carpooling, Europe’s No. 1 ridesharing app, debuts in U.S. to college market

Students can now tap green, cost-effective, door-to-door long-distance ridesharing platform

Palo Alto, Calif. and Munich, Germany ─ January 28, 2015 ─ In December, the No. 1 European ridesharing platform, carpooling, launched in the U.S., making mid- and long-distance transportation easy, safe and affordable — especially for college students. Drivers and passengers can quickly select and connect on the details of their trip via free iOS and Android mobile apps. With this launch, carpooling opened its ridesharing technology to U.S. consumers, providing a convenient, safe, social, and green-friendly way for riders to save money when traveling long distances.

In the past, getting to a Spring Break destination or going with friends to a music festival cost effectively could be tough. The carpooling app encourages students traveling the same direction to ride together, share travel costs and help the environment by getting cars off the road ─ all while making the experience comfortable, safe and fun. Instead of taking a boring bus ride or an expensive flight, carpooling makes it easy to safely connect with drivers and enjoy road trips in the company of friends and classmates.

The carpooling app enables students to post available car seats and find passengers. In just a few seconds, the app lets passengers search for rides anywhere in the U.S. App features have been designed to make traveling via carpooling safe and reliable. Drivers include information on their profiles such as car license plate, photo ID and Facebook profiles. Travelers can rate drivers, view a driver’s star rating and read passenger and driver comments to help ensure a safe, secure ridesharing experience.

Through a product integration with Uber, carpooling is the first company to offer a door-to-door long-distance service in the U.S. Passengers can be picked up at home by an Uber driver to take them to the starting point of their carpool, and then have an Uber driver at the arrival point to take them to their exact destination, if needed.

“Students in particular need a cost-effective, eco-friendly and fun mode of transportation to get to where they want to be, whether they are going on Spring Break or headed to a concert in another city. We recognize there won’t be an abundance of passengers and drivers connected with each other at launch, but we’re confident from more than a decade of experience in Europe that supply and demand will grow rapidly,” said Markus Barnikel, carpooling CEO.

Designed in collaboration with renowned global product strategy and design consultancy frog, the carpooling app makes finding rides and meeting up with drivers quick and intuitive. Registration and login is made easy via Facebook. Drivers then post their driving routes and times of departure. Passengers can search for available rides, compare prices and departure times, and review driver profiles.

Booking a ride takes only a few seconds. With the “Live Map” feature, the passenger can see the meeting point and book an Uber ride, if needed, to get there. Built-in GPS functionality lets drivers and passengers easily locate one another at the agreed meeting place and time. After the ride, the driver and passenger rate each other.

Ridesharing via carpooling is unique from other platforms:
· Carpooling ridesharing is designed specifically for longer distances (average trip is 125+ miles).
· Carpooling does not employ drivers or encourage driving for profit. The company and app provides a platform that enables everyday people who happen to be traveling in the same direction to contact each other and share the costs of their trips.
· The carpooling app is a premium tool with value-added functionality designed specifically to make ridesharing easy, safe and convenient.

About carpooling
Headquartered in Munich, Germany, with initial funding by carmaker Daimler, carpooling was founded in 2001 as mitfahrgelegenheit.de by three students at the University of Würzburg in Germany. The platform quickly grew in popularity, and today ridesharing is one of the most popular travel options for mid- to long-distance journeys in Europe. More than 3.5 million ridesharing offers are accessible through the carpooling app every day. For more information, visit www.carpooling.com.

Press Contacts:
David Templeton
DBT Communications, Inc.
203.530.0458
press-us@carpooling.com

Carleen LeVasseur
DBT Communications, Inc.
408.264.6767
press-us@carpooling.com

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