PickupPal Blog

We’re probably all well aware by now that air travel generates a massive amount of CO2, more than any other form of transportation.

One transatlantic flight for a family of four creates more CO2 than that family generates domestically in an entire year. (Source)

As PickupPal is still quite new (launched Jan 15th, 2008), we have yet to convince the world’s airlines to sign-up to our service and help fill their empty seats. That is work in progress.

In the meantime, we’re building Eco-Rideshare landing pages to enable airline passengers to rideshare to the airport and reduce the amount of CO2 generated on the highways.

Here are the new landing pages for some of the major US airports:

• Los Angeles International Airport
• JFK International Airport
• Atlanta Jackson International Airport
• Chicago O’Hare International Airport
• Dallas Fort Worth International Airport
• Phoenix Sky Harbor International Airport
• George Bush Intercontinental Airport
• McCarran Intercontinental Airport
• Denver International Airport
• Minneapolis St Paul International Airport
• Cincinnati International Airport
• Van Nuys Airport
• Detroit Metropolitan Wayne County Airport
• Philadelphia International Airport
• Columbus Airport
• Miami International Airport
• Newark Liberty International Airport
• Metropolitan Oakland International Airport
• Charlotte Douglas International Airport
• Lambert-St Louis International Airport
• Memphis International Airport

More to come…

- Jonathan

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

Triathlon season is upon us in North America! Some of you may be brand new to the sport, and some may be crafty veterans, who’ve trained diligently all through the off season. I don’t fit into either category unfortunately…while I’ve done several, I have yet to get into the groove of extended preparation…for me, it’s usually defined in days, not months!

The first race in the Trisport Subaru series season is coming up on Victoria Day weekend in less than 2 weeks, and the intense training regimen that I started *yesterday* is in full swing - YIKES! My chicken legs will be buckling about 15 minutes in to the race. A personal race favorite is the Orillia course, where we’ve even had our kids (both < 7 years old at the time) enter in the Kids of Steel competition, so Triathlon can be a great family outing as well.

The Trisport Subaru series is the original Triathlon series in Ontario, well-organized and very professionally run, with 9 events throughout the region. This year, the same organizers have also launched a 70.3 race in Muskoka (In 2005, WTC instituted the Ironman 70.3 race series. This shorter course, previously known as a half ironman, consists of a 1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike ride, and 13.1 mile run).

I’m thrilled to say that we’ve teamed up together with the folks at Trisport! They are very interested in providing additional value to their racers. So…if you are interested in ridesharing to any of these Tri’s, while making new friends and reducing your emissions, log in here and sign up:
events.pickuppal.com/races/Trisport
events.pickuppal.com/muskoka-ironman

Soon we’ll post a listing of Eco-Rideshare Partners (ERP as we like to call the program) such as Trisport on our website, so that it will be very easy for our PickupPal community to find concerts, festivals and sports events in their area to rideshare to and from.

See you on the course…I’ll be the one with the legs that resemble those you usually see hanging out of a nest!

Brent - PickupPal Business Development

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

The ink is barely dry on the deal however we are very excited about our new ERP partner The San Francisco Marathon.

Since 1977 the San Fransisco Marathon has attracted top athletes from around the world to the Bay Area. Last year the Marathon was sold out - 15,000 runners - this year I predict will be the same. As part of their commitment to reduce their carbon footprint and reduce congestion the San Francisco Marathon has chosen to use PickupPal through our Eco-Rideshare Program (ERP) to help Runners and Spectators alike to get to the race. For those not familiar with our ERP program it is FREE for any organization big or small – we will setup a custom site for you and give you access to real time reporting as well.

Note: Did you catch the emphasis on FREE - and no asterisks beside it - we are serious it is FREE - O.K. I will stop with that

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

Well we are 102 days since the launch of PickupPal and we are so thankful for the warm response we have received from all of you out there and our strategic partners. PickupPal has been working on organizing with a whole host of like minded organizations to provide Ridesharing options.

A month ago we launched the ERP program - the Eco-Rideshare Program (erp.pickuppal.com). An innovative and FREE way for organizations to provide all the power of PickupPal to their community with a customized branded interface. So here is the deal - you say you want one and send us your logo - we provide the platform, do up the graphics work, provide support for your community and host a solution - it is just that easy. No tricks and no gimmicks - you want Rideshare - we give you Rideshare! If you would like one for your organization click Here and fill in the short request form and you are good to go! It does not matter if you are hosting a house party in Hoboken or a five day massive festival in Melbourne - we will hook you up for Free!

Here are some of the organizations we are currently working with:

• Subaru Triathlon Series
• Subaru Marathon Series
• 5 Peaks Trail Running Series
• Edge to Edge Marathon
• Coachella
• Virgin Festival Canada 2008 by Virgin Mobile
• Mow Down Pollution (Clean Air Foundation and The Home Depot)
• Old Pecan Street Festival - Austin Texas

I am really excited about this program and I will be announcing more partners on this blog as they come on board!

Cheers - Eric
P.S. I can’t wait until next weeks post! It’s going to blow your socks off!