Question – I did not find any matches for my trips. What
can I do to improve my chances of finding matches?
Answer -Blog about us. Talk about us to your friends and your employer.
Print out the iCarpool brochure and put it up on the notice board at your workplace
OR post the electronic version on your community website. Every bit you do will
in-turn increase your chances of finding great matches. In the meanwhile, we are
at work spreading the word as well.
iCarpool is one of the fastest growing carpool networks worldwide, with new members
signing up every day. We are confident you will find great matches soon.
Answer –We use high precision algorithms to match your route with
other routes, with a precision of upto 10 meters. This enables you to discover the
perfect carpooling match on iCarpool. Several other websites offer carpool as a
mere listing service with no intelligent matching OR primitive zipcode based matching.
These websites clearly cannot make the best carpool recommendations for you since
they do not even know your route.
Ask yourself – is the website just giving me a primitive list of carpool matches
OR is the website giving me a list of carpool matches comparing my route with the
matched routes? Needless to say, iCarpool is finding the best match for you based
on your route.
Answer –No, the textual address you enter is private and never
shared. Your address only appears as a location on the map when a searching user
finds your trip a match for carpool. Please note that the location co-ordinates
we acquire have a high degree of precision (may be a few yards or meters from the
address you entered) and thus may be traceable to your home or your work place.
If you want to avoid this high degree of match, you may either:
- Enter a more general street address without door number.
- Enter the address of a nearby location such as a library or a coffee shop.
- Enter your address and click on "View Map" to select a different nearby location
for sharing such as a Park & Ride lot, a store or a park.
Answer –The internet today is plagued with crime of one sort or
the other. Some internet businesses claim to use "online" safety checks, which if
you see the fine print fall short in many ways. Most of these safety checks are
hard to understand – as to what level of safety they really provide.
At iCarpool, we cannot and will not commit to false security for our users. We will
not give false guarantees of total security and safety with our system. We believe,
in today’s world, no internet based system can provide such a guarantee. However,
we do recognize the need in adopting a model which may improve safety standards.
We designed a model which will improve safety, safeguard your privacy and certainly
be a simpler model you can understand.
In the iCarpool system, you have control over your interactions and contact information
exchange with others in the system.
- Interactions and contact information exchange with users within your community/network
only. For example, members belonging to a community you are part of may be your
co-workers or neighbors staying in the same residential community – thus enhancing
safety aspects significantly.
- Interactions and contact information exchange with users within any community/network
in the iCarpool system. For example, in case of members belonging to another organization,
they may be employees of the organization next door. Please note that iCarpool validates
such external users with process similar to the affiliation process you went through
to affiliate with your organization.
- Interactions and contact information exchange with all users, regardless of affiliation.
This includes users not affiliated to any community/network within the iCarpool
system. We encourage you to take additional verification steps to establish identity
for this scope. Please see our "Best Practices" recommendations on the website.
Please note - we will ask for your explicit approval before your contact information
is exchanged with another member who is not part of your community / network.
Question – How does iCarpool safeguard my privacy as compared
to other websites?
Answer - Most other websites directly publish your contact information
to any user searching for carpool matches on the website. This enables the user
to capture your personal details including name, phone number, age, sex, email address,
location address, etc. The searching user may not even have interest in carpooling
with you – but he may only be interested in capturing your data to his database.
Further, you have no idea how many users actually captured your personal information
from the listing on the website.
At iCarpool, we realize how important it is for you to safeguard your personal information.
Unlike other websites, we do not publish your contact information to other users
when they search our website for carpool matches. For a member outside your community/network,
you will see carpool match percentage, timings, profile details before you decide
to exchange contact information. This puts you in control to decide with whom you
want to share your contact information.
Question – What should I do once I connect with a carpool
partner through the website and start carpooling?
Answer - If you are satisfied with your carpool match, you could
go to the website, and edit your trip details by selecting "Do not show my trip
to any one" option on the "Modify Route Preferences" page. This will prevent you
showing up as a match for that particular route when other members search the website.
If you want to continue finding a better match or additional carpool partners, make
sure that "Do not show my trip to any one" option on the "Modify Route Preferences"
page is not selected. Then, simply return to the website periodically and search
for carpool partners OR respond to the invites you receive from other members as
you consider appropriate.
Question - What if I don't want to receive email notifications
from other members?
Answer - If you are satisfied with your carpool match, you
could go to the website, and edit your trip details by selecting "Do not show my
trip to any one" option on the "Modify Route Preferences" page. This will prevent
you showing up as a match for that particular trip when other members search the
website. Thus, you will not receive any email notifications from members for carpool.
You could still visit the website periodically and search for carpool partners yourself.
Answer - You can use iCarpool even if your community is not listed
with us. iCarpool is completely FREE for individual members. This means with your
free membership you can register, search for carpool partners, invite matched members,
share contact information and form carpool groups on the website. If your community
is a subscribed community, it may provide you additional services or features on
iCarpool.com depending on the subscription plan chosen by your community.
Answer - Yes, iCarpool is a secure website. Your security is our
highest priority. We use SSL encryption as necessary so that sensitive data coming
to our website is secure. In addition, we do not store your payment information
like credit card number, name of cardholder, zipcode, etc. We want you to have peace
of mind whether you are searching our website for carpool matches or providing payment
details.
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