HOUSTON, Aug. 28, 2019 /PRNewswire-PRWeb/ -- HopSkipDrive, the safe and innovative transportation solution for schools and families, announced that it has launched service in the Greater Houston Area. Texas joins Washington D.C. and four other states across the nation, including Arizona, California, Colorado and Virginia, that now provide this safe, convenient and dependable transportation service to families, school districts and community organizations.
"With an immense student population and increased complexity in its school districts' transportation needs, Houston has shown a need for more flexible, dependable transportation solutions," said Joanna McFarland, co-founder and CEO of HopSkipDrive. "We're thrilled to arrive in the Greater Houston Area to answer the transportation needs of many students, families and schools."
Prioritizing Safety with Unmatched Industry Standards
HopSkipDrive combines sophisticated technology with deep operational expertise to ensure ride safety. HopSkipDrive's meticulous approach begins with highly vetted caregivers behind the wheel ("CareDrivers") and extends to every aspect of the company's operations. Every CareDriver has at least five years of caregiving experience and has passed a 15-point certification process. This certification process has the most stringent vetting in the industry, including fingerprinting, background checks utilizing FBI and Department of Justice database searches, driving record checks and in-person meetings.
Parents can book and track rides from start to finish through the HopSkipDrive mobile app and get live text notifications. In addition, HopSkipDrive's Safe Ride Support (SRS) is the only U.S.-based team in the industry that monitors every ride in real time. Staffed with former 911 operators, EMTs, childcare specialists and parents, SRS ensures every rider is delivered safely to their destination. Additionally, CareDrivers on the HopSkipDrive platform must own or lease a four-door vehicle not more than 10 years old seating four to seven passengers, and their vehicles are subject to required annual 19-point inspections by certified mechanics.
Providing Convenient Transportation Solutions to Families
According to a recent study, Houston is the 13th most congested city in the U.S., and the average Houstonian spent 98 minutes a day in that congestion in 2018. Increased congestion on the roadways means greater difficulty for parents when trying to transport their children to and from school, while also being at work on time every day.
"As a working mother of two, I understand how challenging it is to balance your children's ever-changing daily schedules with workplace demands," said McFarland. "Parents shouldn't have to choose between their careers and their children's education and activities, but that tough choice is very real for countless families. HopSkipDrive wants parents to take comfort in knowing they have a caregiver to rely on to get their kids where they need to go, safely and without worry."
Parents can use the HopSkipDrive app or website to request rides for children who are at least six. Rides may be reserved as little as eight hours in advance or by 7 p.m. the night before for morning rides. Parents can customize ride instructions such as carpool line, pickup and drop-off notes, sign-in/out requests, etc. Before the ride, parents receive a photo profile of their CareDriver, which they can share with their child and their school. During the ride, parents receive progress alerts at each step. Rides for families start at $17, comparable to the hourly rate of a driving babysitter.
Partnering with Local School Districts
In addition to helping busy families, HopSkipDrive has earned the trust of more than 170 schools and districts nationwide as a solution to simplify specialized transportation for students with IEPs, McKinney-Vento, youth in foster care and school choice placements that don't fit neatly into a bus routing plan. The innovative HopSkipDrive platform allows administrators to book, edit and monitor rides for their students in just a few clicks. Schools can also reduce transportation costs with HopSkipDrive, shorten student commute times, and improve educational outcomes.
"HopSkipDrive is not only 60% less expensive than our previous car service solution, but far more reliable," says Mike Hush, Director of Transportation with Littleton Public Schools in Colorado. "We had worked with HopSkipDrive for only a few weeks before we quadrupled the number of students riding with CareDrivers."
Houston is home to 87 school districts and 1,450 schools that serve over 1.2 million students. Additionally, Houston hosts a steadily increasing population of youth in foster care, homeless youth and refugees in the lasting wake of 2017's Hurricane Harvey. With this growing population of students, many of whom find themselves without reliable transportation to and from school, chronic absenteeism among local students continues to challenge area schools. By providing students with a better transportation solution, HopSkipDrive hopes to help combat widespread absenteeism. Several school districts in the Greater Houston Area are already using HopSkipDrive to transport students in the new school year.
HopSkipDrive was founded in 2014 by Joanna McFarland, Carolyn Yashari Becher and Janelle McGlothlin—three working moms in L.A. who struggled to get their own children to and from school and athletics. Since then, HopSkipDrive has saved tens of thousands of busy families 34 combined years of drive time. HopSkipDrive operates in Arizona, California, Colorado, the Washington D.C. Metro region, and Northern Virginia. HopSkipDrive is currently serving families in Houston and will initiate service in Dallas in the coming weeks. HopSkipDrive is a venture capital-backed company that has raised $27M to date. HopSkipDrive shares investors with household brands such as Airbnb, Pinterest, Bird and Ring.
Learn more about HopSkipDrive by visiting http://www.hopskipdrive.com and downloading the app to check service availability. Schools can learn how to partner with HopSkipDrive by emailing [email protected].
About HopSkipDrive
Designed by protective moms, driven by caregivers, and trusted by schools coast-to-coast, HopSkipDrive is the innovator in providing safe, dependable youth transportation for schools and families. HopSkipDrive's advanced technology platform and industry-leading operations expertise gives flexibility and visibility to schools, saves parents time and stress, and helps kids reach their full potential. Since 2014, HopSkipDrive and its network of trusted and vetted CareDrivers have saved busy families 34 years of drive time, partnered with more than 170 schools and districts, driven more than 625,000 kids to over 6,000 schools, and helped thousands of homeless students and youth in foster care attend their schools of origin. For more information, please visit http://www.hopskipdrive.com.
SOURCE HopSkipDrive
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