The juggle of work, school and myriad extracurricular activities is all too familiar to parents like Kelly Aluise of Los Angeles.
Her 12-year-old daughter, Emma, had enrolled in August for after-school surfing and swimming. Ms. Aluise and her ex-husband, who work full time, didn’t know how they would get her to the activities. Complicating matters, Ms. Aluise’s schedule as a real estate agent with Keller Williams is unpredictable.
“I didn’t know how I was going to get Emma where she needed to be and do my job,” she said. “So I asked the school’s principal what I should do and he handed me a brochure for HopSkipDrive.” Ms. Aluise looked at the brochure and hugged him.
She now schedules three rides a week for her daughter, which costs about $45 to $50 a week. While ride-hailing services have been popular in the start-up economy, new entrepreneurs are going after a specific niche: providing rides for children.
These start-ups are nibbling at the industry’s fringes, where Uber and Lyft — at least officially — don’t go. (Per policy at Uber and Lyft, drivers are not supposed to give rides to unaccompanied minors.)
Although they are still testing the waters in a small number of markets, the sector is already becoming competitive. It’s part of a bigger trend of ride-hailing, with services finding ways to capture a very specific market segment, said Harry Campbell, who writes about the industry at his blogTheRideShareGuy.com and is a driver for Uber and Lyft.
There is Wingz, which specializes in airport rides; Lift Hero, which provides rides to older consumers; and Chariot for Women, set to start this month in Boston, aiming to serve women or children under age 13.
Full-time working mothers started HopSkipDrive, which serves all of Los Angeles County and much of Orange County. The company has received $14.1 million in funding and said revenue was growing 30 percent monthly. It was preceded by Shuddle, which began in 2014 and has raised $12 million.
To read the whole article: EILENE ZIMMERMAN, The New York , link: http://www.nytimes.com/2016/04/14/business/smallbusiness/ride-sharing-start-ups-compete-in-uber-for-children-niche.html?ref=technology