Featured Member: TangoRide Inc.

In 2019, Calgary topped the Driving Cities Index as the best driving city in the world. An impressive designation, but one that may not be as desirable as you’d think.

More cars on our roads mean more negative impacts on the environment and society. It means more individual drivers travelling to work and back, increased air pollution, more pressure on city infrastructure, and leaves families with less disposable income. ATB recently highlighted that private transportation in 2019 was the second highest household expense for Albertans—even more than food costs.

Which is where TangoRide comes in, says Malcolm Adams, CEO and founder. TangoRide is a new sustainable transportation technology company offering a unique commuting solution for workers: real-time choreographed carpooling.

“The majority of Canadians I speak with don’t understand the greenhouse gas (GHG) life cycle of a barrel of oil,” he says. “More than 80 per cent of oil’s GHG emissions ultimately come from the end user. Many people believe the largest sources of GHG emissions come from producing & refining crude oil, but that just isn’t the case.”

Driven to make an impact

Originally from Fredericton, and a chemical engineer from the University of New Brunswick, Adams has been a proud Calgarian since 1994. He and his wife Shannon deeply appreciate all that Calgary has afforded them, including a nurturing environment to raise their three children.

“Now is the time to use all the skills and business relationships that I have been fortunate to develop to make a difference,” he says. “My vision is to grow TangoRide into an employer-of-choice that can be a meaningful part of Calgary’s downtown revitalization and economic diversification.”

TangoRide’s predecessor company began development of the carpooling app in 2017 in the UK, but plans to launch the app in 2020 were put on hold due to COVID-19. “Carpooling is certainly not new, but it’s been limited to the people you know in your neighbourhood. Unfortunately, if you don’t know them, you tend to drive solo,” he says. “To convince solo drivers to embrace our dynamic carpooling app, we will deliver a product that prioritizes safety, is easy to use, and creates highly reliable and repeatable matches for our customers. That is the exciting secret sauce that our Calgary team is adding to the app, and we look forward to further beta testing in 2023.”

From Best Driving City to Smartest Driving City

Adams has high hopes in helping Calgary become the Smartest Driving City in the World by the end of 2024. “Approximately 80 per cent of global CO2 emissions originate from cities, and approximately 33 per cent of Calgary’s GHG emissions come from vehicles,” he says. “TangoRide’s solution requires no city infrastructure investment to materially reduce daily commuter pollution; lowering a household’s carbon footprint usually requires a cost to them. Our app will help users save 40 to 60 per cent of their annual commuting costs, which is thousands of after-tax dollars per household. One of our team’s favorite slogans is feed your family, not your gas tank.”

In these challenging times, Adams notes the added benefit of making new neighborhood friendships which support good mental health by lowering solo driving anxiety. “We’re all about enriching people’s lives through economic, environmental, and social benefits.”

Expanding and shifting gears

As one of the newest members of the Chamber of Commerce, TangoRide looks forward to building relationships with large employers in the public and private sectors, including hospitals and universities. “While TangoRide’s ultimate customer is the commuting worker, we help organizations improve their Environmental, Social, and Governance (ESG) scores and enhance their employee’s commuting safety by reducing rush-hour traffic volume,” Adams said. “The material savings enjoyed by workers is like getting a raise and parking headaches would be less frequent.” TangoRide users could also forge new relationships that carry into the workplace, creating mentorship opportunities and positively affecting company culture.

His commuter research has unearthed several alarming statistics, stating that 77 per cent of Canadians drove solo in 2021, and are nine times more likely to drive to work than to use public transit.

“Our short-term goals are to pilot our app and develop it to full commercial status in the Calgary region,” he says. “To prove that our innovative carpooling tech really delivers for commuters. Then, we plan to hire regional managers and expand city-by-city across Canada and into the States.”

Adams seems to have been made for this moment. “Boiled down, I became an engineer because I love to solve problems and I hate inefficiency,” he says. “Now I get to build and lead an amazing team to help commuters enrich their lives and communities. That’s pretty cool.”

For more information about the company, check out their website at tangoride.com.