The Biggest Challenges With Building HopSkipDrive In Highly Regulated Markets

8 Sept 2024 · 2 min

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In this interview excerpt, a HopSkipDrive representative explains that the company operates as a highly regulated transportation network company (TNC) specifically for children and schools, similar to Uber and Lyft but with additional constraints. Many of the regulations governing school transportation were written 50 years ago for traditional yellow school buses and commercially licensed drivers, leading to outdated rules that cause driver shortages and limit access to education. HopSkipDrive addresses these challenges by investing heavily in policy and regulatory teams to educate legislators and regulators, advocating for modernized rules. The company reports successful regulatory changes in several states, which they view as crucial for improving educational access for kids.

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So what have been some of the biggest challenges maybe building in with, you know, building HopSkipDrive in probably more regulated markets compared to other marketplaces and some, some of the recent learnings around that?
Yeah, it's a great question. We are a very regulated marketplace and, and, you know, Uber and Lyft are obviously very regulated marketplaces. So like Uber and Lyft, we are regulated as a transportation network company. We have the same, with some modifications, we have the same license they do in many places. We've actually taken it a step further and worked with regulators in a couple of markets to get it So it's a TNC specifically for kids or specifically for schools. In addition to that, you know, departments of education have their own regulations around who can drive students and what that looks like. And for us, you know, a lot of those regulations were written 50 years ago and were written for a yellow school bus and a commercially licensed driver. And so a big part of our work is to create awareness and education for policymakers to get regulations changed. Part of the reason that we have such a driver shortage and we have so many struggles in school transportation is because of outdated regulations that don't reflect the reality of today and the reality of how kids are getting to school today. So we spend a lot of our time and, and have really invested in our policy and regulatory teams Just educating legislators and regulators and working with them to get regulations changed. I'm proud to say we've had a number of successful states where we have changed regulations and have paved the way. And it's super meaningful because that's access to education for kids.