Carpool matching
Somebody is driving with three seats empty.
The hardest part of a small show is not the ticket, it is the forty minutes of road between somebody and your door. The capacity to fix that is already parked outside. Carpool matching puts it on the event page.
Ride offer
Dana K.
4.9 stars · 12 ratings
3 of 4
spots open · 1 rider approved
- Setting off from
- Northside
- Departs
- 18:30
- Meets at
- Station car park, west entrance
- Contact
- after the driver says yes
“Small car, one bag each please.”
This is the whole record. No route matching, no map, no money changing hands.
The offer
Six fields, and three of them optional.
A driver is standing in a kitchen with a phone. Anything you ask them for beyond a town and a number of seats is a chance to give up halfway. So the form is a city, a direction and a count, and the rest can be left blank.
- To, from, or both - A lift home after the last band is a different offer from a lift there, and someone doing both is one offer covering the pair. Riders filter the list by direction.
- One live offer per direction - You cannot post the same run twice by accident. A second offer that overlaps a direction you already cover is refused.
- It stops being offerable in time - A to-event ride cannot be posted or requested once the event has started, and a from-event ride cannot once it has ended.
Offer a ride
6 fieldsCity
Required
Where the driver is setting off from. Free text, and once a list runs past five offers riders get a box to filter on it.
Direction
Required
To the event, from the event, or a round trip.
Spots
Required
How many riders fit. Any whole number from 1 to 10.
Departure time
Optional
A clock time for the pick-up.
Meeting point
Optional
A kerb, a car park, a station entrance.
Note
Optional
Anything else worth saying, up to 500 characters.
On a repeating event the offer is tied to the occurrence being viewed, so it never leaks into next week.
The spots
Four seats means four people.
The count is the only number in the feature. Every approval takes one off it, and when it reaches zero the ride stops accepting anyone. Nobody picks a seat, they just get one.
Just posted
4/4Anyone signed in can ask for a spot.
4 of 4 spots open
Two approved
2/4Two spots left, and the count came down on its own.
2 of 4 spots open
Full
0/4The request button is gone. Nobody can ask.
0 of 4 spots open
1 to 10, and editable later
A driver can raise or lower the count any time up until the event ends. It will not go below the number of riders already approved, so an approval cannot be undone by editing a number.
Two people cannot take one spot
Approving is settled inside a single locked transaction, so the last spot goes to exactly one person even if two requests land together.
Counted per date
On a weekly night, a full car on the 8th says nothing about the 15th. Each occurrence has its own offers and its own counts.
Yes
An email address is a thing you are given.
Getting into a stranger's car is a decision, and so is telling a stranger how to reach you. Both belong to the driver, in that order. Here is the same offer twice.
Before yes
Any signed-in attendee- Name
- Dana K.
- Rating
- 4.9 stars from 12 ratings
- City
- Northside
- Direction
- Round trip
- Departs
- 18:30
- Meets at
- Station car park, west entrance
- Spots
- 3 of 4 open
- not shown
- Phone
- not shown
A rider who is declined, or who withdraws, stays on this side of the line.
After yes
Approved rider only- Name
- Dana K.
- Rating
- 4.9 stars from 12 ratings
- City
- Northside
- Direction
- Round trip
- Departs
- 18:30
- Meets at
- Station car park, west entrance
- Spots
- 3 of 4 open
- dana@example.com
- Phone
- if the driver added one
The same two rows appear in the approval email, so the rider has them without going back to the page.
It runs both ways
While a driver is deciding they see the requester's name, their rating and their message. The requester's email and phone arrive only once the driver has approved them.
A phone number is opt-in
Nobody has to give one. Carpool suggests adding one to your profile because it is easier for a pick-up, and it is shown only where the email address already is.
Nothing here is public
The carpool list needs a sign-in. On a draft or internal event it needs to be your schedule, and on an unlisted one it needs that or the event password. Follower and ticket-buyer addresses are not part of carpool.
The ledger
Every request is in one of four states.
Nobody has to guess where they stand, and nobody has to sit on the page refreshing it. Every move writes a state, and the last column says who hears about it.
| State | How it gets there | Holds a spot | Email goes to |
|---|---|---|---|
| Pending | A rider asks for a spot and can add a message. | No | The driver |
| Approved | The driver says yes. | Yes | The rider, with the driver's contact details |
| Declined | The driver says no. The rider can ask again while spots remain. | No | The rider |
| Cancelled | The rider withdraws, or the driver pulls the whole offer. | No | The driver, if the rider had been approved. Every rider, if the offer went. |
The record scrolls sideways on a narrow screen.
A reminder the day before
An hourly job looks for approved rides whose event starts within the next 24 hours, or ends within them for a lift home, and emails each rider once. The driver gets one too. If browser notifications are switched on, a push goes with it.
One ask per ride
A rider cannot stack requests on the same offer, and cannot ask for a spot on their own. Posting offers, asking for spots, reviewing and reporting are all rate limited.
Both sides get told
Pulling an offer cancels every request on it and emails everyone who was on it, pending or approved. Withdrawing after approval tells the driver, so the seat is not held for a ghost.
Trust
You are not vouching for anyone.
Carpool is between attendees, and the product says so in writing before anyone takes part. What you get is a record of who behaved, and a way to act when somebody did not.
01
A notice, once
Before a first offer or a first request, each person ticks a box confirming they are 18 or older and that Event Schedule is not responsible for what happens on a ride. It is accepted once per account, not per event.
02
Ratings, after the fact
When the event has finished, a driver and the riders they approved can rate each other from 1 to 5 stars with an optional comment. One rating per pair per ride, and the average sits next to that person's name on every later ride.
03
Reports, from inside the ride
A driver can report a rider they approved, and an approved rider can report the driver, with a reason. Nobody else on the page can file one, so a report always comes from inside the car.
04
Removal, by you
The event's Engagement tab lists every active offer with its driver, city, direction and how many spots are taken, and every report filed against it. Remove an offer and its requests are cancelled and its riders emailed. Dismiss a report and it is gone.
Engagement › Carpool
ProOne switch on the schedule, not one per event.
Carpool matching
Allow attendees to offer and request rides to your events.
Then, on the event page
The number beside it is how many rides are currently on offer.
The switch
You turn it on once.
Carpool matching lives on the schedule, on the Pro plan. Switch it on and the event pages on that schedule carry a Carpool link. There is nothing to remember when you add the next show, and nothing for you to run afterwards.
The link finds the right date
On a repeating event the Carpool link carries the occurrence being viewed, so a rider always lands on the rides for the night they are looking at.
Hidden events stay hidden
A draft or internal event's carpool page is members-only, and an unlisted one needs membership or the event password. The event name and its riders do not leak out with a guessed link.
My Carpools, for the attendee
Once someone has offered or asked for a ride, a My Carpools page in their sidebar collects every one of them across every schedule, with how many requests are waiting.
Nothing to administer
Riders and drivers sort themselves out. Nothing is queued for you and no report emails you: if you want to check, the offers and any reports are sitting on that event's Engagement tab.
Free The schedule, the event pages and the calendar cost nothing. Carpool matching is one of the things Pro adds.
Key features
Free forever. Upgrade when you're ready.
Zero platform fees on ticket sales. You only pay Stripe's processing fee.
See all plansQuestions
Asked from the kerb.
How does carpool matching work?
A driver posts a ride offer on the event: the city they are setting off from, the direction (to the event, from the event, or a round trip), how many spots they have from 1 to 10, and optionally a departure time, a meeting point and a note. Other attendees see the list, filter it by direction (and by city once there are more than five offers), and ask for a spot with an optional message. The driver approves or declines each request, and an approved spot comes off the count straight away. There is no route matching, no map and no fare splitting: the offer is the whole record.
Who can offer or request rides?
Anyone with an Event Schedule account, once they are signed in. The carpool list is not public: a visitor who is not signed in is asked to log in first. Before their first offer or request each person accepts a one-time carpool notice confirming they are 18 or older and that Event Schedule is not responsible for what happens on the ride.
When does anyone see my email address or phone number?
Only once a driver has approved a rider. Until then an offer shows the driver's name, star rating, city, direction, departure time, meeting point and note, and nothing else. On approval the rider sees the driver's email address, and their phone number if they have added one to their profile, both on the carpool page and in the approval email. The driver sees the same details for riders they have approved. A rider who is declined, or who withdraws, never sees them. No email address is ever shown on the public event page, and follower and ticket-buyer email addresses are not part of carpool at all.
What does carpool matching cost and where is it switched on?
It is on the Pro plan. There is one switch, on the schedule rather than on each event: Engagement, then Carpool, then Carpool matching. Turn it on and a Carpool link appears on the event pages for that schedule, with a count beside it once there are rides on offer.
Does it work on a weekly or repeating event?
Yes, and each date keeps its own rides. An offer on a repeating event is tied to one occurrence, so a full car on the 8th has nothing to do with the 15th. The Carpool link on the event page points at the date being viewed.
How does carpool handle safety?
Four ways. Everyone accepts the carpool notice once before taking part. Once the event has finished, a driver and the riders they approved can rate each other from 1 to 5 stars with an optional comment, and the average shows next to that person's name on later rides. Those same people, and only those people, can report each other with a reason. And the schedule owner sees every active offer and every report on the event's Engagement tab, and can remove an offer, which cancels its requests and emails the riders. Nothing is emailed to the owner, so the tab is where to look.
Free to start
Fill the seats that are already going.
Claim your schedule, put the shows on it, and let the people coming work out the driving between themselves.
3 of 4 spots open
No credit card required