RideFinders

What RideFinders does

RideFinders is a regional commuter rideshare program operated since 1994 by Madison County Transit, serving the St. Louis bi-state metro across nine counties in Illinois and Missouri. It connects commuters with carpool and vanpool options through a web-based ride-matching platform (rideproweb.com), allowing participants to create commuter profiles, generate matchlists based on home address, work location, and schedule, and register for shared-ride programs. The vanpool program supplies vehicles, fuel, insurance, and maintenance for groups of five or more commuters in exchange for mileage-based monthly fares ranging from $60 to $264 per rider, while the carpool matching service is free to commuters.

The program is structured as a free public service rather than a commercial enterprise: it is funded primarily by U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration grants, with secondary revenue from vanpool fares. Employer partners — over 1,000 organizations including Boeing, Citi, Wells Fargo, BJC Healthcare, Amazon, GM, WashU, and federal agencies — participate at no cost and are protected from liability by Illinois and Missouri state statutes. Each partner site designates an Employee Transportation Contact (ETC) who promotes enrollment to commuting staff.

RideFinders layers supporting tools and programs on top of the core matching service, including a Commute Calculator (savings estimator), Commute Calendar (trip logging), and the Guaranteed Ride Home (GRH) program that reimburses registered participants up to $125 per ride (four times per year) for emergency taxi, Uber, or Lyft trips. The organization is staffed by approximately six employees and processes vanpool payments through a ShopSite-powered storefront with Token Transit mobile payments. Reported impact metrics include 12,300 registered participants, 3,100+ vehicles removed from regional roads, and 25 million driving miles eliminated annually.

Name

RideFinders

Legal name

RideFinders c/o Agency for Community Transit

Website

https://ridefinders.org

Company type

Private

Founded year

1994

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

1–10 employees

Short description

RideFinders is a federally funded, non-profit regional rideshare program operated by Madison County Transit since 1994, providing free carpool matching and mileage-priced vanpool services to commuters and 1,000+ employer partners across the nine-county St. Louis bi-state region.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Commuter Rideshare Services

NAICS

Taxi and Ridesharing Services (485310), Other Transit and Ground Passenger Transportation (48599)

SIC

Transportation Services (4700)

akta.pro primary industry

Vanpooling & Commuter Shuttle Carpool Services (THADAFAE)

akta.pro secondary industry

Corporate & Employee On-Demand Ride Programs (Managed Mobility) (THAIAGAI)

Keywords

• Commuter rideshare program
• Carpool matching service
• Vanpool transportation service
• Employer commute program
• Guaranteed ride home

Headquarters

HQ city

Pontoon Beach , IL

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B and B2C

Offering type

Services

Cost components

Operations, Personnel, Marketing or Sales, Technology or R&D, Infrastructure

Revenue model

1. Federal Government Funding: Primary funding from U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration grants. RideFinders is a free public service for regional commuters and employers.
2. Vanpool Monthly Fares: Monthly rider fares covering fuel, insurance, and maintenance. Fare based on round-trip mileage (1-219 miles) with full-time ($60-$264) and part-time (half rate) options. Groups of 10+ receive discounted rates. Primary drivers may receive free commute in exchange for driving duties.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion2 records

Distribution channels4 records

Marketing channels8 records

Core offering

RideFinders operates a regional commuter rideshare program for the St. Louis bi-state area, delivering a free Carpool ridematching service that pairs commuters with shared routes and a Vanpool service that supplies vehicles, fuel, insurance, and maintenance to groups of five or more commuters for a low monthly mileage-based fare. The program is operated by Madison County Transit and funded by U.S. Department of Transportation and Federal Highway Administration grants, and is supported by a Guaranteed Ride Home emergency reimbursement benefit, an Employer Partnership Program, and an online ride-matching portal (rideproweb.com).

Product overview

RideFinders operates as a regional commuter rideshare program offering two core transportation services: a Carpool Program providing free ridematching to connect commuters sharing similar routes, and a Vanpool Program supplying vehicles for groups of 5+ commuters. These core offerings are supported by a Guaranteed Ride Home add-on providing emergency ride reimbursement, an Employer Program for business partnerships, and online tools including a Commute Calculator, Commute Calendar, and Ride Matching Platform. The Ride Matching Platform enables users to create commuter profiles and find matches, while the online payment system handles vanpool fare transactions.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Carpool Program

Quantifiable outcome

• Over $4 million saved annually by participants on commuting costs
• +5 more outcomes

Named customers13 records

Segments3 records

Ideal customer profiles2 records

Technology focussed Yes

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Integration5 records

Feature4 records

Partnerships

Two partnerships are on record, tiered core.

• Madison County Transit (MCT)coreOthersRideFinders is operated by Madison County Transit as a regional commuter rideshare program. MCT provides organizational infrastructure, funding management, and operational support. RideFinders is described as 'a service of' MCT and is operated under its umbrella to improve air quality in the eight-county region.
• Washington University in St. LouiscoreStrategic or Co-development PartnerWashU is a Regional Sustainability Partner that collaborates with RideFinders to share the program at work sites and college campuses. WashU received RideFinders' 2020 Regional Sustainability Award for adding the most participants to carpool and vanpool programs. Multiple WashU employees have been vanpooling for over 20 years.

Scale indicators12 records

Recent moves6 records

Expansion highlights5 records

Others

• Bi-State Development / Metro Transit (St. Louis): Regional public transit operator serving the same St. Louis bi-state geography as RideFinders — adjacent ecosystem participant and potential coordination/competition partner for commuter-mode share in the same region.

Direct peers

• Commute.org: San Francisco Bay Area Transportation Demand Management (TDM) agency that runs employer carpool, vanpool, and emergency-ride-home programs — directly comparable to RideFinders as a regionally-scoped, employer-partnered commuter services program.
• Houston Commute Solutions: Greater Houston regional commuter-program providing employer outreach, carpool matching, and vanpool services — closely comparable in mission and employer-partnered, multi-county regional structure to RideFinders' St. Louis operations.
• Carma Carpool: Carpool-matching platform that connects commuters sharing similar routes for shared rides — directly comparable to RideFinders' carpool ridematching product, with a technology-led (rather than grant-funded) operating model.
• 511 NY Rideshare: New York State commuter rideshare program providing free carpool matching, vanpool formation assistance, and a Guaranteed Ride Home benefit — directly comparable in structure, services, and employer partnership model to RideFinders.
• MassRIDES (MassDOT): Massachusetts statewide commuter-services program offering free carpool matching, vanpool incentives, and Guaranteed Ride Home — directly comparable to RideFinders in mission, structure, and federally-state-funded delivery model.
• Enterprise Rideshare (formerly vRide): Enterprise Mobility's national vanpool program providing employer-sponsored vans, fuel, insurance, and maintenance to commuter groups — directly comparable to RideFinders' bundled vanpool offering, but operating across many more U.S. metros.

Regional players

• King County Metro Vanpool: Public vanpool program in the Seattle metro that supplies vehicles and operates employer and commuter partnerships — directly comparable to RideFinders' vanpool bundle, but operating exclusively in the Puget Sound region.

Broad incumbents

• Uber: Global rideshare/TNC platform that operates UberPool and Uber Commute products and is integrated with RideFinders' Guaranteed Ride Home — broader incumbent competing for the same commuter miles, though not a vanpool bundle.
• Lyft (Commute / former Scoop): Major rideshare platform that has operated carpool / commute matching services (formerly Scoop, which Lyft acquired) — comparable in matching commuters, but as a much broader consumer mobility incumbent rather than a regional TDM specialist.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks6 records

Key highlights7 records

Customer concentration

• Facebookfacebook.com/RideFinders
• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/ridefindersstlouismo
• Instagraminstagram.com/ridefinders

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles1 record

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about RideFinders