HopSkipDrive’s RouteWise AI™ recognized as a “World Changing Idea” by Fast Company

HopSkipDrive is proud to be included on the list of honorees of Fast Company’s 2023 World Changing Ideas Awards. These seventh annual awards honor creative solutions to some of the biggest issues facing the world today. 

Awarded an Honorable Mention in the Transportation category, HopSkipDrive’s RouteWise AI™ (formerly known as Strategic Routing) is the first product of its kind to run route optimization models from the student level based on data analytics, enabling school districts to plan and scale their transportation operations in a way that current systems simply cannot.

RouteWise AI’s cutting-edge technology identifies opportunities to more efficiently route vehicles — and more importantly, matches the right-sized vehicle with the right group of students. 

By using RouteWise AI and supplementing buses with small vehicles, school districts can make real progress toward resolving bus driver shortages, reducing time in transit for students, and improving cost and carbon efficiency. 

“RouteWise AI helps to ensure that schools and school districts can get students where they need to go safely, when they need to be there — creating opportunity through mobility for more kids,” says HopSkipDrive CEO and Co-founder, Joanna McFarland. “We’re proud to have been recognized by Fast Company for playing a leading role in solving unique transportation challenges in our communities.” 

“It’s thrilling to see the creativity and innovation that are so abundant among this year’s honorees,” says Fast Company editor-in-chief Brendan Vaughan. “While it’s easy to feel discouraged by the state of the world, the entrepreneurs, companies, and nonprofits featured show the limitless potential to address society’s most urgent problems. We look forward to seeing not only how these projects evolve but also how they inspire others to develop solutions of their own.”

RouteWise AI represents a big step forward on HopSkipDrive’s path toward achieving our vision of a modern student transportation system — a system where inefficiencies are eliminated, carbon footprints are reduced, equity is enabled, and safety is, as always, paramount.

Says McFarland: “We look forward to continuing our work with even more schools and districts, and to helping them maximize their existing transportation assets to get kids to school in the most efficient way possible.”

About the World Changing Ideas Awards

World Changing Ideas is one of Fast Company’s major annual awards programs and is focused on social good, seeking to elevate finished products and brave concepts that make the world better. A panel of judges from across sectors choose winners, finalists, and honorable mentions based on feasibility and the potential for impact. With the goals of awarding ingenuity and fostering innovation, Fast Company draws attention to ideas with great potential and helps them expand their reach to inspire more people to start working on solving the problems that affect us all.

Interested in learning more about streamlining transportation planning with RouteWise AI™?