Tom Gems is a very active participant in Avego’s pilot program at University College Cork in Ireland. While studying for a Master’s Degree in Interactive Multimedia, Tom also runs a successful mobile sushi bar service, which means that he spends a lot of time driving his van to markets all over the country.
“I signed up to the pilot because it sounded like a cool application, but also because of the vast number of cars I see on the road every day traveling with just one occupant. I also like the idea of sharing the costs of driving with others, particularly in times of recession.”
Now Tom uses Avego‘s iPhone app all the time. Tom is impressed with the latest updates to the software, which have been largely driven by feedback received from participants in the UCC pilot. Since starting three months ago, Tom has traveled 126 journeys and picked up 167 simulated (“ghost”) riders, yielding $468.40 in Avego ghost credit (not real money).
“Picking up ghost riders is fun,” said Tom, “and it’s a great way to get to know how the system works before you start to pick up real passengers. It also makes it easy to see how much income you could generate by picking up real people on your daily commute.” Sharing seats at his current rate, but with real people, Tom could save $1,873.60 on his commuting costs over a full year.
Tom looks forward to sharing the vacant seats in his car with real people later in the year, and sees great potential for lessening the impact that his driving has on the environment. He believes that Avego Shared Transport has a bright future.
“My friends and family are all very impressed by the application and would love to get involved. I think the government should provide tax incentives to get people to use it. It would also be nice if car manufacturers included the software as a new feature in their cars.”
Later this year, Avego will be commencing Shared Transport pilot programs at other major campus environments. If you are interested in starting a pilot at your corporate or educational campus, please let us know.