LOS ANGELES, Calif. – HopSkipDrive, the leading technology company solving complex transportation challenges where there is a heightened need for safety, equity, and care, today released its fifth annual Safety Report. Of the more than 1.2 million safe rides driven by CareDrivers across more than 25 million miles, 99.653 percent of the rides ended without a safety incident of any kind. This year’s Safety Report outlines data on rides completed on the HopSkipDrive platform in 2023, through partnerships with more than 600 school districts, government agencies, and nonprofits across 14 states and Washington D.C.
The report marks another year where HopSkipDrive stands alone as the only organization in the student transportation space to provide a comprehensive and transparent analysis of ride data and safety incidents. Together with the report, HopSkipDrive also announced a suite of seven new products, developed through data-based innovation, that will raise the bar on safety for students, older adults or anyone needing extra care.
The seven new offerings becoming available this year will offer the industry’s first, and only, proactive real-time safety solution, further protect platform access, add new tools for creating an even more safe and reliable pickup and drop-off experience, and give CareDrivers more insight to enable even safer rides.
“Traditional student transportation service providers like to say they ‘leave no stone unturned’ when it comes to safety,” said Mike Martin, former Executive Director and CEO of the National Association of Pupil Transportation. “HopSkipDrive is demonstrating that it, too, lives and breathes this motto, and that there is no finish line in safety, particularly student safety. In fact, this report provides a new roadmap for others to follow if they truly want to provide the safest transportation for the millions of kids needing equitable access to school and activities.”
“HopSkipDrive saw more than a 50 percent increase in rides completed on our platform in 2023 compared to the prior year, and yet we again met the same high standard, completing 99.7 percent of rides without a safety incident of any kind,” said Joanna McFarland, CEO and Co-founder of HopSkipDrive. “This steady year-over-year data shows not only that safety is at the core of everything we do, but also that our new offerings and innovations enable safe rides to scale, helping more Riders access opportunity. This is more important than ever before, knowing the educational challenges facing schools, families, and communities around the country.”
As part of HopSkipDrive’s continuous improvement and strengthening of its safety platform, the company will roll out a suite of new advancements this year, once again raising the bar on safety in the industry:
● Proactive Ride Intervention: The mobile telematics technology and alerts that are hallmarks of the HopSkipDrive safety platform will now be leveraged to intervene in a ride before it even begins, with the introduction of a new feature: Proactive Ride Intervention. With this new offering, if our platform detects thresholds of driving behavior through mobile telematics technology that may indicate unsafe driving including excessive speeding, hard braking, rapid acceleration, tight turns, or phone usage while a CareDriver is on the way to pick up a Rider, our Safe Ride Support team will receive an immediate alert and take proactive action. This may include stopping the ride before a Rider gets in the vehicle, offering the industry’s first, and only, real-time, proactive safety solution.
● Location Pins: This new feature will streamline the ride experience by minimizing confusion in the car line and expediting the pickup and drop-off process. Most importantly, Location Pins will help ensure CareDrivers can pick up and drop off Riders at a precise location regardless of what populates by entering street addresses into traditional mapping tools, enabling a seamless transition for Riders from the safety of a CareDriver’s vehicle to the safety of their next location.
● Enhanced Just-In-Time Rider Information: HopSkipDrive has long incorporated just-in-time information displays, ensuring Users only receive the information they need to complete that step of the ride, enabling an effective balance of transparency and privacy. With this new enhancement, approved Rider information and back-seat accommodation details will appear in the CareDriver app progressively, becoming visible when a CareDriver is immediately preparing to leave for the ride. This will help ensure Rider information is continually protected and communicated only on an as-needed basis.
● Safety and Reliability Improvements through the CareDriver App: This year, we are adding new features within the CareDriver app, developed and refined through feedback and insights from CareDrivers, caregivers, clients, and more. New in-app functionality will bring numerous improvements to strengthen safety on every ride, for every User.
○ New data-driven insights for greater timeliness: In addition to existing real-time ride tracking for caregivers and clients, the new CareDriver ride experience will harness more precise and data-driven travel time estimates to better account for traffic variability. Greater precision in default wait times will also reduce the trickle-down effects of delays.
○ In-App Navigation: Turn by turn navigation within the CareDriver app will reduce toggling between navigation apps during rides, thereby reducing necessary phone usage. In addition, during a ride, the in-app navigation screen will alert a CareDriver if they exceed the speed limit to guide slower, safer driving.
○ In-App Safety Scorecards: Today, mobile telematics technology through the HopSkipDrive CareDriver App already detects driving behavior on each ride, providing CareDrivers with insight and encouraging continual driving improvement through weekly emailed Safety Scorecards. By having these Scorecards visible and accessible within the CareDriver app in 2024, CareDrivers will be even more empowered with more convenient insights, which will help support CareDriver safety even more.
Joining the Industry Sharing Safety Program: HopSkipDrive will join the Industry Sharing Safety Program (ISSP), and receive data and information about driver behavior on other Transportation Network Company (TNC) platforms. With access to added insights, the company will proactively remove any CareDriver from the HopSkipDrive platform if that individual has been deactivated by major nationwide rideshare platforms based on behavior consistent with the National Sexual Violence Resource Center’s (NSVRC) Sexual Misconduct and Sexual Violence Taxonomy, as well as physical assault fatalities. While it’s clear from all available data that these types of incidents are exceedingly rare, HopSkipDrive will welcome this additional data to help continue to protect access to the platform and improve safety for all.
Available in the coming weeks and months, these new advancements build on HopSkipDrive’s foundational safety tools, processes, and products, as well as other recent offerings made available in 2023.
About HopSkipDrive:
HopSkipDrive is a technology company that solves complex transportation challenges where there is a heightened need for safety, equity, and care. HopSkipDrive’s marketplace arranges care-centered transportation across 13 states and Washington, DC, supplementing other transportation options by connecting kids, older adults, or anyone needing extra support, to highly vetted caregivers on wheels, such as grandparents, babysitters, and nurses. HopSkipDrive also builds software and offers advisory services that solve the biggest transportation challenges facing schools and school districts around the country, including budget cuts, bus driver shortages, and climate goals. HopSkipDrive partners with more than 600 school districts, government agencies, and nonprofits. More than 3.3 million rides over 61 million miles have been completed through HopSkipDrive since the company was founded in 2014 by three working mothers.
