Boomtrends

Hitchsters.com - To JFK or BUST

The days of free love and hippies are gone and it’s nearly impossible to get picked up by sticking out the trusty ol’ thumb anymore. However, if you are a free lovin’ hippie missing the good ol’ days or a n00b like me, the newly launched Hitchsters.com has brought hitching to the 21st century, using the trusty cellphone and the good ol’ net.

The concept is simple, go to their site, enter your flight information (departing/arriving), select where you are taking the cab to/from, and whether you would rather ride with a dude/chick/either. Pop in your email and cellphone number, and they’ll send you an email and text with the person you are supposed to coordinate cabs with. Then you’re on your own to figure it all out: who’s picking who up, where to meet, when to leave, etc. etc. There is one rule though: the first one out pays 60% of the fare. As it says on their FAQs the reason for this is basically so that the last guy out doesn’t get screwed for the tip.

This all sounds great so far, until I read how they paired you up. They will only match you with people who are on the same flight as you and are travelling to/from the same neighborhood as you. Think about it this way: There are about 200 people on a sold out flight, of those 200 people, how many of those people are coincidentally going to the same area of the city you are, and how many of those people also signed up on Hitchsters.com? Not many. So with these matching rules, it seems pretty tough to get a match going. Of course, the site just launched about 5 days ago, so when more people starting using the site, making these matches will be a lot easier, so spread the word.

Hitchsters.com service is currently only available in NYC to and from JFK/La Guardia/Newark, but they are hoping to expand to other airports soon. However I would love to see some of this hippie/taxi co-op action from one part of the city to another, like for example being able to get on my phone and putting in a request at 11pm after a few pints to get from one bar to the next, or maybe making that trek home from the bars after closing time, I’m sure those rides would make one helluva adventure. Hitchsters.com, where you at?!?! Get more people on your site! I don’t want to pay the full $45 to get to and from JFK anymore!!!

P.S. Boomtrenders heading out to NY or coming home from NY - show Hitchsters.com some love and let us know if it worked out for you, and crazy cab stories are always welcomed!

This entry was posted on Friday, November 17th, 2006 at 2:58 am and is filed under social networking, money, community. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.