I had an interesting interview today with a young journalist that had a very clear idea of what Ridesharing is based on her own experiences. It dawned on me as I walked away that to those looking at this entire industry that the two terms Carpooling and Ridesharing may seem synonymous however they clearly are not. At PickupPal we see ourselves as a Global Ridesharing Community and not to disparage Carpooling we choose the term Ridesharing because for us it is a more appropriate term.

Carpooling in its most literal definition is the pooling of cars for the purpose of traveling as a group. In a traditional carpool everyone owns a vehicle and on set days certain drivers have their turn to drive the group to work. This all makes sense in a society where households have two cars and the decision is to leave one of them at home during the day.

However Ridesharing truly is close to the literal definition which is to share a ride. Not unlike carsharing which is to share a car for example ZipCar.com, Vrtucar.com, Autoshare.com. Ridesharing is the true leverage of a drivers vehicle with a passengers need to go from A to B. In many cases the passenger does not have an extra vehicle at home sitting in the driveway, this rideshare is their mode of transportation.

Now one can sit back and ask well why take the time to define the difference and I think it is important to do this because the term you use also has its loaded connotations. When I engage in conversations with others and use the term Carpool this seems to conjure up images of going to work, strict schedules, tied down to your colleagues time constraints and that is not an image that sells well. One the other hand when I say Rideshare all of a sudden the images of travel and adventure come to mind and that is by far the easier sell.

Cheers - Eric