App Lets Riders Connect With Drivers For Late-Night Runs From SF To South Bay
PALO ALTO (KPIX 5) -- When Caltrain stops running at night, a new ride sharing app called Fleet offers to take people in private cars along the San Francisco to San Jose route.
It's the brainchild of Stanford seniors Isaac Madan and Shaurya Saluja. They said they needed this type of service after late nights out in the city.
"Our main options are basically Caltrain or Uber, and Uber, unless you have a group of four to five kidsm it's pretty expensive," Saluja said.
So these computer science classmates built this app. They say it's a cheaper, more convenient way to get from station to station.
"I think the coolest thing is that you can get back at a time of night where it wasn't possible to get back at that price point and it's basically an extension of a service that you're already used to experiencing," Madan said.
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Pricing is broken down into four zones from $6 to $18, which is almost double what Caltrain charges. The start-up hopes shared rides will connect users.
"So you can meet other Stanford students, entrepreneurs, VCs, all sorts of people that's the idea to be able to match people and introduce them to other people," Saluja said.
The service which launched Monday is in its beta testing phase. The founders said the company still doesn't have state-issued operating permits for ride sharing services. It's 15 drivers are also using their personal auto insurance right now.
The California Department of Insurance says customers should be aware -- if you're taking a ride from any app based service, you most likely will not be covered if the driver is using his personal auto insurance. The CPUC is the regulating authority and it's working to determine what kinds of rules and regulations Fleet needs to follow.