Now You Can Use Uber Without a Smartphone
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Justin Boogaard had been living with his grandma and serving as her driver whenever she needed a ride. But after three years, he moved out and she lost her rides. She wasn’t comfortable with her smartphone, so she couldn’t use the app–based ride-share services like Uber that many seniors use, leaving her pretty much stuck — until Boogaard created GoGoGrandparent, a service that lets you call a ride on-demand from Uber or Lyft using a landline or cellphone.
GoGoGrandparent acts as an intermediary between the ride-sharing service and the person who needs a ride, and works for both legs of a return trip as long as you have some type of cellphone. The company has spawned copies, including ArriveRides, which launched in January 2017. But the idea, Boogaard says, was originally his grandmother’s.
GoGoGrandparent users pay an additional 19 cents per minute — around $2 per ride — for the service, which is available in all 50 states and three Canadian provinces.
Gary Kaye at Tech 50+ sat down for a chat with Boogaard to find out how GoGoGrandparent works.
Many seniors aren’t comfortable with smartphones — is that the main reason for your existence?
We find that about 30 percent of our callers do have smartphones, but they rely on GoGoGrandparent because the way that Uber and Lyft are set up, there’s more to it than just having a smartphone. These apps rely more on the passenger to hold up their end of contacting the driver or walking down the street to get to the car, and for 85-year-old folk that just might not work. So GoGoGrandparent is able to communicate with the driver, we oversee the ride, and we make sure that it goes off without a hitch successfully every time. So, we do have a lot of folks that have smartphones,
How did you come up with the idea for GoGoGrandparent?
It was my grandmother’s idea. I lived with her for three years and when I was moving out I realized she didn’t do any driving at night, which I had been doing while living with her. I hadn’t even thought that she might be asking me to drive because she was afraid of driving —I thought she just preferred other people driving. I realized she might not be comfortable going to the movie theater or getting dinner with her friends. Feeling a little guilty for leaving, I made GoGoGrandparent for her. It wasn’t even really a business, it was just a way for her to be able to get around independently. But then she gave it to her friends, and then word got out in her bridge club, and then pretty soon it was growing across the United States and that’s when we turned it into a business.
Let’s talk about the nuts and bolts of how GoGoGrandparent works.
Most of our callers are over the age of 75. We just signed up our first 100-year-old two weeks ago and we’re very excited about having them on board. Callers can use a cellphone or land line. If they’re at home, they press 1, and that tells us that they want a car sent to their home. If they’re at the location where we dropped them off last, they press 2 and that tells us that they want a car sent there. And if they’re anywhere else they press 0 and speak with our operator, and we tell them how many minutes until the driver arrives. So it’s really simple. We’ll also call when the driver is about three minutes away so they can start heading outside. After the trip they get an email, or if they don’t have an email they get a phone call, with how much the total trip came out to be.
If there are family members, they get a little bit more. They can come in and set up a GoGoGrandparent account for their older loved one. They can customize the account with instructions based on the needs of their loved one, so if there’s a walker, if they have a foldable wheelchair, if they prefer to get picked up on the side of their home that only has one step instead of two steps. The family member or caregiver gets notified as the trip is in progress. We don’t have a smartphone app for them but we do text adult children when a trip has been requested, when it’s in progress and where it ends. They can communicate with the driver at any time.
Which services do you work with?
We’re working with Uber and Lyft and just added See Jane Go, which is an all-women service — women driving women.
I’ve used both Uber and Lyft, and sometimes they want you to walk to a particular pickup point that may not be easy for a caller to reach. How do you deal with that?
Sometimes Uber and Lyft require their passenger to do that extra work and it doesn’t work, and so that’s what we do on our end. We communicate with the driver, ensure that they understand the instruction and then, if there are any custom instructions, that they get that too. And this does two things: one, the rider knows exactly what’s about to happen, and two if they’re nervous or uncomfortable they can cancel and we’ll find another driver who is better suited.When a request comes in, if it’s an automatic request, we’ll automatically dispatch a driver to the correct location. We have a list of drivers that we do not work with because for whatever reason they just weren’t comfortable driving an older adult.
The family member can communicate to the driver to let the driver know the rider is in front of the store, they have groceries, they’re going to need some help with those, are you comfortable with that? So for the older adult, all they did was press 1, and magic happens.
A version of this article, “GoGoGrandparent: Get Uber and Lyft Without a Smartphone,” was first published at Tech50+
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Comments
Not a comment but a question: Perhaps I was mistaken when I called. I always thought Uber/Lyft could be called for a single ride or one time use, like a taxi. But I was surprised to find that I had to sign up , pay to register and would have a monthly fee. Is that the case always? I asked if registering meant a subscription and was told there was no choice. I can drive regularly, but this was for a yearly eye exam and NJ law says both eyes have to be dilated. So for me this is a once a year usage. Apparently I can not use the service unless I sign up for the monthly fee?
Hi Ray- To our knowledge neither Uber nor Lyft require a monthly fee. You pay per ride you take. For further assistance please call our national tech hotline at 920-666-1959!
Not a comment but a question: Perhaps I was mistaken when I called. I always thought Uber/Lyft could be called or a single ride or one time use, like a taxi. But I was surprised to find that I had to sign up , pay to register and would have a monthly fee. Is that the case always? I asked if registering meant a subscription and was told there was no choice. I can drive regularly, but this was for a yearly eye exam where I NJ law says both eyes have to be dilated. So for me this is a once a year usage. Apparently I can not use the service unless I sign up for the monthly fee?
Make it as simple as learning ABC’s for me. I had never heard the words uber, lyft, gogograndparent until now. Please email me at the email below and explain to me step by step: how much does it cost, are all cars comfortable, do I tip, does a simple cell phone work, is there a lease of some kind, do we pay the driver or do we pay the company, does it cost extra for a wheel chair or walker, how is Nashville set up for such as this, do you charge according to the zip code, is the service available in Gallatin and Hendersonville in Tennessee, does my caretaker get to ride free?
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Is Gogo grandparent available at zip code 53118?
I tried signing myself up under an alias. I have received death threats over the past couple of years. As a fall back service to get me somewhere I like to have some available to me. Not needing a smartphone to hail an Uber or Lyft driver seemed like a cool feature. Even better were the options to add destinations for assignment to my numerical keypad. So long as I can remember what location is associated with a given number.
I thought I was cleared when I had to make a phone call for verification as a final step. When I told my reasons for using an alias they made a note of it and said my account was activated. A few moments after hanging up I got a call from them. When I answered nobody would speak. I said “hello” three times. After that I hung up. Again they called a half minute later. I answered with “hello” and my alias name was asked for. I asked who is calling and was told that aliases are not allowed. They insisted I had to send them a picture of my driver’s license before they could really activate my account. I politely informed the fellow that is none of their business and I will not be sending it to them. When I asked if I simply change my name on the account to my actual name I was again to they could not activate my account. We hung up on good terms.
I tried editing my account information on to see my number had been marked with a red rectangle. In an instant I had been blacklisted all because I didn’t want my travels to be known to whomever has been harassing me. I read in their FAQs that their service is not only for the elderly. And that family members can set up accounts for others to use. Following that rule I made an account for a fictional name with myself as the benefactor. Apparently what they say is allowed really isn’t. Something to consider in regards to truth in advertising. I have since removed them from my digital phone book, caller ID, and opted out of their text messages.