Taxi software has not been popular, private car transfer service has been out

Tiger Sniff: More and more software, such as drip, Uber and so on, its better service and price has pushed the official taxi industry to the corner, but the founders are not satisfied. Shuddle refined the private car transfer service, special transfer of children and elderly, if you have not heard, quickly to long knowledge. This article because of TechCrunch and Siliconbeat, Forbes and other websites information synthesis:

Shuddle, a software dedicated to minors and the elderly, announced the successful financing of $9.6 million in Wednesday. The round of financing is Shuddle's a round, Rre Ventures, the company's existing investors also include Comcast Venture capital company (Comcast Ventures), E-commerce VCs Forerunner Ventures and accelerated partnership (Accel ) is also involved, with a total of $12 million trillion in funding so far.

Shuddle was launched in San Francisco in October 2014.

Nick Allen, founder and CEO of Shuddle, said he had an idea for Shuddle when he was sidecar--another software company offering carpool services. "In Los Angeles, I saw many parents using sidecar to send their children to school, camp and extracurricular activities," he said. In New York, parents are doing the same thing with Uber. But the software was not born for this service, and it did not provide the relevant insurance. After talking to the parents, it is their pain to find out. In addition, as a parent, Allen can understand the parents every day for children and work pain, so Shuddle was born.

Functionally, there are several differences between Shuddle and Uber:

Provide insurance specifically tailored for minors and the elderly;

The driver must complete the delivery and escort work outside the vehicle;

Rigorous background checks and specialized training for driver candidates. To protect the child and reassure the parents, Shuddle hired only a two-member staff referral, experienced driver (such as nannies, babysitting, and teachers), and said it had more extensive checks on the driver's background compared to its rivals. A 24-hour advance booking service allows parents to view their driver's photos and resumes, and to monitor the GPS during driving.

Security services are also set up when Shuddle transfers children:

When the child gets off the bus, the parent receives a notice;

The driver needs to provide a child with a known password as security verification.

In addition, this shuddle provides two-way security for children and the elderly. Allen said that "Shuddle's 200 drivers are almost all women, Shuddle become the first choice for female car owners." The participation of female drivers is not high in other vehicle-calling software. Because apparently it is much more dangerous to pick up a strange adult male at night than to send a child to school in the morning. "In other software, car owners know nothing about the passengers they want to pick up, and female owners are attracted by Shuddle because of our value position: providing services only during the day and serving innocent minors and seniors," Allen added.

In addition, Shuddle's charging style is also unique. Users need to pay a monthly membership fee of 9 dollars for driver training and selection, in addition to pay the fare each time. Allen says Shuddle's fares are usually 15% more expensive than UberX's (Uber), which is used to balance training fees for shuddle drivers, with 80% of the income being owned by drivers.

Other Shuddle services need to be booked 24 hours to a week, rather than being on call like Lyft and Uber. Allen said there is no such service on call, because the nature of Shuddle's service is not just to pick up passengers, but also to physically send minors or elderly people safely to specific locations within the school.

At present, the main users of Shuddle are 11, 12-year-old children, "children love it because shuddle make them feel very independent." "said Allen.

Allen plans to use the newly raised funds to expand to new areas later this year, especially on the east coast of the United States. By then, it will need more drivers and better customer support. At present, representatives of Shuddle will call each new registered user to answer their questions about the use of the service, and the staff will pick up their parents ' calls on the way.

While some may be uneasy about putting their children alone in a stranger's car, Allen believes they are gradually dispelling that suspicion. "When we founded Sidecar, I heard the same story, no one wants to sit in a stranger's car," he said, "but the kids have done it: they carpool, ride on school buses or city buses, or ride their bikes to school." ”

Other private car rides have grown rapidly in densely populated cities, and suburban services have weakened, so Shuddle has a chance to fill the gap. Shuddle Two-thirds of the taxi business comes from the suburbs of San Francisco, and Allen expects the trend to continue. In different places, the peak hours are not the same, shuddle in the morning and early afternoon will receive a lot of orders, this ratio should be higher than the adult taxi service excellent step.

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