Skjutsgruppen.se

Skjutsgruppen is Sweden’s only service combining public transport with carpooling in rental cars and private vehicles. Skjutsgruppen is a non-profit carpooling movement, which today engages over 70,000 participant. The goal is to use existing resources more efficient, which benefits the envorinment while increasing mobility and meeting people.

Ten years ago, Mattias Jägerskog started Skjutsgruppen as a social experiment. Friends invited friends via social media to ride together and the response was huge. On Facebook and Twitter, the hashtag #skjutsgruppen quickly spread, thousands of people used it to give each other a ride. When the Facebook group reached 20,000 participants, it was time to take the next step - develop a search tool for carpooling. And it was not just about carpooling in private vehicles.

- Our association’s statutes state that we must “… encourage different kinds of environmentally friendly travel with a focus on travelling together such as carpooling, public transport and similar compatible functions”. Ever since the start we’ve longed to visualize ”the total journey” and when there were open APIs with public transport data, it became doable, says Mattias Jägerskog.

After a crowdfunding campaign that raised SEK 200,000, the project started and a couple of months later they launched the search service on skjutsgruppen.se. In one search, the traveler receives suggestions for places in private individuals cars, boats, buses, bicycles and hot air balloons and public transport throughout Sweden. In addition, the service has been supplemented with carpools from car rental company Hertz.

- If a rental car is driven only from point A to point B but not back, then it needs to be transported back. Through the service Freerider Hertz offers private individuals to drive the rental cars back for free, and thanks to skjutsgruppen several people kan ride together in these rental cars. In this way, we also create car sharing in the private sector, and combine it with public transport and seats in private vehicles.

Open data is necessary for skjutsgruppen.se to become reality, both from the public transport industry and Hertz. In addition, Skjutsgruppen has chosen to do the same thing - provide third-party developers with open carpooling data.

- Open data is needed to create sustainable mobility services and we hope that other travel apps will integrate our data in their services. With increased car sharing, we get fewer vehicles on the roads, reduced carbon dioxide emissions and reduced travel costs for individuals. Societies become more inclusive through the proximity of neighbors, colleagues and friends that share a vehicle.

Skjutsgruppen and Mattias Jägerskog were named Trafiklab hero 2016. Part of the motivation was as follows: “Mattias has through his commitment driven questions about new ways of looking at mobility, shared economy and how open data is a central component of this work. "

FACTS ABOUT SKJUTSGRUPPEN.SE

Launched in: The movement 2007, skjutsgruppen.se 2013

Type of service: Search tool for co-riding in private vehicles such as cars, boats, buses, bicycles, hot air balloons, rental cars from Hertz and all of Swedens public transportation

Data from Trafiklab: ResRobot’s API Route planner

User count: As of today 70 000 users