Where parents feel like chauffeurs, companies step in

[Image]( EMAIL}/redirect NEW YORK (AP) — When Deb Fink heard about a company that could drive her 9-year-old son to his after-school program, she balked at the idea of putting him in a car with a stranger. But faced with the unrelenting pressure of driving him where he needed to go in the middle of her workday, she decided to give it a try. Now she is sold, and grateful for the handful of ride-hailing companies that have emerged at a time when children are expected to accomplish a dizzying array of extracurricular activities and the boundaries between work and home have blurred. The ride-hailing companies enable parents to summon a car — and in some cases childcare — for their little ones through smartphone apps. Among them are HopSkipDrive, Kango and Zum, hatched as startups primarily led by working moms as ride-hailing becomes a ubiquitous part of digital life. Together, the companies have driven more than 1.4 million children in 16,000 schools, primarily in California but with a growing presence in Colorado, Texas and Washington, D.C. Sara Schaer, cofounder and CEO of Kango, says her company wants to be a solution as soon as parents run up against the challenge of juggling work and family, rather than having them wait for their child to turn 6 or 7 or 8 when “the damage is done” and “you’ve had to dial back on your career, you’ve not been able to enroll them in certain activities that you wanted to get them started early on, or you’ve had to move closer to where the day care is, or have limited your choices in that way.” The demand for such services has been so high in some places that companies struggle to provide enough drivers. Others face hurdles convincing parents that a stranger hired by a ride-hailing company is trustworthy enough to ferry their most precious passengers. They have distanced themselves from mainstream heavyweights Uber and Lyft, which have been hit by lawsuits accusing drivers of assaulting passengers. EMAIL}/redirect To allay concerns, companies catering to kids claim to screen drivers more extensively, checking their fingerprints and requiring them to have childcare or parenting experience, sometimes describing them as “nannies on wheels.” Drivers and children are given passwords that must match, and parents can track a child’s whereabouts in real-time through the app. “Every parent is going to be naturally skeptical, and we built it with that in mind,” said Joanna McFarland, CEO and co-founder of HopSkipDrive, which operates in six states and Washington, D.C. “As a parent, you may not know your child’s friends’ parents or you may not know who the bus driver is. It’s really no different, but with this you have that tracking capability, and you know they’ve gone through that vetting process.” Fink’s son initially rode with another child when they started getting rides from HopSkipDrive, easing his discomfort about getting in the car with a stranger. “We love it,” said Fink, an educator in Berkeley, California. “We had some issues with the driver giving the kids candy, or the driver not knowing the password, but for the most part I feel very comfortable and confident.” Zum, which operates in seven states, drives children aged 5 to 18 and HopSkipDrive serves ages 6 and up. Kango, which operates in California, will pick up babies, and they require that a caregiver accompany children under 2 years old. Unlike a babysitting arrangement, parents cannot interview candidates in advance or hire the same recurring driver using HopSkipDrive or Zum. On Kango, parents can “meet and greet” a driver before a ride and can request one or more to be the regular driver. If something does go wrong, many companies operating in the space require consumers to give up their right to file a lawsuit and to agree to arbitration or pre-arbitration mediation. In places where ride-hailing services for kids aren’t available, some parents have resorted to Uber and Lyft, even though drivers for those companies are not supposed to pick up solo passengers under 18. Megan Schade occasionally calls an Uber for her 14-year-old son, who she describes as street-savvy, with good intuition and an “intimidating presence.” If she had a daughter, the Brooklyn mom said she most likely would not send her in an Uber. “At least with the driving, you have a record of who’s driving your kid,” Schade said. “There’s a cyber trail.” Other parents said they wouldn’t take the risk. EMAIL}/redirect “All it takes is one bad person who’s willing to risk their entire Uber career on hurting someone or kidnapping a kid,” said Jeanne Solomon, a Brooklyn mom with a 14-year-old son. The stakes are even higher for companies that have built their business model around children. “Even one sort of negative incident could sink a company, and so I think the care that these companies need to take to ensure that every ride is a good ride is much higher,” said Arun Sundararajan, a professor at New York University’s Stern School of Business and author of The Sharing Economy. Some ride-hailing services have linked up with schools — shuttling students to sports games and internships and replacing traditional buses — and that has helped them build credibility with parents. So far, most of the complaints against these types of companies seem to have more to do with quality of service than safety. While some parents praised them on Yelp for friendly, trustworthy drivers, others said drivers left children stranded, showed up 30 minutes late, canceled rides at the last minute or were frequently unavailable. Alpa Kohli was among the first parents to use Zum to send her sons to school, cutting her morning commute from about an hour-and-a-half to fifteen minutes. “I honestly think that for working parents, time is money,” said Kohli, a content developer at Microsoft. Not everyone can afford the services, however, and some companies have already raised prices. That could create an economic divide, where one socioeconomics class has access to a digital platform full of mobility options while another does not, said Susan Shaheen, co-director of the Transportation Sustainability Research Center at U.C. Berkeley. In Fink’s case, the 2.5-mile ride costs $18 a day, more than she could normally afford. But the after-school program her child is enrolled in subsidizes the cost, she said. “I would say it’s an elite service,” Fink said. “It’s something that people can only use sporadically, or if they use it regularly, they need to be pretty wealthy.” To get plays EARLY make sure you grab your cellphone (which you are probably doing right now) and join our VIP text messaging list (standard text and messaging rates may apply)to make it even easier, if you are on your cell phone now click this Button Below: [SIGN ME UP NOW]( Also PLEASE take the time to read the following: ( I DO NOT MAKE ANY RECOMMENDATIONS TO BUY OR SELL ANY STOCKS, I JUST PROFILE COMPANIES AND YOU DECIDE WHAT TO DO) Here are some of my unlicensed, amateur and biased opinions: Placing a Trade First and foremost, you should always have streaming Level II quotes when trading. I honestly do not know how anyone trades without it! When trading, please follow the below guidelines: Always use a Limit Order: Most brokers won’t even allow you to use Market Orders. Limit Orders allow you to set the price that you want to buy and sell the stock at. This is common knowledge however, you may see some novice traders make the mistake of placing a market order to sell and take out all buyers at the bid, effectively overselling the stock to lower prices. Buy and Sell at the Ask: Many don’t realize that when you buy at the Ask price, you are HELPING the stock price to move up! Once that offer is gone from the shares you purchased, Market Makers could move up to the next offer price as they will see there are buyers at the current price. If you decide to place an order at the bid, you are basically hoping someone will sell their shares to you at this price and you may never get filled and miss the action. It is not always a bad idea to bid sit, as you are creating “bid support”, if you believe the price may come down again and you are not willing to buy higher. Using Stop Limit Orders: Some brokers do not allow you to use stops, however, if you can – it is always a good idea to set your stop loss at the lowest price you are willing to take a loss. You may kick yourself when the stock moves back up and your stop already executed, but remember, there will always be other opportunities and its always best to cut your losses just in case. All or None Orders (Fill or Kill): An example of an all or none order is when someone places an order to buy 100,000 shares @ .01 as an “all or none limit” order. By doing this they are telling the market that they wish to be filled on their entire position at .01 or not to be filled at all. For some reason we have seen market makers ignore these sort of orders on many occasions especially when a stock is on the move. We suggest against it but you will ultimately make the decision. Do Not Chase (ONE OF THE MOST IMPORTANT): Many people want to buy a stock so badly that they end up chasing the stock as it goes up. When they finally fill their order, they may have purchased it too high as traders who bought shares earlier begin to take profit, effectively lowering the stock price and making you a bag holder. Remember, 90% of the time, a stock will always retrace/dip back to an attractive level for you to grab shares. Stock Gaps: If a stock gaps up too high in pre-market, do Not Chase It. A big gap is typically 20-50% or more pre- market or within the first 5-10 minutes of the market opening. Most stocks that gap up will come down again during the day depending on what created the catalyst. Buying is always the catalyst but every once in a while there is earth shattering news on some of these small caps that makes pullbacks unlikely in the short term. Most of the time, when a stock gaps up the market makers will attempt to push it lower starting at this time to try to get investors to panic and sell shares back to them so they can make a profit on any shares they are short from filling orders on the gap. If you like the stock and it gaps up you can usually pick up cheaper shares when and if the market settles back. Sell Into Strength Not Weakness: Once you have taken a position in a stock you need to decide the price you would like to sell your shares. Most would recommend that you put a GTC sell order at that price. Unfortunately as traders have learned to utilize level 2, its best not to do submit GTC sell orders due to the possibility that your order will be represented by a market maker and it will seem as if there is resistance at that level which may compel sellers to get out of their position at a price lower than your price. We suggest that you watch the stock closely and once it hits your price target you can submit your order to sell. It’s important to understand that it’s always best to liquidate the stock into strength and preferably in smaller increments if you have a big position. There you have it!! These are ALL my biased, amateur and unlicensed opinions, should YOU choose freely, knowingly and intelligently to Play ANY of my featured play's!! (Please READ my statement below as well, it will help you understand how I benefit from this newsletter) Also always remember that every single alert I send is very volatile and risky. Any one of them could turn into a big loser. In my personal opinion, no matter how much potential any company has, 99% of the time all that matters is HOW THE STOCK TRADES. If a stock doesn’t trade well, nothing else matters. Don’t believe the hype. Be sure to use a tight stop, book profits quickly on these volatile trades, never let any one trade move too far against you, watch out for gaps, make sure the stock is trading in a healthy way before you enter, and monitor it closely to make sure momentum is positive. It’s always safest to book profits quickly, even on alerts with long-term potential. (Amateur biased unlicensed opinions) I would like to also explain how my Newsletter Makes MONEY!! I DON’T FRON TLOAD, BUY, RECEIVE any SHARES of a Company I Profile!! I NEVER OWN ANY POSITION IN A COMPANY I ALERT/PROFILE!! It would be UNFAIR, WRONG and ILLEGAL for me to have a position in ANY Company I ever Profile on my Newsletter! I am what is known as a STOCK PROMOTER!! I just wanted to address this issue for some people who might think I trade the companies I profile on my Newsletter or I own a position before or during the time I profile them!!! The honest truth is I DO NOT!!….. 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