Pickuppal
Encyclopedia
PickupPal Online Incorporated is a free online ridesharing service, that allows its members to coordinate carpool
Carpool
Carpooling , is the sharing of car journeys so that more than one person travels in a car....

ing and ridesharing activities around the world.

History

PickupPal was founded in 2007 by John Stewart
John Stewart
- Academia and literature :*John Stewart of Baldynneis , Scottish courtier and writer*John "Walking" Stewart , English traveller and philosopher*John Alexander Stewart , Scottish scholar of Burmese...

and Eric Dewhirst in Ontario
Ontario
Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

, Canada
Canada
Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

. The idea was to create an online community that would leverage social networking tools
Social network service
A social networking service is an online service, platform, or site that focuses on building and reflecting of social networks or social relations among people, who, for example, share interests and/or activities. A social network service consists of a representation of each user , his/her social...

 in an effort to assist drivers and passengers to find each other online. The website was launched on January 15, 2008. PickupPal's competitors include Zimride
Zimride
Zimride is an online carpooling and ridesharing service that focuses on existing communities at colleges, universities and corporations. The service integrates user profiles with Facebook and allows users to limit their matches to members of a private community.- History :Zimride was started in...

 and GoLoco.org. http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123915473346099771.html

Legal challenges

In July 2008 Trentway-Wagar, a regional bus company requested that the Ontario Highway Transportation Board (OHTB) order PickupPal to cease providing service within Ontario. PickupPal launched an online petition to lobby the Ontario Provincial Government to have the definition of a carpool vehicle amended to all carpool vehicles to cross municipal boundaries and that the restriction that all travel be limited to home and work exclusively. On October 15. 2008 PickupPal and Trentway-Wagar defended their positions before the OHTB and subsequently on November 6, 2008 the OHTB found in favor of Trentway-Wagar. On October 28, 2008 the Minister of Transportation tabled an amendment to the definition of a carpool vehicle that would allow operations like PickupPal to continue to operate in the province.http://www.thestar.com/News/Ontario/article/526516

As of 2009 the Ontario government voted in favour of Bill 118 which amends the Public Vehicle Act to not include carpool vehicles. http://www.ontla.on.ca/web/bills/bills_detail.do?locale=en&BillID=2099
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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