• "What if there’s an emergency and I don’t have my car?"  Commuter Connections has provisions to get you home fast—see our Guaranteed Ride Home Program.
• "Vanpooling makes the commute longer." After an initial adjustment period, most participants find vanpooling only adds a few extra minutes a day for the drive to a scheduled pick-up point, and that may be a pretty fair trade-off for the dollar savings. Also, if you travel on a highway that has a high-occupancy vehicle lane for carpools and vanpools, then you can actually save time. Check the area HOV lanes.
• "My boss  sometimes asks me to work late, without much notice." If you have to work unscheduled overtime, and vanpooled that day,  Commuter Connections can get you home see our Guaranteed Ride Home Program.
• "I need my car for errands during the day." Discuss schedule changes with other vanpoolers in your group. You may be able to set your pick-up point close to a shopping center or bank to accommodate errands after work. Or, you may choose not to vanpool on the days you must run an errand.
• “Can I meet a vanpool somewhere other than my home?”  Yes.  There are hundreds of Park-and-Ride lots that are designed for commuters to meet their carpools and vanpools.   Click here to find a Park-and-Ride location near you.

How Do I Find a Vanpool?  Or  Find Riders For an Existing Vanpool

Whether you need another person for an existing vanpool, or you need to find partners to form a new vanpool, Commuter Connections can help you.  At Commuter Connections vanpool riders and drivers are located through our computerized database that matches commuters with similar commutes.  Our database contains thousands of potential vanpool partners from the entire region, including commuters who work in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia and live in Maryland, Virginia, the District of Columbia, West Virginia, Delaware and Pennsylvania.

Finding vanpool partners is easy with Commuter Connections.  Here’s how…

Use our easy Application Form to request a matchlist of possible vanpool partners.

Or, call us a 1-800-745-7433.

Also, try our Commuter Connections Bulletin Board to locate vanpool partners or participate in an on-line discussion group on commuting issues.

Some companies, including federal agencies, have in-house commuter assistance programs that assist employees with forming vanpools or adding riders to existing vanpools.  Some companies have reserved and/or free vanpool parking spaces.  Check with your Human Resources department or your parking office.

What You Get…What You Do

When you use our Application Form to find a vanpool partners for a new or existing vanpool, we will send you a matchlist containing the names of commuters with commutes similar to yours.  Call everyone on the list to form a vanpool or find another for an existing vanpool.  See 10 Tips To Succcessful Carpooling (the list applies to vanpooling too) for what to discuss when you call the commuters on your list.

Your matchlist will show your assigned commuter ID number.  If you need a new matchlist call us at 1-800-745-7433 and request a new list.  Be sure to give the operator your commuter ID number.

No luck with your list?  If you’ve called the commuters on your matchlist, but you could not find a vanpool partner.  Don’t worry, hundreds of new commuters are added to our database each month.  Just call us and ask for a new matchlist.

There are a few vanpool companies that maintain their own lists of vanpool and vanpool riders.  See Vanpool Services Listings