KidCar

What is KidCar?

If you’re a TLC driver in New York, KidCar should be on your radar.

This site enlists heavily screened TLC drivers to take children to and from school, activities and, sometimes, drive kids and parents to the airport. The site also offers rides home from the hospital for newborns and their families.

KidCar review (for freelance drivers)

KidCar brags that it pays more than any other driving option. And, with promised minimum rates ranging from $27 to $77 per ride (depending on the type of car you drive), the boast appears accurate.

Notably, given that you’re driving a vulnerable population, you will need a clean driving and criminal record to work with this site. You’ll also need to complete car seat installation training before you start.

That said, if you qualify, you may even earn a signing bonus ranging from $200 to $500.

How it works

If you want to sign up to drive for KidCar, you’ll need a late-model car, smart phone, clean driving and criminal record, references, and a TLC license. A commercial drivers license for passengers is preferred.

Most of the site’s rides are done during the day and can be scheduled as much as 24-hours in advance. The site says it can provide guaranteed rides at set hours, for those who want to set schedule.

While the site launched in New York and is best established there, it now also operates in Atlanta, Washington, D.C., Fort Lauderdale, Miami and West Palm Beach, Florida, as well as in Los Angeles and San Diego Counties in California.

The rides

This site offers two types of rides — individual and carpool.

With carpool rides, you may be picking up as many as 5 kids from different locations. About one-third of the site’s business is school drop-offs and pick-ups.

The site also drives new parents home from the hospital and arranges rides, with small kids, to and from airports.

Pay

Drivers are paid for their actual time. However, the site offers minimum payments per ride of $27 (for those driving sedans); $54 (for minivans) and $77 (for SUV drivers). Drivers typically earn more, however.

The average pay per ride ranges from $65 to $148, according to the site.

Topher McGibbon, founder of KidCar, says that the site’s drivers earned an average of $481 per week over the past 300 weeks.

Drivers are paid by direct deposit once a week.

Recommendations

If you drive for a living in New York, this is a site that’s well worth adding to your quiver of apps. It may work particularly well because peak hours for school rides are at completely different times than peak times for driving and delivery opportunities with, say, Uber, GrubHub and DoorDash.

However, in some of the other cities where KidCar operates, there are better-established kid-driving apps, including Kango and HopSkipDrive.  None of these sites are exclusive, however. You can sign up for them all to increase your chance of finding regular work. You can sign up with KidCar here.

Also check out our post on the Driving and Delivery Apps that Pay Best.

What their users say (From Yelp):

“This company was great! We rode from Essex County, NJ to Newark Airport a couple of weeks ago: two adults and two children.  They use Diono Radian car seats and arrived on-time with seats properly fitted.  The app works really well and allows you to text back and forth with the driver.  We had a different driver for each leg of the trip but both were really nice and responsive.”

“The timeliness and quality of the service is what gets this five stars!”

Expensive

“Two things to keep in mind:-The cost for a family of four for a 17 mile airport trip was more than $200 each way.  This is of course considerably more expensive than the non-car-seat-providing alternatives. The gratuity gets automatically added on to your fare.  So if you tip your driver in cash, you’re going to end up tipping twice.  The tip that automatically gets added looked about 10% of the total fare before the fees.”

“EXPENSIVE AS HELL!! $69 for my son to travel in the Bronx! $69 for a 20/30 minute cab ride!”

“My wife used this service during a trip from LGA to UES.   The car was clean, the driver (Alexander) was delightful.  They had my wife’s flight info and despite the flight arriving 30 minutes early, she only had to wait about 90 seconds for Alexander to show up.It’s important to note that this firm has found a niche where it can charge a hefty premium compared to other ride services like Uber or Lyft.   A trip from LGA to UES was $119. UberX is $35-45.Was the service great?  Yes.  Is the premium charged worth it? That’s debatable, but when you need a trip with a car seat you don’t have many options in NYC.”