HopSkipDrive is expanding to five new cities this Fall to partner with dozens of new clients to provide alternative transportation solutions in:

• Bakersfield, California

• Grand Rapids, Michigan

• Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania

• Richmond, Virginia

• Tucson, Arizona

Expanding to Meet Growing Alternative Student Transportation Needs

This growth in geographic reach comes as HopSkipDrive caps a 2023-2024 school year with a more than 300% increase in rides across its marketplace from the beginning of the school year to the end.

The rides were fulfilled by a network of local caregivers, called CareDrivers. Throughout the school year, the community of active CareDrivers doubled as increasing numbers of drivers joined HopSkipDrive.

Over the course of the last school year, the company has also increased its employee base by over 30%, hiring additional team members across Engineering, Product, Data Science and Business Intelligence, Support and Safety, Sales, Public Policy, and many more.

"Our work over the last few years has fueled our exponential growth across various areas,” HopSkipDrive Co-Founder and CEO Joanna McFarland said. “We’ve powered millions of safe, reliable rides for kids to tens of thousands of schools, extracurricular activities, support services, and more. We’re proud to fill a need for our school district partners as we supplement school bus transportation options and also bring forward innovative, AI-powered software to solve the biggest challenges they face. We expect 2024 will be our biggest back-to-school yet, and we’re excited to continue our momentum.”

The company grew its client base more than 50% through the 2023-2024 school year, and today works with the majority of school districts in cities where HopSkipDrive operates.

Over 10,000 schools in 600+ school districts across the country have been supported with HopSkipDrive rides across 13 states and dozens of major cities, according to a news release.

HopSkipDrive also responded to widespread interest in RouteWise AI, the company’s AI-based school transportation routing optimization tool.

At the end of the last school year, more than 20 school districts around the country leveraged insights from the proprietary software to solve issues like bus driver shortages, sustainability mandates, school policy changes, and more.

One district in Colorado that used RouteWise AI was able to reduce their capital budget by 40% over 10 years by increasing vehicle utilization, right-sizing their fleet, and utilizing more efficient routes.