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Point, click, ride

PickupPal currently has more than 100,000 registered users of its service worldwide, with about 10 per cent based in Ontario.
It has been the official ride-share service for Edgefest and will be for the upcoming Virgin Mobile Festival in Toronto.
PickupPal initially earned revenues by collecting a 7 per cent commission on fees negotiated between a driver and rider. It has since decided to earn revenues from online advertisements.
Trentway-Wagar seeks to stop ride-sharing site PickupPal from operating in Ontario
Aug 21, 2008 04:30 AM
Comments on this story (68) http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/482653
Tyler Hamilton
Energy Reporter

A Canadian Internet company that co-ordinates car sharing around the world could soon be shut out of Ontario if one of the province's largest chartered-bus companies gets its way.
PickupPal Online Inc. was launched less than eight months ago by two Ontario entrepreneurs who thought car sharing, if it could be made easier through the Web, was a noble way to reduce trafic congestion and air pollution.
The service is like an Internet dating service for drivers, matching up people who are going to the same place at the same time – anywhere from concerts to sporting events to corporate functions. Special mapping software helps them find the best route.
But Peterborough-based Trentway-Wagar Inc. says PickupPal is breaking the law because it helps drivers collect money by offering strangers a ride. The bus company even hired a private investigator to test out the service, posing as someone who needed a ride from Toronto to Montreal and negotiating a fee of $60 with a driver travelling from Simcoe, Ont.
Trentway lawyer Robert Warren of WeirFoulds LLP says such drivers aren't licensed to operate a vehicle for a public transportation service and, as a result, don't have to comply with expensive safety standards and insurance requirements.
"Any time anybody operates such a service and they don't have to comply with all these regulatory burdens, then it's unfair competition in my client's view," Warren said. "They do erode substantially what really is a low-margin business."
PickupPal currently has more than 100,000 registered users of its service worldwide, with about 10 per cent based in Ontario. The bus company wants PickupPal to stop its service and has asked the Ontario Highway Transport Board to make it happen. A hearing is scheduled for October.
Eric Dewhirst, co-founder and chief technology officer of PickupPal, was expecting the challenge. He said the company has not broken any laws and has no plans to back down. He said Ontario's rules for carpooling under the Public Vehicles Act are the strictest he's seen anywhere in the world, and go against the spirit of policy that encourages car sharing. This includes the creation of high-occupancy vehicle lanes on major highways.
"We're being innovative, and that's what Premier Dalton McGuinty wanted," Dewhirst said. "We're looking for someone high enough up to step in here and say, `We're going to review this, because it's just wrong.' What we're saying is let's be reasonable here."
It wouldn't be the first time the bus industry, and Trentway-Wagar, has cracked down on ride sharing in Ontario. Quebec-based carpooling company Allo Stop was taken to the Ontario transport board because of a route it ran between Montreal and Toronto. The service was banned in 2000.
"Do we just have to draw a big map around Ontario and say, sorry folks, we can't help you? That just doesn't make sense, and that's why we're going to challenge it," Dewhirst said.
PickupPal has become popular in British Columbia, parts of the United States and Australia.
People trying to get to and from work can use the service, but Dewhirst said it is targeted at people who need a one-time ride to an event and back.
It has been the official ride-share service for Edgefest and will be for the upcoming Virgin Mobile Festival in Toronto. The company is also in talks to support ride sharing to CFL games, and for employees and customers of Sears and Home Depot.
PickupPal initially earned revenues by collecting a 7 per cent commission on any fee negotiated between a driver and a rider. But in late June it stopped collecting a commission, deciding instead to earn its revenues from online advertisements.
The fact that PickupPal no longer earns a commission is irrelevant, Warren said. He said the drivers who use the service can still charge a fee, and there’s nothing stopping people from using the website to co-ordinate vanloads of people moving between Toronto and Montreal several times a day.
“Those are real dangerous operations. Those vans are not licensed, they’re not insured and don’t pass strict safety guidelines. PickupPal hasn’t picked up on the fact that their system can be abused,” he said.
Warren also took issue with PickupPal’s environmental claims. “The folks who are using the service are not stopping using their own car, they’re stopping taking the bus.”
Dewhirst said bus services such as those offered by Trentway-Wagar are essential, but they don’t go everywhere and don’t appeal to everyone. He said with gas costs skyrocketing and congestion getting worse in cities such as Toronto, people are beginning to gravitate toward car sharing as an alternative to getting around.
“And we don’t care if they exchange doughnuts to do it,” he said.

keata91 Wrote:Bonjour à tous,
effectivement, il serait interessant de savoir comment réagissent les agglos et les réseaux face cette pratique de déplacement qui est de plus en plus à la mode !

Le covoiturage, une autre façon de bouger !

Faciliter la mise en relation des "covoitureurs" est l'objectif du site de covoiturage, développé par le Conseil général. Site gratuit, vous déposez des offres et des demandes de places, pour des trajets réguliers ou occasionnels, sur le département ou d'autres destinations. La recherche s'effectue par commune d'origine, par destination et par point de passage ainsi que par une carte dynamique du Finistère. Pour votre sécurité, une dizaine d'aires de stationnement sont créées dans le département afin d'y stationner votre véhicule.

1 janvier 2009

[size=150]Contre le "one-way" proposé par Autolib Paris !
http://lavoitureautrement.blogspot.com/[/center]

Bertrand Delanöe a annoncé en 2008 la mise en place d'un système de voitures électriques en libre service sur le modèle de Vélib'. 4000 voitures et 1400 points d'arrêts sont attendus d'ici 2011 à Paris et dans plusieurs communes proches.

Cette annonce pose un certain nombre de questions.
On peut d'abord douter sur la capacité des constructeurs automobiles à répondre aux exigences imposées par le système (voitures disponibles 24h/24). Leur manque d'anticipation et d'investissement dans les motorisations du futur se payent aujourd'hui alors que l'industrie automobile est en crise ! Et c'est l'Etat qui doit venir à la rescousse !

Surtout, c'est le concept de "one-way" mis en avant qui nous dérange. Dans un service d'autopartage classique, la voiture doit être reposée à la station de départ. Le modèle parisien (aussi appelé Autolib) repose lui sur le même principe que les vélos en libre service. On prend une voiture dans une station et on la dépose dans la station de son choix.

Les effets pervers de ce système sont nombreux :
- il faut 3 fois plus de stations que de voitures : autant d'espace à trouver et d'argent gaspillé !
- pour fonctionner, le système nécessite une logistique complexe. Il engendre des déplacements en voitures inutiles liés au rééquilibrage des stations
- la voiture vient concurrencer les transports collectifs et les modes doux. Pourquoi prendrais-je les transports en commun alors même qu'une voiture m'attend en bas de chez moi et que je peux la garer facilement ?!
- Alors que 50% des parisiens n'ont pas de voiture et vivent très bien sans, on va leur en redonner une ! Soit au final, une augmentation des trajets en voiture !

Bref, le projet d'Autolib Paris ne répond pas aux besoins des citoyens qui recherchent un usage de la voiture seulement lorsqu'elle s'avère indispensable (transports d'objets en combrants, utilisation la nuit ou en dehors de la zone de desserte performante des transports collectifs). Au contraire, en favorisant l'usage de a voiture, il va à l'encontre des objectifs des politiques de déplacements urbains (diminution de la pollution, décongestion automobile, amélioration du cadre de vie,...)

A Lyon, la question du "one-way" a été discutée et vite écartée pour les raisons évoquées ci-dessus. Espérons qu'à Paris, les élus suivront le même chemin en mettant de côté les considérations purement politiques.

Oui au développement massif de l'autopartage, Non au "one-way"

fullefuss Wrote: http://forum.toulouse.fr/toulouse/Se-de ... t_96_1.htm
Bonjour,
Mon amie vient de trouver un nouveau job à quatre vingt km de Toulouse, elle travaillera le samedi matin. Nous recherchons des personnes possédant une voiture disponible le samedi de 7 heures à 14 heures, hors vacances scolaires et désireuse de la prêter contre rémunération.
Merci pour votre attention.