Alternative transportation provider HopSkipDrive reports that in 2023, more than 99% of its rides with more than 600 school districts, government agencies, and nonprofits ended without any kind of safety incident.

That’s according to the company’s fifth annual Safety Report, covering 1.2 million rides by CareDrivers across more than 25 million miles in 13 states and Washington, D.C.

“Traditional student transportation service providers like to say they ‘leave no stone unturned’ when it comes to safety,” said Mike Martin, former executive director and CEO of the National Association for Pupil Transportation. “HopSkipDrive is demonstrating that it, too, lives and breathes this motto, and that there is no finish line in safety, particularly student safety. In fact, this report provides a new roadmap for others to follow if they truly want to provide the safest transportation for the millions of kids needing equitable access to school and activities.”

The year saw a 50% increase in completed rides on the HopSkipDrive platform, said Joanna McFarland, the company’s CEO and founder.

Advancements rolling out this year include:

• Proactive Ride Intervention: If the platform detects thresholds of driving behavior through mobile telematics technology such as speeding, hard braking, rapid acceleration, tight turns, or phone usage, the Safe Ride Support team will get an alert and take action. That action could include stopping the ride before the passenger gets in the vehicle.

• Location Pins: These will help ensure that CareDrivers pick up and drop off passengers at a precise location, enabling seamless transitions from the vehicle to their next location.

• Enhanced Just-in-Time Rider Information: Approved passenger information and back-seat accommodation details will appear in the CareDriver app progressively, ensuring that information is continually protected and communicated only on an as-needed basis.

• CareDriver App Safety and Reliability Improvements: Added functionality includes new data-driven insights for greater timeliness; turn-by-turn navigation with alerts to guide slower, safer driving; and safety scorecards.

• Joining the Industry Sharing Safety Program: HopSkipDrive is teaming with the Industry Sharing Safety Program (ISSP) to get data about driver behavior from other Transportation Network Company (TNC) platforms. This will allow HopSkipDrive to identify and remove any CareDriver that has been deactivated by major nationwide rideshare platforms based on sexual misconduct and violence, as well as physical assault fatalities.