer families a shared-ride solution helps them to retain families that would otherwise choose to enroll in another school. It also helps reduce absent times for kids and the cost of vehicles on the road by roughly 30%.
GoKid at its base is free, but we are offering additional features for a monthly or annual subscription ($4.99 or $49.99 respectively). The premium version, called GoKid Pro, includes features such as the ability to sync the carpools with the parents’ calendars and message other families in the carpool group. As another of our pro features, we are also working with partners to allow users to sync their schedules from other apps in order to seamlessly set up carpools from existing events. Our first partner in this is sports scheduling app TeamSnap, which addresses the tens of millions of families with children in after-school sports. We offer TeamSnap syncing on our iOS app and are rolling it out on our other apps later this year.
Carpooling only works if you invite others to share the driving, so GoKid’s premise is inherently viral. Even so, we will also be rolling out an additional incentive for sharing – a free subscription to our upgraded features for every few users you invite.
How GoKid Works for Schools
The GoKid app is already available on iOS, Android, and mobile web and is being integrated into the Bosch MySPIN platform as an in-car service. However, the biggest way in which GoKid is solving the school transportation issue is with our B2B solution, GoKid Connect. The biggest blocker to families setting up school carpools is that parents don’t know who in their child’s class lives nearby. We overcome this barrier by providing families with a secure portal in which to locate and connect with other families in the same school who live nearby and have kids in the same grade. The core technology, which schools license for a yearly fee, includes family accounts, easy invitations, schedule management, automated reminders, and optimized routing.
We are already working with schools across the US to help address their traffic problems and are rolling out a self-service portal this month that will allow us to work with a much larger number of schools and onboard them even faster. GoKid also tracks stats such as CO2 emissions and time saved, allowing schools to work this into larger sustainability goals.
How are we different than our competitors?
Unlike competitors which offer families scheduled rides for kids with vetted drivers (sort of like an Uber or Lyft for kids) GoKid offers the peace of mind that your kids will only be driven by you and other parents you know and trust – and you don’t need to pay per ride. In the much larger market of carpooling services for parents, we are the only company that has both a B2B and a B2C solution and that has attracted strategic investors like InMotion (Jaguar Land Rover’s VC arm) and Deutsche Bahn Digital Ventures as well as US venture capital. The GoKid team brings in excellence and technology experience and stems from companies like Disney, Sony, and Rocket Internet.
Our vision is to become the leading global mobility solution for families with an impact mission. We are confident that our team, the award winning product, and our combined operational skills will stand out in this new global mobility market.
