New York--Airline fliers aren’t the only ones getting rewarded for their travels.

An Internet-based carpooling network is giving consumers reward points each time they share a ride to work or to the grocery store. Called NuRide, the service provides a way for people looking to share rides to hook up via the Internet.

People using the service get reward points from NuRide sponsors every time they share a ride. The points can be redeemed for things like discounts on meals, consumer products and entertainment. Applebee’s, Dunkin Donuts and Ringling Brothers and Barnum & Bailey Circus are among NuRide's sponsors.  

While the Internet can be a scary place given the anonymity of it all, NuRide only lets people that are part of an affiliated organization like a company or university participate in the service. This way, people know who they are commuting with based on their company or university email address. What’s more, the service takes a page from eBay (EBAY), letting people rate their experience with the others in the car pool.   

“It increases the comfort level,” said Rick Steele, chief executive and co-founder of NuRide. “Nobody is anonymous.”

Currently the NuRide service is available in Washington, D.C., Houston, Minneapolis, Hampton Roads, Va., and the New York Metro area, including Connecticut. The goal is to expand the service nationwide.

Although government-sponsored carpooling has been around from as far back as the Carter administration, the incentives built into NuRide have drawn people who typically wouldn’t go the car-pool route. According to Steele, more than 60% of NuRide’s users have never shared a ride before.

 “It’s a huge change in behavior,” said Steele.  

Steve Brown of Houston wasn’t into carpooling but said he embraced sharing rides to work, largely because of the rewards.

“You’re getting rewarded for doing it besides the obvious financial gain,’’ said Brown, who, along with his wife, has gotten free meals because of NuRide. Although Brown said gas prices are a motivating factor for carpooling, the rewards are what keeps him doing it. “I try to do it every day,” said Brown.

NuRide's Steel said to get $10 in reward points you would have to carpool twice a day for five days.
 
NuRide was borne out of the idea of using wireless technology to share rides instantaneously. The idea, which came about a few years ago from Steele and his business partners, was to be able to pick up a GPS-enabled cell phone and find a person to share a ride with in real time. Since global positioning systems weren’t as prevalent as they are today, Steele opted to go with an Internet service at the onset.

“It's moving in that direction," said Steele, of using a cell phone to locate a person to share a ride with. The “real innovation” is standing on a street corner after a business meeting and flipping open your phone, typing where you’re going and meeting the next person going that way, he said.

NuRide’s service can be used not only for carpooling to work, but even to the mall or a grocery store. NuRide acts as a way for the people looking to carpool to meet up but doesn’t help in arranging the details like who will drive, where they will meet or who pays for gas or tolls. The service is casual, which means you can carpool one day, every day or once or twice a month. If you don’t like the person or people you are carpooling with you don’t have to carpool with them again.

“People take care of the whole thing themselves," said Steele. “We’re not Fiddler on The Roof. We don’t match-make. We show people who are going there and get out of the way for them to figure it out.”