Regarding the Driving Cost Calculators and iCarpool "Achievements"

[Mark Messinger]

Network administrators in Oregon recently questioned the results being returned by Driving Cost Calculators associated with Drive Less Connect and Rideshare Online, particularly when compared to the "Achievements" calculated within the iCarpool system.

As you are probably aware, Drive Less Connect and Rideshare Online maintain so-called "Driving Cost Calculators" intended to inform potential system users of the savings possible from sharing the ride. The Driving Cost Calculators for Oregon and Washington systems are somewhat different. One of the ways in which they are different are how they account for fuel costs.

The RideshareOnline calculator (http://rideshareonline.com/Commuters/calculator.html) includes fuel costs as part of its internal calculation. Also, the RSO collapses its cost-per-mile to a single value comprising both fuel and non-fuel costs.

The Drive Less Connect calculator (http://www.drivelessconnect.com/driving-cost-calculator) separates fuel and non-fuel costs into two different fields within the calculator. Users have the option of entering their fuel costs in one field. In the other field the user can either enter non-fuel costs or accept an estimate of "typical" non-fuel costs.

These two Driving Cost Calculators exist outside the iCarpool system.

Changes to the default driving costs may change, from time to time. Rideshare Online Support can initiate a review of these driving costs. If there is a reason to change the costs used in the Driving Cost Calculators, that may be a topic of discussion during a RSO Administrator's Meeting.

The Achievements are displayed to system users on their home pages. The system also calculates achievements as part of the Modal Distribution Report.

The calculations for Achievements use some of the details entered by system users in their profile and default driving costs maintained by iCarpool. The user driving cost inputs for these Achievements are somewhat different from those used in the separate Driving Cost Calculators. This is one of the reasons why the results obtained from those Driving Cost Calculators will not perfectly match the "Achievements" calculated reported the system.

[Stan Suchan]

Want more details about how costs and savings are calculated in the iCarpool system's Pacific Northwest platform? Details are available via the Smart Transportation homepage. Click the Savings Explained link in the Basics box. Alternately, you or any of your customers can get to this information by clicking the How do we calculate these? link in the Achivements box on your iCarpool (RideshareOnline, Drive Less Connect, I-way, etc.) homepage.