PickupPal Blog

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 this has been a staggering week - on both ends of the week we were able to get some great media coverage. First it was front page of the Business Section, on Tuesday John was on a Talk Radio station for an interview and today it was a five minute segment on the morning news. The issue that has been getting us all this attention - Rising Gas Prices! Cost and the environment are two huge issues with transportation these days and we deal with both. In any event, enough of me going on about PickupPal - of course I am biased - however the one thing that I will say is that John did an awesome job on air today - live and broadcasting all across Ontario.

(NOTE: this is a super low quality version because we video grabbed it ourselves. GlobalTV is getting us a much better copy and when we get it I will put it up)

As a side note - when I asked John this morning if he was nervous he said he wasn’t once he got into the studio. As he said “once you are there sitting in the chair you don’t really have too many options you just have to go for it - it is not like you can get up and run out the door!”. Well John we are all proud of you buddy.

Cheers -Eric

Well what a week!

To kick things off we had an awesome article in the Toronto Star, (Here), front page Business Secton. A huge thanks to Tyler Hamilton for writing such a great article about PickupPal! So now that it is out there and we have seen the final product - there is a massive relief. Tyler is not some easy push over - he calls it the way he sees it and I was not sure what the article was going to be like at all before it was published. It turns out he likes what we are doing and that means a lot to us because he does not suffer fools gladly.

In any event the purpose behind this post is to showcase the craziness of making things look easy. I just had to post this picture from the photoshoot because we had to pretty much run around in traffic for 20 minutes without getting killed to get the right shot. The photographer - Bill Grimshaw - was awesome to work with. We had this shot of us almost getting hit by on coming cyclists and cars and it is totally real - John wanted me to get to the curb and I thought it would be best if I book’d it across the street to the other side. You see John and I are just a bunch of grown up kids - doing something we really love and having fun with it all.

For more press this week - John is going to be on GlobalTV at 8:30 a.m. on Friday May 2nd. They are covering PickupPal and we are excited to see how it all turns out.

Cheers - Eric

Ah the dreaded carpool…leaving your house at 5:20 AM to drive 20 minutes to a parking lot by the local Timmy’s to wait 10 minutes to meet five other people who work in your building downtown. It’s “Bill’s” turn to drive this week so you pile into his car. And you get on the road. 3.2 of you fall asleep and “Bill” plays this week’s audio-book for the other 1.8 who stay awake. There you are “carpooling” five days a week, 50 weeks a year.

Hmm. I can see why all those HOV lanes are practically empty. Yes-this is a bit of a rant, but tell me if this is not how you imagine carpooling.

Look, I love audio-books, I really do, I love people and I love HOV lanes so don’t get me wrong, and i love carpoolers, they are an awesome lot, they are. One thing I don’t love is letting people down, or having to call someone to say I can’t drive every day this week ’cause I want to work from home on Thursday. You know? And I don’t love getting up at 5:00 AM, I don’t love cleaning the snow off my car and warming it up only to leave it outside in a parking lot all day, four weeks out of five. Truth be told, I don’t love “Bill”…OK, I know, I know… I am getting to my point…

PickupPal is not 1990’s carpooling, it’s 2008 casual ridesharing, it is car-ocean-ing (if you will). It is saying hey, I love people, I love this planet, I love sleep. I will share my drive to work today, not tomorrow, but the next day for sure. I will take one person today and maybe two the next day. On Friday, I am hoping to catch a ride after work to the amphitheatre, I have tickets to see the Dave Matthews Band. I am going there but I am not coming back, well not today anyway. Tomorrow, when I return, I will hop in with someone going my way. I really do want to double up to cut down, but I need my “pool” to be an “ocean”. That is who I am, and PickupPal works for me.

- Suesan

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!

I just love reading Seth Godin’s blog because there are times that he can really put things in a very succinct way. His latest post - You’re Right! is a great example of taking the time to think through the feedback that you get.

A big part of my job is to review the issues that come up and think of ways in which things can be improved and one of the hardest things to do is to set your foolish pride aside and listen to what others say. There are a lot of passionate PickupPal members that take the time to write to me with suggestions on how we can do better and I would say it is very rare that I do not agree with them. Initially my knee-jerk reaction was to be defensive - make excuses - tell myself that they just don’t understand. However I learned very quickly that the one not understanding was me. I live, breath, eat, sleep PickupPal - every detail is floating around in my head nobody should think about PickupPal as much as I do. When new members come to the site and cannot figure things out - it is not their fault it is ours for not making it easier to use.

My advice to any CTO’s out there - listen, listen, listen - and say thank you. Whatever the system you are building - you are not building it for yourself - you are building it for your client and if they don’t get it then you have failed no matter how elegant you may think it is.

Cheers - Eric

The shear craziness of that statement makes me wonder how anyone can believe anything analysts and experts say - IEF 2008: OIL AND GAS WILL LAST DECADES. When we started PickupPal in the fall of 2007, (some 8 months ago), Oil was creeping up to the $80 a barrel and at that time the news reports were all saying this was an anomaly - would not last - back to $60 a barrel in no time. Well today we are a handful of loose change away from $120 a barrel and again the rhetoric comes out - the claims that this is a blip and that we will always find ways to get more oil. Now as anyone who knows me can attest - I am not a rocket scientist but I am pretty sure that there are few smart engineers working on the riddle - how do we find more cheap oil? My guess is they have been working on this one since the 70’s and still no answer. When I talk with friends and say I think by 2010 oil will be $200 a barrel and that gas will be $7.00 a gallon they all think I have lost my mind - have I? When we were researching the RCOD we studied traditional calculations on the cost of ownership of a vehicle and the AAA (American Automobile Association) - came up with this statement - “AAA estimates that new-car driver will have $8,121 in ownership costs for a car driven 15,000 miles per year, up from $7,823 a year ago.” One of the biggest points where increases in costs will occur will be the price of fuel - what do we do when fuel is twice what is is now? right now 15,000 miles costs approximately 3K and when gas is $7 a gallon it will be 7K - where does one find the extra 4K per year - perhaps the analyst’s will stroke everyone a cheque?

Bad news is never a welcomed thing - however ignoring where we are heading is a dangerous game to play and just because someone with a tie on tells you that there is nothing to worry about does not mean a lot to me.

Cheers - Eric
P.S. Not sure about this rant but I just wanted to get it out there.

The Toronto Transit Commission (TTC) is telling commuters in the Toronto area to brace themselves for a general strike at 4 a.m. on Monday Morning (April 21 2008) if they cannot reach an agreement by Sunday. On our end we have seen a massive spike in new members in Toronto – each with a common refrain – they are desperate for desperate for help and feel stranded.

This brings up a huge issue – what is ones transportation Plan B? This has rolled around in my head for a while since the inception of PickupPal . What would happen if the price of Gas spiked and commuters really could not afford to drive any longer? Most cities public transportation systems operate at maximum capacity right now and if demand increased by 10% over a few months they simply could not handle the increase in load. So the question is what do people then do in this situation? Employers generally are sympathetic to a day or so of having staff stay at home but it is not sustainable and for the vast majority of us – transportation is a necessity not a luxury. Options for transportation is vital as we enter into this era of increasing gas prices and increased demands on our transportation infrastructure. Perhaps this is a good wakeup call for some of us to exercise our Plan B’s and see how they work out. I for one am glad the snow has melted and now I can get around on my bike, now it is just a case of getting my legs back into shape!

When all is said and done I hope the strike is averted because the increased congestion and huge increase in carbon footprint during this kind of strike is really not what is needed right now. For all of the new PickupPal members that joined because of the possible TTC strike – welcome – I hope you find PickupPal to be a useful Plan B.
Cheers - Eric