67. RideTandem: redefining the work commute with employee shuttle buses

Founders: Alex Shapland-Howes, Tatseng Chiam, and Huw McLeod
Year founded: 2019
Website: ridetandem.com 

Cracking the Startups 100 for the second year running, this West Midlands-based sustainable transport company makes a triumphant, and welcome, return to our Index. 

Transport-poverty isn’t a highly publicised issue, but living too far from a job can effectively kill your career chances. For those living in more rural and remote areas, transportation is often the biggest obstacle to employment. Not to mention that in the last decade car ownership costs have gone up by 84%. 

This is an issue that became all too apparent when cofounder Alex Shapland Howes met with a group of unemployed fathers in Rochdale. No local jobs, and lack of decent public transport, meant many jobs seemed closed off to them. 

Hearing this, and other similar tales, inspired the mobility-as-a-service option for commuters, similar to Uber. RideTandem has partnered with local taxi, bus, and coach companies to provide commuter services to those who couldn’t normally access or afford it. Whether it be someone trying to get to work, school or attend university.

At Startups, we pay close attention to companies who are committed to sustainability, and RideTandem now claims to be the only commuting services supplier in the world to be an accredited B Corp. It boasts to have helped businesses avoid around 750+ metric tons of CO2 emissions each month. 

Despite facing difficulties launching so close to the COVID pandemic, RideTandem has not only survived but thrived. It’s surpassed two million passenger journeys, has worked with house-hold names like Royal Mail and Next, and has been hailed as one of Sunday Times Best Places to Work. Next, it’s targeting ten million passenger journeys by 2034. 

RideTandem is creating job opportunities for those who thought they were cut off, and making a positive impact on the environment along the way. We’re thrilled to welcome it back to the Startups 100 and on its road to success.