Our Philosophy and how it all started
This summer I travelled more than 4000 km through 5 countries using just…my thumb.
That’s right, a friend and I decided to endeavour a journey to Portugal starting from Freiburg, Germany relying solely on the kindness of strangers to get us to our destination.
Understandably, many family members and friends were opposed to the idea of hitchhiking, but Burkhard and I decided we were going to try, and sure enough, a little over three weeks later, we were tanning on the shores of Porto.
There is something fundamental that you need to feel when hitchhiking, an essential attitude that must guide you throughout your journey: you must think good about people, before you think bad. If you do not succeed in maintaining this ideal, you will get nowhere. Your every move will be overshadowed by fear and doubt. Don’t get me wrong, it is equally silly to be naïve and entirely oblivious to the dangers that exist but this experience did get me thinking…where does this inherent fear of strangers come from, and what can we do to change it?
Really, if someone is going where you need to go, why not share the ride?
Obviously, the majority of people wouldn’t dream of getting in the car with a perfect stranger. Hollywood’s teenage B-movies have stigmatised people who pick up hitchhikers as rapists, murderers or in any other manner social outcasts with cruel intentions.
That is where www.moovando.com comes in.
Think of it as ‘organized hitchhiking’. It is very simple. If you are a driver, you sign up with your name, car,the route you are going to drive, the date on which you want to drive it, along with a few other personal details. A potential passenger can then access this information, contact the driver and they can share the trip. Its a win-win situation since the passenger contributes to the petrol money, while getting a ride that is much less costly than any of the conventional means of transportation. To ease the minds of anxious users, www.moovando.com offers a referencing system, where both driver and passenger can leave feedback.
So far so good, however similar projects to this one have been launched in the past, with very little success. Why has this economic, environmentally friendly, all around great idea not taken off?
The answer, I think, is fear.
Very often, this emotion stands in the way of the ability to be open to new situations and ideas. Very often this emotion has no basis in fact but is merely a social implement induced by sensationalist media.
It turns out, most people really just want to help you out.
Our aim with www.moovando.com is not just to provide an alternative, environmentally friendly means of transportation. It’s also not just about saving money.
Our ultimate goal is to evoke a new way of thinking. We want to bring about a change in mentality through positive experiences, specifically the kindness of strangers.
Our experiences this summer definitely had an impact on our outlook.
