Introducing Transport Tech Company of the Year Finalists RideTandem

RideTandem is enabling green commuting for all.

We’re creating better transport options for the more than 50% of people in Western countries who live in smaller towns and more rural areas with our uniquely flexible model of shared transport – delivered in partnership with existing local taxi, minibus and coach companies.

Our technology turns those local fleets into smart, shared shuttles – available when they’re needed but incurring zero costs and creating zero emissions when they’re not.

The company was founded in 2019 by three co-founders (including Alex Shapland-Howes, who scaled an organisation to sell to 20% of schools nationwide, and Huw McLeod, previously CTO of Hireup, Australia’s fastest-growing company in 2017).

RideTandem recently reached £10 million in new earnings created for passengers, with £6.5 million generated in 2021 alone. We love hearing how we’ve helped our passengers, with one of our riders saying “RideTandem’s brilliant, it gets me to work every day – without it, I’d be stuck at home!”.

Our service operates outside of cities and urban centres, with our coverage currently strongest across the Midlands and East of England. Customers include Royal Mail, Primark, Transport for West Midlands, Direct Table Foods, Banham Poultry, and staffing agencies Manpower, Reed, First Call Contract Services, and Everest People Solutions.

The reason for us operating in more rural areas is because we believe public transport is broken outside of big cities. RideTandem seeks to fix this. Public transport is:

1. Inadequate: 1 in 4 of the UK’s working age population lives in an area with weak public transport connectivity and high deprivation.
2. Expensive: Londoners pay £1.50 for a bus single; elsewhere, prices can be £7+.
3. Getting worse: 3000+ UK bus routes have been cut in the last decade, increasing carbon emissions when people travel in single-occupancy vehicles.

Many individuals (especially the 20% of households without a car) cannot access affordable, reliable transport. Employers or local governments are often keen to support, but have use cases that require flexibility (e.g. shift-based work, seasonality, or transport routes that are busy at some times of the day and quiet at others) and do not have the resources/systems to engage with transport providers directly. RideTandem provides the solution.

It has been a challenging journey for our team, but one we’ve loved every minute of as we get to see the impact we have on our stakeholders on a daily basis. It is therefore a privilege to be nominated as the Transport Tech company of the year for 2022.

With just 5 other companies making the list, the RideTandem team is honoured to have been amongst those selected. One of our co-founders, Tatseng, shared his excitement about the shortlisting:

“We’re thrilled to have been selected as a finalist for Transport Tech Company of the Year! Launching a shared transport startup in late 2019 right before COVID arrived has been a rollercoaster experience, but we think there’s lots to celebrate – the team we’ve built, the B2B customers we’ve landed, and the impact we’ve made for our passengers – and are pleased that the judges agreed!”

You can find out more about RideTandem and our transport services below –

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