HopSkipDrive & Shuddle: Transporting Minors – Safe or Not?

HopSkipDrive and Shuddle are recent venture capitalized startups that specialize in giving rides to unaccompanied minors.

HopSkipDrive claims to be founded by 3 mothers and actually was.

Founder and CEO Joanna McFarland has an MBA from Stanford, a BS from Wharton, has worked for 15 years in product and general management, and has two kids.

Along with the other founder mothers she claims to be part of,

 “A team that cares as much for your kids as they do theirs.’’

To an extent this appears to be true. Unlike Uber or Lyft, HopskipDrive has its drivers fingerprinted and favors Trustline , Live scan  and other safety measures for background checks.

Shuddle's CEO, on the other hand, is Nick Allen who was a co-founder of Sidecar where he clearly worked on his bs – as you can hear in this interview where he claims that Sidecar "really isn't a taxi service at all"...

Like Uber and Lyft, Shuddle formulates long and arcane arguments against using background checks like Trusline and Live scan – which are the standards for child care safety. It's unclear whether Shuddle uses fingerprinting or not. Some places they say they do. In others, they don't mention it.

OOPS - Nick Allen is out at Shuddle. Apparently the company isn't doing too well.

In any case, I would certainly favor HopSkipDrive over Shuddle. Unfortunately, they have a waiver of liability (which is normally used for dangerous activities like parachute jumping or traveling in a war zone) hidden in their Terms where they refuse to guarantee the safety of your kids after all.

I haven't had the luck to have children myself (at least not yet) but I'm advising my numerous cousins, nieces and nephews not to use either service until or unless they get rid of the waivers and guarantee the safety of the children who they transport.

For more detail you can read from my Reply Comments to the CPUC on Unaccompanied Minors below.

Note: The Austin, Texas City Council voted to require Uber and the other tncs to fingerprint their drivers.  In this they join San Antonio, Las Vegas, Portland, most of Europe and China among other places.

Remember the days when San Francisco was the leader in consumer protections and social and political innovations? Now we wonder when the Neanderthals who currently run this city and this state will catch up with the rest of the world?

 How really concerned with safety are HOPSKIPDRIVE and SHUDDLE?

On Shuddle's webpage in its Terms and Services you can read:

… DRIVERS ARE HUMAN BEINGS, AND NO ONE IS PERFECT. SO, AS HARD AS WE TRY, SHUDDLE DOES NOT CONTROL, AND MAKES NO REPRESENTATIONS ABOUT THE SUITABILITY, RELIABILITY, OR ACCURACY OF, THE DRIVERS’ PROVISION OR PERFORMANCE OF RIDES OR THE CONDITION OF THE VEHICLES IN WHICH RIDES ARE PERFORMED … SHUDDLE MAKES NO WARRANTY, AND UNDER NO CIRCUMSTANCE ACCEPTS LIABILITY IN CONNECTION WITH AND/OR ARISING FROM, DRIVER’S PROVISION OF RIDES, THE CONDITION OF THE VEHICLES IN WHICH RIDES ARE PERFORMED, ANY ACTS, ACTION, BEHAVIOR, CONDUCT, AND/OR NEGLIGENCE ON THE PART OF THE DRIVER.

HopSkipDrive, in its Terms, is more specific about their lack of responsibility:

YOUR USE OF THE HOPSKIPDRIVE PROPERTIES IS AT YOUR SOLE RISK and TO 

THE FULLEST EXTENT PERMITTED BY APPLICABLE LAW, WE ARE NOT LIABLE 

FOR THE ACTS, ERRORS, OMISSIONS, REPRESENTATIONS, WARRANTIES, 

BREACHES OR NEGLIGENCE OF ANY SUCH DRIVERS OR FOR ANY PERSONAL 

INJURIES, DEATH, PROPERTY DAMAGE, OR OTHER DAMAGES OR EXPENSES 

RESULTING THEREFROM.

I read these waivers to mean that HopSkipDrive and Shuddle "put the safety of your child first" unless your child is molested or otherwise "damaged" during the ride – in which case neither company takes any responsibility whatsoever.

Or, as they used to say in old Mexico, 

"No es mi problema es tu problema."