Hitching A Ride
On those long cross country rides, some of us may hope to pick up a hitchhiker, or hitchhikeress. Seems to be a dying breed though. An app will fill that gaping void. SideCar, an on-demand ride-sharing app, lets users request a ride by indicating where they would like to be picked up and dropped off”, Reuters says.
Bertel Schmitt comes back to journalism after taking a 35 year break in advertising and marketing. He ran and owned advertising agencies in Duesseldorf, Germany, and New York City. Volkswagen A.G. was Bertel's most important corporate account. Schmitt's advertising and marketing career touched many corners of the industry with a special focus on automotive products and services. Since 2004, he lives in Japan and China with his wife <a href="http://www.tomokoandbertel.com"> Tomoko </a>. Bertel Schmitt is a founding board member of the <a href="http://www.offshoresuperseries.com"> Offshore Super Series </a>, an American offshore powerboat racing organization. He is co-owner of the racing team Typhoon.
More by Bertel Schmitt
Comments
Join the conversation
I'm not much of a Boston fan, but "Hitch a Ride" must have one of the best rock guitar solos ever: youtube.com/watch?v=FnXt-3gYy4I
How do people deal with the liability issue here? The moment that you take any recompense for giving someone a ride, your auto insurance almost certainly stops coverage (since you're now a commercial vehicle). I think that you also run afoul of the law governing commercial vehicles and licensing. The same holds true for AirBnB when renting a room in your home.
Washington DC has an unofficial hitching program outside the office buildings where drivers pick up riders so they can use the HOV lanes. Many I spoke with use this every day to get to a train or bus stop, or even their homes. So far no one has disappeared without a trace.
I've been both a hitchhiker and the person giving the ride in the past 3 months, and I'm still alive and un-sued.