Getting Started
Contents
Welcome to RideConnect
Sharing rides doesn't need to be overwhelming. This guide will help you get to sharing your car or sharing rides. We’ll also offer tips for how you can use RideConnect in your daily life, expanding your ride sharing community, and making sure your requests get to the right drivers.
In this guide, you'll learn how to:
- Register for RideConnect
- Enable ride sharing
- Create your first post
- Request a ride
- Manage the ride process
If you have any questions that are not addressed in this guide, RideConnect offers a variety of valuable resources for getting started, including our video index, a glossary of terms, a searchable Knowledge Base of how-to and troubleshooting articles and a helpful support team.
Now, let’s get started.
The Basics
RideConnect is a smartphone application that works on iPhones and most Android based phones.
To make sure that RideConnect works properly on your phone, you should apply all the latest system updates that are available for your phone.
Before you watch our tutorial videos, you’ll need a current browser on your phone or computer, such as Firefox, Chrome or Safari.
Terms of Service
When you create a RideConnect profile, you agree to comply with all anti-spam regulations and RideConnect's Terms Of Service. Be mindful of these guidelines as you’re getting started:
- RideConnect does not maintain your social network. The inclusion or exclusion of people into your social network is entirely controlled by you. When you add people to your Facebook profile, or save someone's number into your contact list on your phone, they become available to share rides with so long as they have also saved your number into their contact list.
Downloading and Registering
RideConnect is presently in a closed beta program, for which you may sign up.
RideConnect will be available on the latest iOS and Android releases, and can be downloaded from Google Play and the Apple app store.
Once RideConnect has been installed on your smartphone, you will have to register your handset in order to share rides.
During the registration process, you will have to provide some information about yourself, agree to our Terms and Conditions and then connect your social networks. Doing so will be bound by our Privacy Statement.
Registration Process
The registration process for RideConnect takes only a few seconds to complete, after which you can begin ride sharing.
First, your smartphone has to be validated. We do this because we want you to have a safe and reliable ride sharing experience.
Next, you need to setup your social networks. This helps to speed up the process because your profile is created from there information in your Facebook profile.
In case you choose to not connect your Facebook, that's alright. However you'd have to enter all your profile information manually when you create it.
Once you've finished connecting your social network, you need to complete your profile, which may already be partially filled out. During this step, you can change your photo, select your handle and pick your security code.
Finally, if you have a car, you can turn on sharing with your social network. In doing so, your friends and other people on your social network can ask you for a ride.
That's it. You're now registered. Be sure to share RideConnect with your friends.
Information That We Need From You
RideConnect strives to maintain your privacy to the greatest extent possible while still being able to provide you with a quality ride sharing experience.
The below table shows the information that we need, and the information that's nice to have.
| Information Required to use RideConnect | ||
|---|---|---|
| Required | Nice to Have | |
| Phone Number | X | |
| Handle | X | |
| First/Last Name | X | |
| X | ||
| Date of Birth | X | |
| Gender | X | |
| Profile Photo | X | |
| Car Photo | X | |
| Security Code | X | |
| X | ||
Connecting Your Social Networks
You can connect RideConnect to your Facebook profile, if you have one. Once you've done this, RideConnect will identify other RideConnect users who are also your friends.
RideConnect doesn't require you to connect your Facebook profile in order to work. In fact, all you need are mutual contacts in your phone book and your can be off sharing rides with them.
However, by connecting your Facebook profile, you may have access to a broader group of people with whom to share rides.
Enabling Ride Sharing
If you have a car, you can share it with your friends through RideConnect.
In order to do so, you will have to provide a picture of your vehicle. This is so that when you offer someone a ride, they will be able to identify your vehicle when you arrive to pick them up.
There is no restriction on the type of vehicle that you use, so long as it is legal, safe and you are allowed to share it.
Telling Your Friends About RideConnect
Sharing rides with RideConnect depends on your friends, family and people in your extended social network participating in it.
Sharing RideConnect is easy. By sharing the download link onto your Facebook newsfeed or by SMS text with your close friends will enable you to coordinate travel with them, and them with you.
Be sure to take a look at our RideConnect guides to learn more about how all you can use RideConnect.
My Community
RideConnect is all about communities. You and the people on your community are the ones who share rides together. The broader your community, the greater the number of sharing choices.
The My Community section of RideConnect allows you to look at all the people with whom you can share rides. Everyone on My Community are from your social network.
Indicators on each entry shows you how you're connected to them. For example, an entry with an f on it indicates that you and that contact are connected via Facebook. If there is a phone icon, then it indicates that you are mutual phone book contacts.
You have the option to block people who are on your community list. This may be because you have reasons to not share rides with them. Blocking a person will keep them from receiving ride requests from you, and they won't be able to request rides from you. In addition, your posts on the RideBoard will be invisible to anyone whom you have blocked.
You also have the option add people to your favorites list. By doing this, you are able to group your favorite social contacts together so that at a later time, you can ask them for a ride.
RideBoard
The RideBoard is the central element of RideConnect. As is the case with a real, physical ride board, this is the place where you can post your ride needs.
The posts on the RideBoard allow you to tell your social community where you want to go, or where you are going. You can restrict the visibility of that post to a specific person, your favorites, to only your friends, or to everyone.
Once a post has been placed on the RideBoard, other travelers can interact with it, as can you with posts that you see.
If you have set up ride sharing of your car, then other travelers can ask you for a ride, and you can offer a ride to other travelers.
In addition, each post has a message that helps travelers determine the nature of your post. For example, if you have an event that you wish to attend, you may want to tell your friends about it, so that if any of them are interested, they can coordinate rides with you to go there together.
When you review posts on your RideBoard, you have the opportunity to remove offensive posts, block users and mute users.
When you mute a user, you are still able to share rides with them but their posts are no longer visible on your RideBoard. They are not informed that they have been muted.
Blocking a user is possible in two ways.
You may either block only a user, or you may block their entire social network. Doing either only keeps them from interacting with you.
When you block a user and their entire social network, then no one on their social network can ask you for a ride or see your posts. In addition, your requests won't get sent on to their social networks.