Francois is bringing the community together, one car ride at a time
For Forestville resident Francois Chemillier, sharing a car ride with someone heading to the same destination is the perfect way to save money on fuel, reduce carbon emissions and build community connections. “I got tired of watching hundreds of empty cars crawl down the same Northern Beaches roads every morning,” Francois says. “So I built Herdy – a carpooling app for daily commuters.”
Francois, who grew up in France, spent two years building Herdy, which he launched in February. The engineer says that in France, using an app to carpool is something that is ‘part of their everyday life,’ and has been around for 20 years. After moving to Australia seven years ago, he saw there was little in the way of carpooling – or apps to facilitate it – on the Northern Beaches.
A drive to drop his three children to school each morning would have Francois noting the number of cars with single occupancy, all heading in the same direction. He described it as a ‘missed opportunity,’ with people unable to communicate with others about where and when lifts could be shared.
Herdy was the result. “I wanted to build something that really works and that would be used for the daily commute, but also for other types of journeys where people are more flexible around the timing and the dates of their departure,” he says, adding that as the app works nationwide, interstate travellers can use it for their trips too.
The app is free to download, and is a ‘two-sided marketplace,’ meaning those offering a lift can post a ride, while those looking for a lift can search for the origin, destination and day they need to travel and find a matching ride.
Drivers offering to carpool set a price too. “The idea is to split the cost between the number of people in the car,” Francois says. “We set boundaries because the driver is not allowed to make any profit – only recover some costs.” Payment is made within the app, and those who are part of a ride can leave a review, which is made public.
“That’s how we build trust within the application,” he explains.
At the time of print, Herdy has around 700 rides being offered on the Beaches, and around 250 registered users. Francois says the app will grow over time, and he has been encouraged by the feedback he has received. “There were people living in the same neighbourhood, realising that in the next block a guy was also going to the city on the same day and that was an easy match,” Francois says.
“It has brought me a lot of pleasure to hear about those experiences because I wanted to connect people. We live in the same neighbourhood – I think sharing a ride is a nice way of looking after each other.”
Download Herdy from the app store. Visit herdy.com.au/map for a live map of rides available.
