PickupPal Blog

Well it has been really hard to keep this under my hat for so long but I can now announce that we have formally partnered with Reverb and The Dave Matthews Band.

From the Dave Matthews Band Website:

“DMB and Reverb are further expanding the greening efforts for the summer tour with a special partnership they have created with PickupPal. The Eco-Rideshare program is the first of its kind in the music tour industry and will help drivers and riders carpool to shows, thus helping concertgoers reduce their carbon footprint. PickupPal has generously agreed to waive their driver commission for DMB fans traveling to shows this summer. To learn more about the program, register with PickupPal (free) and enter shows that you may be driving to or need a ride to, please click here. DMB concertgoers who participate will also be eligible to win some cool prizes provided by Dave Matthews Band.” (Source).

We have been working closely with Reverb for several months now and we are so excited about this partnership. The Dave Matthews Band have been true pioneers in the field of raising awareness and walking the eco-walk by going the extra mile to make their tours as eco-friendly as possible. We look forward to participating at the various eco-villages that travel with the tour and I hope to see some of you there.

Cheers - Eric

It is really awesome the way in which festival and concert organizers have come on board with our PickupPal Eco-Rideshare program. Getting fans to festivals by using PickupPal is one of the best ways they can reduce their carbon footprint. Two new ones that launched today come from the UK and they are our first major festivals in the UK. NASS 2008 (www.nassfest.com) and Rip Curl Boardmasters 2008 (www.ripcurlboardmasters.com) - Skateboarding, BMX, Inline Skating, Motocross, Surfing, Hard driving bands - lots and lots of energy. Just listening to the intro music on their websites makes it very hard not to let the mind wander.

In other concert news, we are deep in planning mode right now - there are a few tours we will be on the road with and we will be at both the Calgary and Toronto Virgin Festival Canada 2008 by Virgin Mobile. We call it the “Rock n Roll Rideshare” and we have come up with some cool ideas to get people to come by our booth at the EcoVillage. I can’t get into details right now - however we will be giving away some amazing prizes for those that join in.

Also stayed tuned - this week we are launching our biggest partner tour and I cannot wait to spread the good word!

Cheers - Eric

Oxford based super group, Radiohead have created a new blog called: themostgiganticflyingmouthforsometime.

Here you can try out our carbon calculator and compare different transport methods for getting to and from the venue. The list of tour dates will give you public transport information where available, and where not, there may be venue incentives for car sharing. There will also be weekly postings from Radiohead’s production team on how the band has addressed their own touring carbon footprint and made it easier for fans to reduce theirs.

It all sounds very cool, but I must admit I found their carbon calculator a little difficult to use. For a start, I had to use 3 separate pages to enter all the info for their calculator.

Now I know I’m biased, and I know our Eco-Rideshare Program pages don’t do everything that Radiohead’s calculator does, but I do think our solution is more effective for event based rideshare: click here to see the PickupPal Radiohead Rideshare page.

Now click on the link in Going To field to see how our system can handle multiple dates and locations all on one page.

So Mr Yorke, would you consider using our version for your ridesharing fans?

- Jonathan

O.K. so now we have some serious perks about being with PickupPal and teaming up with awesome festivals like the Virgin Festivals - Virgin Mobile Canada.

Since we are providing Ridesharing to all of their festivals across Canada, we just had to have a booth at the eco-village at the festival. I was chosen to go beause I was the first and the loudest to yell “I’M IN!!!” looks like I am going see the Tragically Hip, Stone Temple Pilots, John Mayer, Three Days Grace and a whole host of other bands! The details need to get worked out - but suffice to say we are hitting the road!

NOTE: Little known fact is that I am PickupPal’s defacto mucho supremo concert lover! So here is the deal - we are going to have a booth - if you are in Calgary, Vancouver or Toronto come by and see us - we want to give away stuff at the booth - and there just might be more surprises in Calgary if I can convince Scott Weiland to swing by and sign some stuff - perhaps scrawl “Interstate Love Song” across a PickupPal T-Shirt!

I gotta add this - I have not seen STP since they opened for the Stones in 08-19-94 on the Vodoo Lounge tour - I can’t believe they are back together again - check this out STP Live.

Cheers - Eric