News: new version with new features

Dear Caroster users,

Best wishes for 2025! We are pleased to announce the roll-out of Caroster Beta 8! Thanks to your invaluable feedback, this new version includes new features that make organizing your trips even easier.

Our goal for 2025: enhancing your user experience to provide a simplified way to organize your trips.

What's new?

📣 Version Beta 8 Caroster:

This new version introduces several improvements to make your trips easier:

✔️ Simplified round-trip management within the same event

✔️ Advanced trip search to find carpooling options more easily

✔️ Improved map navigation for better trip searching

✔️ Better route organization with the display of driver's first and last name

🚗 A clearer, ready-to-use Caroster Plus offer:

Caroster Plus can now be activated directly when creating your event. Designed to meet the needs of professional events, it offers:

✔️ Restricted access to modifications for better management

✔️ The ability for admins to assign passengers to trips

✔️ A new simplified and secure login process, with no need to create a password, only via a link sent by e-mail (magic link technology)

🌍 Italian translation: Thanks to our contributors, Caroster is now available in another language.

📜 Cookie policy published: No marketing cookies here, only what is necessary to ensure a smooth and secure experience: Caroster DPD.

⬇️ Learn more in the team’s message below

Coming soon

💼 Company version to manage commuter carpooling with Caroster Pro: We are working on a Caroster Pro version designed to simplify the management of regular trips, particularly for commuters within companies and organizations. This initiative aligns with our commitment to support businesses in their transition to sustainable mobility solutions.

🔄 Caroster website revamp in progress: The complete redesign of our website is well underway. We are now working on content writing to better highlight Caroster’s value and various use cases.

Thanks

• Many thanks to our contributors who made Caroster's translation possible:

  • Italian@ipiccininiatex

  • Italian: Andrea Spila

  • Translations are available here: https://translate.codeberg.org/projects/caroster/web-app/.

• Thanks to all the contributors who have made this new version possible:

  • Tim Izzo, Octree (link: https://5ika.ch)

  • Thomas Rüesch, Octree @truesch (link: https://git.octree.ch/truesch)

Word from the team

Our aim is to be as close as possible to you, and that means being transparent about our choices. Here's a third attempt with this post from Caroster's product managers, Xavier von Aarburg and Mathilde Draps.

1. The new Caroster Beta 8

Dear users, this beta 8 version is a new milestone for us.

We have worked to make your experience smoother and more intuitive: map navigation has been optimized for desktop users, with improved zoom and movement. It is now possible to manage round trips directly within events, and identifying trips has become easier thanks to the display of drivers’ first and last names.

Caroster Plus has been enhanced with features simplifying account creation with the introduction of the magic link. There is no longer a need to create an account with a password, while still ensuring the security of the event.

Additionally, access to sensitive information is restricted. Unlike Caroster Basic, only drivers and passengers sharing the same trip can see each other's details. The administrator, however, is the only one who can see users’ full names. On Caroster Plus, administrators now have access to a waiting list. This means that when a passenger activates an alert, the administrator can see them in the waiting list and assign them to a trip. This was a highly requested feature, and we are excited to see how it will be used.

Here is a preview of a Caroster Plus event as a guest:

2. New Caroster Plus pricing

We have adjusted the pricing for Caroster Plus, which now varies based on the number of participants and is set per event:

- Up to 250 participants: €25

- 250 to 1,000 participants: €100

- From 1,000 to 5,000 participants: €300

- Over 5,000 participants: price on request

We offer discounts based on the selected volume.

The €25 per event pricing was initially a test, and we observed that the larger the event, the more value Caroster brings to carpooling organization. Larger structures also have more resources to contribute to the service. This pricing structure seems reasonable and aligns with the spirit of solidarity we want to foster with Caroster with proportional prices that must serve us to maintain the project and guarantee its future development.

3. Community contributions

Caroster is now available in Italian! We had the wonderful surprise of receiving two spontaneous translation proposals into Italian, one of which came from a professional Italian-English translator. This contribution helps us make the service more accessible, thank you to them!

Additionally, we have published a clear cookie policy that aligns with our values: only the cookies necessary for the proper functioning of the application are used, with no marketing cookies, in compliance with European regulations. This policy was written following feedback from a Caroster user. The input we receive, whether a simple question or a compliance request, helps us improve every day.

4. A growing need: corporate commuting carpooling

At the same time, we have received many requests from companies looking for a dedicated carpooling platform for their employees’ daily commutes. Initially, this was not a focus for us, as our philosophy is not to reinvent the wheel. We believed that other players with greater resources, such as BlaBlaCar Daily or Karos, were already addressing this need. However, it appears that they do not fully meet the expectations of certain companies. As a result, we are developing a Caroster Pro version tailored to corporate commuting needs.

Unlike one-time events, regular trips like home-to-work commutes require a completely different approach. There are multiple needs within this same context: some organizations need to know who is departing from where and to form long-term groups, while others (often large organizations with multiple departments) require a ride-by-ride organization where employees do not necessarily know each other. We are currently designing a version that will first focus on better addressing this second use case.

Our mission remains unchanged: to promote more sustainable and collaborative mobility through car-sharing, by developing a digital commons.

We look forward to continuing this journey with you and sharing our progress!

With enthusiasm,

Xavier von Aarburg & Mathilde Draps - Caroster Product Managers

Useful links

🌍 Want to contribute to Caroster’s translation? Learn how to translate easily with Codeberg: Translating the Caroster app as a contributor

💬 Real-time feedback: Share your improvement suggestions here: Caroster evolution: your suggestions. You can track the status of your feedback, which helps us improve Caroster and develop the features that matter most to you.

🔗 Calculate the real cost of a car trip: Organizing or attending an event by car? Calculate the actual cost of your trip here: https://futur.eco/cout-voiture (Beta version).

We hope you enjoy these updates and look forward to your feedback. Thank you for being part of the Caroster community!

See you soon.

- The Caroster team