HopHopHop!
HopHopHop! is project started in 2009 before that services like Uber appeared.
HopHopHop is an instant ridesharing system for short distances. To attract users and generate incomes, the system use a complementary currency called comon which is an abbreviation for co-money. This currency has 5 major goals :
- Reward users for using a collaborative and
sustainable way of transportation- Attract users.- Bring customers to commercial partners.- Remunerate HopHopHop.- Offer a free ridesharing service to users.
Why HopHopHop ?
This project takes place in a pollution context due to solo driving (one person per car), traffic congestion causing considerable economic costs (1.7 billion euros / year in Paris and 5.5 billion in France), a lack of public transportation in some areas (suburban and rural) and a need for social relationships and peer to peer transportation system.
What is HopHopHop goal?
The objective of HopHoHop is to spread carpooling as a way of transportation in short distance trips in both urban and rural areas. HopHoHop is a transportation solution that is both environmentally and socially. Moreover, such a system can give access to mobility to people living in areas where there is a lack of public transportation systems. But beyond those aspects, HopHoHop serves primarily reinforce sharing communities as well as collective awareness
How does it works?
Comon : reward currency
Why a reward currency?
Each time a user uses HopHopHop he earns Comons that gives him discounts at business partners. Comon is a way to bring a customer into a business partner shop, outscoring the competition. Thus, whenever a partner receives Comons from a client, he sends a commission to the comon structure. The transaction is done automatically each time the business partner cashing Comons.
The Cost sharing of a ride begins to have a psychological impact for rides longer than 15 Km. Indeed, a journey of 15 Km costs 1 Euro to the driver and 1 Euro to the passenger. That's why sharing the cost of the ride between yhe driver and the passenger starts at 15 Km, below 15km, the comon currency acts as reward for the driver.
+ Encourage users to use a ridesharing service
+ Offering a free service
+ Business model
+ Reward short distance trips
A project like an adventure : the story of the project
This project shows exactly my method as designer explorer. After having discovered in Romania a smart and sustainable way of transportation, I developed a first concept adapted to the french users. This first concept was my final project during my master degree in design/project in 2009 before that services like Uber appeared.
Then through a hitchhiking travel across Canada and a conferences festival in Sweden about sustainability, I discovered interesting elements to improve my first concept. Then came the entrepreneurship process : writing business plan, meeting experts from a wide range of activities, funding researches, ...During this process I met Michael SCHNELL, an other project leader with a similar project. We decided to create RUSCH, a designer collective to develop design projects about service design, mobility and social innovation. We presented our projects in various parisians events about innovation and mobility. Without enough founding we decided to stopped our own projects but RUSCH collective grows up and still goes on...