Pricing

Poparide helps drivers share the costs of driving by connecting them with passengers travelling the same way. To comply with local carpooling laws, drivers' must ensure that their Poparide earnings do not exceed the shareable (operating) costs of their vehicle. The shareable costs of a vehicle include gas, insurance and maintenance.

The Canadian Automobile Association (CAA) provides an excellent cost calculator that we recommend drivers use to estimate their specific annual shareable costs. To help them stay within legal limits and to ensure fair pricing for passengers, Poparide caps the price per seat to 15 cents per kilometre.

The cost of driving

The CAA estimates the annual cost of driving a car in Canada is around $9,500 a year. They have also found that 60% of Canadians underestimate the annual costs of owning and operating a vehicle by as much as $4000!

The basis of our price cap per kilometre cap is a calculation using several averaged values for the cost of gas, insurance and maintenance. Depreciation, credit repayments, licensing and registration costs do not qualify as shareable costs under most carpooling legislation and so are not included in the calculation.

1. Average price across BC, ON, AB and QC in March, 2018
2. https://www.fin.gov.on.ca/en/autoinsurance/fair-benefits.html
3. Maintenance is highly variable based on the vehicle's age, but averages range between $500 and $2,000 annually
4. Depreciation, licensing and registration are not shareable (operating) costs
5. Poparide trips on average have 1.8 passengers booked

Price capping

To ensure fair pricing, Poparide caps the price per seat to 15 cents per kilometre. We then round the price up to the nearest dollar. The 15 cents per kilometre limit is based on:

• the "Rideshare cost per km" value calculated above, 10.7 cents per kilometre
• some reasonable variations in fuel efficiency, gas and insurance prices
• pricing data compiled by Poparide over time based on platform activity

Drivers can and often do offer a lower price than the recommended amount to attract more passengers.

Vias pricing

For routes that include vias, we automatically calculate the price for each via segment.

1. We calculate a trip's price per km for the overall route based on the price set by the driver.
2. We multiply the trip's price per km with the shortest distance between two segments.
3. We round up the segment price to the nearest dollar.