Living on campus means easy access to classes, but not always access to the weekend hot spot: Manayunk. Students living on campus must set aside money each week for yellow taxis, unfortunately known for ripping off students and several unsafe experiences. Two SJU male students however, are about to make the weekend experience a lot easier, and more importantly cheaper. Juniors Bryan Boyle and Parker Self have started a ride sharing service to and from Manayunk, and the surrounding Philadelphia area. Read our interview with the two founders of Volta SJU, the new transportation experience for students on campus.
HC: You two have recently launched a new business, so tell us more about Volta SJU.
Parker: What we are doing is providing what is called ride sharing to SJU students. It’s basically the idea behind Uber – but Volta is specifically for SJU students run by SJU students.
Bryan: Currently, Volta SJU is an independent company, but we hope to eventually run it through the university and then expand to other schools one day.
HC: How did you come up with the idea for Volta?
Parker: We both got tired of getting ripped off by cabs and since SJU students go out far from campus it presented us with an idea to help students.
Bryan: We came up with this idea through experience… it’s tough finding transportation from SJU at certain times or to go certain places so we just thought something like this was needed.
HC: What were the logistical steps in setting up this business?
Parker: Our biggest thing was trying to get ourselves known to SJU students, which we are doing through Facebook and Twitter. Our biggest marketing push is going to be during the first week back at school when we will be offering free rides for students.
Bryan: We primarily started a marketing base to build awareness and now we are currently finalizing insurance policies that will include student drivers, who we call “independent contractors.” We are also working on making the company an LLC and dealing with other safety aspects of the business.
HC: What’s the price range compared to a cab or an Uber?
Parker: We wanted to do a flat rate. So, we used a cab calculator, but we know that cabs generally rip students off. Right now we’re looking at a $12 flat rate from campus to Manayunk. And if you’re coming from the Overbrook end of campus it will be at $15 flat rate.
Bryan: And another plus is there aren’t any tips.
HC: How will you insure driver / rider safety?
Parker: The driver will have to submit a driving record, license information, background check, and he / she must be an SJU student. We want to contract out to the best people so we know our clients are safe.
HC: Do you have adults on or off campus backing your project?
Bryan: Our parents with advice but other than that, no. We don’t have any outside help we are really trying to do this all on our own.
HC: If you could say one thing to Father Gillespie about this business, what would it be?
Bryan: We’d show him the logistics and go to him with student testimonials and experiences just to show we have the student body backing us.
Parker: SJU provides almost everything to the students but one thing it doesn’t help with is going out on the weekends. Maybe they don’t want to be apart of that, but it is something they really should be involved in when it comes to the safety and costs to students.
HC: What made you decide to start this company together?
Parker: We are best friends and we both kind of realized we wanted to create out own jobs and careers. This summer we learned more about ride sharing and thought if we scaled it down and tailored it to the university level it could be a huge success.
Bryan: We both wanted to create something we could do on our own… and we both realized we don’t want a 9 to 5 job so we came up with this idea together.
Her Campus SJU enjoyed getting to know Parker and Bryan, and we admire their entrepreneurial spirit. For women especially, it would be a comfortable feeling to know that you are getting home safely by an SJU student, for a reasonable price. Best of luck to these gentleman.
Interested in being a SJU Volta driver? Apply here:
https://docs.google.com/a/sju.edu/spreadsheet/viewform?formkey=dGtkWHZOdGpFVlRyVnVHUmVBT0Iwa1E6MA
Follow Volta SJU
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/pages/Volta-SJU/1506723799541343
Twitter: @VoltaSJU